The vibes of Castlevania Vampire Survivors are hard to miss

Over the past few days, I’ve been consumed by a game called Vampire Survivors. It’s cheap both in terms of price (only $3) and in terms of looks (giant buttons that are more suited to mobile than PC), while it’s quite clear that much of its aesthetic inspiration comes from Castlevania row. But I can’t get enough of this weird, obsessive little game.

I found myself playing Vampire Survivors– originally released on Steam and itch.io last year – almost any time I have a spare moment. Is the project being viewed? Loading time Vampire Survivors and see how far I can go before my editors contact me. Expectation Final Fantasy XIV login and raid queue pop up? You can also spend some time on Vampire Survivors. As crazy as it sounds, I even started wasting my precious free time doing a few more runs.

Vampire Survivors, as the name suggests, is all about survival. It’s a pseudo roguelike where you travel through an arena that quickly starts to fill up with all sorts of creepy monsters. Bats, skeletons, mummies and giant praying mantises relentlessly flock to you from the edges of the screen. Luckily, the only thing you, as a player, have to worry about is navigating this crowd; your character will automatically attack with any equipment you manage to get through level ups and item drops.

As with most roguelikes, there are several characters to choose from at the start of a new game. Vampire Survivors run. Antonio is the Belmont in the game, starting with a whip that gets stronger as he levels up, while Imelda wields a wand and gradually gains more experience over time. However, these differences only really matter in the early game, as you’ll quickly pick up more weapons and passive items as you progress through.

It doesn’t matter who you choose Vampire Survivors doing his best to turn them into a hellish bullet boss. In addition to the whip and wand, you can power up your character with Bibles, crosses, holy water, axes, and more that act just like their obvious actions. Castlevania analogues. Selecting multiple of these items will grant upgrades such as larger hitboxes and more projectiles. With passive items that boost attack even more, as well as stats like movement speed and defense, you quickly start to realize the need to build up your abilities before the hordes get too big to handle.

Vampire SurvivorsHowever, the true power lies in the almost constant release of dopamine. It’s like a mobile game without all that mobile gaming nonsense, or maybe one of those mindless flash games you used to secretly pull yourself up to the computers in your school’s classroom. Not only is it fun to clear the screen of baddies, but occasionally rare, stronger enemies will reward you with a treasure chest that showers you with extra items and money to unlock with a flashy sequence that can rival even the best loot boxes.

I mean, just look at this:

Goosebumps.

I’ll just go out and say Vampire Survivors this is the perfect game. No, he doesn’t have sprawling prospects death thread or narrative chops Disco Elysiumbut when it comes to sheer playability and instant texture, this odd project can rival some of the best games in the medium. I feel like I finally found a game to rival Sacrifice of Isaac in that it’s something I’ll be returning to year after year for a quick hit of brain juice wellness in between massive AAA entertainment.

And hey, even if you don’t come to the same conclusion Vampire Survivors only costs a few bucks Steam. You can even play the early version right in your browser. itch.io, no purchase or download required. Just be careful: it can be addictive.