Games Happy

Again in late 2021, a pal of mine informed me about this low-cost recreation that was blowing up on Steam known as Vampire Survivors. He known as it a one-handed roguelike, and I did not pay a lot consideration to it again then. I obtained my Steam Deck just a few months after it launched, and I began seeing numerous dialogue round Vampire Survivors being excellent for handheld play. I made a decision to lastly give it a go and see what it was all about. I recall placing in almost three hours into my first two classes with it, and I’ve since frequently performed it and each single DLC throughout actually each platform. It will definitely turned one among my most-played video games not solely on Steam Deck but in addition on Xbox and cellular. 

I loved each single DLC pack, together with the Amongst Us collaboration, regardless of not enjoying the latter a lot. I at all times puzzled what poncle would do subsequent, barring simply including extra to an already wonderful package deal, however I did not anticipate a dungeon crawler deck-builder hybrid spin-off within the Vampire Survivors universe. Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors (henceforth Vampire Crawlers) from poncle releases tomorrow, and it’s already my most-played Change recreation of 2026. Having now put in over 25 hours into it throughout Change and Change 2, I am always stunned and impressed by how properly the builders have tailored mechanics from Vampire Survivors right into a deck-building dungeon crawler setting.

Vampire Crawlers has layers upon layers of development techniques that slowly unlock over the course of a number of runs. A run in Vampire Crawlers has you deciding on a personality (or a couple of, as you unlock in a while), deciding on a location from the world map, after which mainly making an attempt to clear stated location. Every flooring has enemies, factors of curiosity, chests, and gadgets scattered throughout. You quickly unlock the power to have factors of curiosity marked on the map proper from the get-go. That is good, so you possibly can play out your path once you begin a brand new flooring. 

Motion takes place in first-person with a battle starting once you run into an enemy or a boss on the map. That is when Vampire Crawlers strikes into its deck-building turn-based battles. I instantly appreciated how properly the builders translated over many skills and passives from Vampire Survivors into completely different sorts of playing cards right here. Your purpose is to defeat enemies, however you possibly can’t simply brute power your approach by way of encounters past the primary few flooring.

Fight is turn-based with completely different rows of enemies. Every card prices mana to play, and your mana pool is refreshed for the following flip. The aim right here is to chain combos by enjoying playing cards in ascending order of their mana value. Vampire Crawlers additionally has “Wild” playing cards that you should use to chain extra combos or reset issues with out shedding your combo rely. As you defeat enemies, you stage up and may choose a brand new card so as to add to your deck for that run. You additionally earn cash, which you’ll be able to use to unlock extra characters or everlasting power-ups and even card upgrades. 

I initially anticipated Vampire Crawlers to simply be an informal tackle Vampire Survivors’ mechanics, however I am blown away by simply the number of builds obtainable to gamers after just a few hours of enjoying. I additionally admire how Vampire Crawlers rewards you for making an attempt new builds, with every thing you do counting in the direction of unlocks not directly. Talking of unlocks, I am unsure if there are a ton of secrets and techniques (I assume there are), however even with simply what I see listed within the unlocks menu, Vampire Crawlers has a ton to work in the direction of.

Every location in-game can vary from a single bridge to a number of flooring in a manufacturing unit or much more in a tower. I’ve not seen every thing Vampire Crawlers has to supply, however after over two dozen hours with it, I can safely say that whereas it does begin a bit gradual for the opening hour relating to selection, it frequently throws unlocks on the participant, encouraging new combos and use of different characters.

Every character or crawler has their very own set of playing cards and mechanics. These can vary from therapeutic to even buffing you in some methods as you set off their passives by enjoying sure card sorts. There are additionally run-specific modifiers for every card known as Gems that show you how to customise your construct much more. Initially, you solely have entry to fundamental injury enhance gems, however you slowly unlock extra that add new taste textual content like returning a card to your hand once you play it, and even altering the mana value of a selected card.

Out of the development techniques in Vampire Crawlers to this point, the one I’ve not spent a ton of time with is the Blacksmith. That is the place you possibly can completely improve your playing cards to function extra gem slots. This looks like one thing I would wish to do in the direction of the top or post-game, and I’ll revisit it then. Proper now, I am nonetheless working my solution to reaching 75% completion within the unlock menu and finishing Gallo Tower. 

I really began a brand new save on one other person profile to see how I felt revisiting the opening hours after having spent much more time with it, and I did not understand how a lot I obtained used to getting access to arcanas, my everlasting power-ups, and the 2 crawlers I take advantage of on most runs. I additionally realized that brute power does assist out initially, however realizing the way to chain combos lets me soften the early areas within the new profile in a short time.

Each flooring in Vampire Crawlers has a boss, and so they act like these elites with a blue border round them within the authentic Vampire Survivors. They’ve particular skills and numerous well being. They’ll even curse your deck in a approach with black-colored playing cards that act as dummy playing cards, change mana, or different mechanics in a while in-game. Talking of every flooring, it’s nice seeing the enemies and managers you’d encounter in the identical maps of the unique recreation, seem right here as teams of enemies.

Visually, Vampire Crawlers nearly completely interprets the aesthetic of the unique recreation right into a 3D setting. It nonetheless makes use of animated 2D sprites and comparable visible results, however the areas really feel huge in Vampire Crawlers in comparison with how understandably flat they really feel in Vampire Survivors. Vampire Crawlers does use some HD-2D-like tips as a result of it has a mix of 2D pixel artwork with trendy rendering for lighting and post-processing. My solely criticism is that among the animations, like opening a chest or including a gem to a card, have very vivid flashing lights. I noticed no solution to disable these. They really feel misplaced in comparison with the remainder of the persistently robust and hanging artwork path.

Audio path is usually nice in Vampire Crawlers with new voice strains for all of the characters, new sound results, however most significantly, preparations of the music from the unique that I like. I additionally adore the dynamic music transitions from the conventional exploration variations for every location to fight variations. This occurs in real-time, and it is a superb contact.

I’ve entry to Vampire Crawlers’ Nintendo Change 1 model proper now, and I’ve performed it on each my Change OLED and Change 2 by way of backward compatibility. On the latter, utilizing handheld enhance mode, it’s a nice expertise, however I can inform some results are downgraded in comparison with the demo on Steam Deck. Barring that, the efficiency has been high-quality. I hope the Change 2 native launch gives the next body fee goal, although. Once I examined the sport on Change OLED, I seen the efficiency degraded fairly a bit within the mid-game areas throughout combos. The load occasions have been additionally very lengthy in comparison with how snappy every thing is on Change 2 through backward compatibility. I will save extra of my ideas on the technical state and handheld efficiency for once I do my full comparability within the close to future. 

In numerous methods, Vampire Crawlers feels oddly nostalgic. I did not understand how a lot I missed the abilities, characters, and music in Vampire Survivors even after a 12 months away from it. Vampire Crawlers managed to mix in one of the best of a number of genres and video games I like, to ship one among my favourite and most-played video games of 2026 to this point, and I have not even unlocked every thing but.