Vampire Survivors was one of the bigger surprises of last year, coming out of almost nowhere to popularize the roguelike shoot ’em-up genre while receiving several accolades along the way. Developer poncle originally released the game on PC, but it has since come to Xbox and mobile. That list of platforms is about to get even larger as today’s Nintendo Direct confirmed that Vampire Survivors is coming to Switch on August 17. Additionally, the announcement included the revelation that couch co-op is coming to all platforms on the very same day.
The news that Vampire Survivors is coming to Switch shouldn’t be too surprising. The game is tailor-made for mobile platforms because most sessions max out at 30 minutes. When you’re looking for something to play on the go, it doesn’t get much better than Vampire Survivors‘ frantic gameplay. It’s also already proven to be a hit on both mobile and the Steam Deck, so coming to Nintendo’s platform seems like a no-brainer.
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What is a little surprising is that the team is adding couch co-op. Currently, poncle isn’t saying much about how the mode will work, but it does say that you can transition between single-player and co-op seamlessly and that there will be no split-screen implementation. Instead, you’ll all need to work together on the same screen to overcome the chaos. You’ll also share experience points with your friends, which could mean that you won’t be able to level up your build quite as quickly in multiplayer, but we’ll have to wait for the developers to say more. Poncle has also outlined a few limitations, most notably that everyone will need to select a different character, there’s no competitive aspect, and everyone will need their own controller. No doubling up on a keyboard for PC players, unfortunately.
It’s fun to see poncle making moves that both make sense and address player wants. As mentioned, the Switch is the perfect platform for a game like Vampire Survivors and co-op has been something many in the community have wanted. You can pick up Vampire Survivors right now on mobile, Xbox, and PC platforms, or wait until August 17 and grab it on the Switch.
