Vampire Survivors

Genre: Arcade / Roguelike

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local)

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

Vampire Survivors is an Arcade-style Roguelike game released on PC, mobile devices, and Xbox One in 2022, and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2023 with added 4-player local co-op support. This game has you running around massive areas filled with literally thousands of enemies, with your character automatically attacking, meaning that the strategy of this game is largely down to where you go, how you move, and which of the randomized power-ups you choose whenever you level up.

The presentation in this game is delightful, using a decent but somewhat repetitive synthesized soundtrack as well as retro-style pixel art visuals that are both very clearly designed to evoke the Castlevania series, all while having its own unique spin on that franchise’s signature monsters. You’ll see sword-wielding skeletons, bone piles, small and large bats, and countless other odd Halloweeny creatures, as well as silly takes on these monsters like milk elementals haunting a cursed dairy factory. All of these enemies will be swarming the screen in massive numbers, making for an almost hypnotic visual presentation at times.

To that end, it bears mention that this game was notorious for not always running the best on PCs when it first released, and I’m happy to say that on Nintendo Switch it appears to be no worse in this regard – I noticed brief moments of slowdown when things got absurdly busy on-screen, but mostly this was a pretty smooth gameplay experience.

When this game was released on other platforms in 2022, it was celebrated for its highly compelling gameplay loop, and that is very much on display here – most enemies on their own are pretty dumb, with the majority slowly shambling toward you, looking to overwhelm you by sheer numbers, and while there are a few other enemy types, the fun of this game largely comes from gradually building your hero up to be nigh-unstoppable, flinging countless weapons at once or surrounded with layers of damaging shields to keep enemies at bay. And of course, enemies respond by coming at you in greater numbers, or with more resilient troops, pushing players to keep on-task and focus on keeping their character safe while constantly upgrading to keep up with the difficulty curve.

When you first play this game, it seems so very, very simple that it’s easy to dismiss. You never even press a single button outside of selecting choices in menus, and this combined with the simple-mindedness of most enemies makes it easy to look at this and see something shallow. However, through the fun upgrades and the constantly rising difficulty, this game forms an incredibly compelling gameplay that will swallow up hours of your time without you noticing, telling yourself, “well, okay, I’ll just do one more run before I quit…” only to look up at the clock a dozen runs later to see you’ve spent an entire evening playing the game.

I suppose I should mention this game’s multiplayer, and I have mixed feelings on how this has been done here. Players cannot split up – they’re stuck on the same screen together. What’s more, the game alternates between the two when it comes to bonus upgrades, meaning that each individual player will only be getting a fraction of the power-ups they would be getting in single-player. I understand why this was done – without this bit of balancing, the game would be far too easy. However, I feel like doing this divides your firepower and slows down the pace of your characters’ progression, which leaves something to be desired.

However, it is very, very difficult to complain about Vampire Survivors, especially since it releases at the absolutely incredible price of $5. At that price, the few flaws this game has can easily be forgiven, and the gameplay here is so delightfully compelling that I think that pretty much anyone with a Nintendo Switch who enjoys Action games and hasn’t gotten this game on another platform (or wants to play it on the go) should consider this a must-have. Do not miss it!

tl;dr – Vampire Survivors is an Arcade-style Roguelike game where players automatically attack, and must work their way through thousands of enemies while carefully selecting their upgrades. The game can seem a bit simple and repetitive at first, and the new 4-player co-op mode is a bit of a mixed bag, but overall this is a delightfully compelling Action game, and at $5 it’s an absolute steal. Definitely a must-have for Action fans.

Grade: A

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2023 Game Awards:

Winner:

Best Value ($5) – A genre-defining game, one that many have pointed to as being Game of the Year caliber, and one that countless other games have been scrambling to try to copy (rarely with any success)… and it’s only five bucks? Sometimes I have to weigh options for this award, but not this year – Vampire Survivors is an easy pick for best value on Nintendo Switch in 2023.

Runner-Up: Game of the Year, Best Action Game, Best Roguelike

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

Vampire Survivors

Genre: Arcade / Roguelike

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

One issue I’ve noticed with the recent emergence of the “Bullet Heaven” genre is that when the action gets particularly intense on-screen, the framerates shudder under the heavy burden of all the activity. This is true even for 2D games without any especially impressive visual effects, and it’s true with the game that popularized this new genre, Vampire Survivors. I should note that this isn’t a Nintendo Switch-exclusive issue, either – even a sufficiently-powerful PC can be brought low by the massive number of things happening on-screen. So… how does the Nintendo Switch 2 fare in this regard?

Well, before looking at this, I did my standard look at the loading times. On Nintendo Switch, it took 41 seconds to load up the game to the title screen, and another 6 seconds to load into a level. On Nintendo Switch 2, those times are reduced to 19 seconds and 3 seconds, just under half the time. Nice!

Also, this kinda’ surprised me, but the visuals seemed oddly sharper on Nintendo Switch 2. After seeing this, I checked to see if this game uses dynamic resolution, and sure enough it does. So… unexpected Nintendo Switch 2 bonus: higher resolution visuals!

But okay, now for the big question: how does Nintendo Switch 2 handle the slowdown issues? The answer was… surprisingly well! To test this, I went to one level that I had strong memories of being slowdown-heavy, Mt. Moonspell from the Legacy of the Moonspell DLC. Testing it again on Nintendo Switch, after building up my character, I went to the spot on the map that suffered the worst issues, at the top-center right inside the mountain. Sure enough, things got super-choppy.

On Nintendo Switch 2, the experience was overall much smoother as I played, and during my playthrough, I didn’t notice any slowdown at all until I got right to the heart of the busiest spot on the map during the last few minutes of the round. Until then, it was smooth sailing. However, once things got so packed with enemies and attacks that the entire screen just started filling up with damage numbers, I did see the framerates drop. To be clear, the drop wasn’t anywhere near as bad as on Nintendo Switch, but it is still there.

However, overall, Vampire Survivors is a smoother, cleaner, and much less slowdown-filled experience on Nintendo Switch 2, and while it’s not completely free from issues, the improvements are nevertheless significant. If you were frustrated by the late-game slowdown issues in this game on Nintendo Switch, I definitely think you should give it another shot on Nintendo Switch 2.

tl;dr – Vampire Survivors is an Arcade-style Roguelike game where players automatically attack, and must work their way through thousands of enemies while carefully selecting their upgrades. The game can seem a bit simple and repetitive at first, and the new 4-player co-op mode is a bit of a mixed bag, but overall this is a delightfully compelling Action game, and at $5 it’s an absolute steal. Definitely a must-have for Action fans, and the improved performance on Nintendo Switch 2 makes the experience even smoother!

Grade: A

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