Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors Review: It Defintiely Doesn't Suck

1 week ago 6

Published Apr 20, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT

Scott Baird is a contributor with over a decade's experience writing about video games, along with board games and tabletop RPGs. Scott has previously worked for Dexerto, Cracked, Dorkly, and Gamepur.

Video games can be just as addictive as any medium, but few have ever infiltrated my brain like Vampire Crawlers, the new spin-off of Vampire Survivors. Once this game got its hooks in me, it was as hard to get out as an actual drug addiction, thanks to an amazing gameplay loop that prompts you to just do one more run. C'mon, man, what's the harm? Just a little more Vampire Crawlers before bed. It'll make you feel good.

The full name of the game is Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors, which is idiotic, and will only be written in full once. As the full name says, it's a card-based spin-off of Vampire Survivors, switching the top-down view and action gameplay for first-person dungeon crawling, in the vein of the older Shin Megami Tensei or Wizardry games.

Vampire Survivors_ Emerald Diorama _ Launch Trailer _ OUT NOW 1-27 screenshot

Vampire Survivors: Emerald Diorama Free DLC Launch Trailer

With 12+ new characters, 16+ new weapons (including a new Glimmer mechanic), a World-Weaving Stage, a bunch of new remixes, and so much more.

Vampire Crawlers marks the Vampire Survivors franchise's first leap into new genres, using its retro Castlevania aesthetic in a whole new medium. It features the same creatures and playable characters as Vampire Survivors, but seen in a whole new light.

Making any major genre and gameplay jump is always a risky prospect, especially when it comes to card-battling/deck-building/combo-making titles, which have made huge waves over the past few years. Vampire Crawlers is also carrying the weight of another title that formed its own sub-genre, meaning expectations are sky-high for this new title.

How Vampire Crawlers Differs from Vampire Survivors

The basic gameplay loop of Vampire Crawlers involves exploring dungeons in first-person view, fighting waves of enemies in turn-based battles at set locations, finding items that add cards to the player's current deck or improve existing ones, culminating in a boss encounter.

Between dungeons, the player can visit the Village to spend gold earned on runs on new Crawlers (the game's name for characters), permanent power-ups, or improve card types even further.

In battle, the player starts with a hand of cards, each with a cost written in the top-left corner. There's a blue orb that contains the player's mana, which is spent when using cards. The mana value of cards is vitally important, as it's used for combos. If cards are played in order of increasing mana cost (zero, one, two, etc.), then the effects of the cards in the chain are improved, such as attacks dealing more damage.

The player can find Gems in dungeons that can improve cards, such as increasing their mana value (allowing for longer combos) or giving them extra buff effects. When monsters are defeated, the player will receive experience points, leading to level-ups, where new cards are added to the deck.

The monsters in Vampire Crawlers aren't defenseless. Like in Vampire Survivors, they approach in waves, and the different attacks players can use will affect certain rows and formations first. The Santa Water card, for example, strikes enemies in the front row. If enemies reach the front row and aren't killed quickly enough, they'll damage the player's hit points.

It's possible to bolster the player's defenses using Armor cards, as these act like temporary hit points that are deleted first. It's also possible to use Book cards that temporarily increase the player's mana for the turn, allowing for longer combos.

There are tons of interlocking systems in Vampire Crawlers, but they're very easy to understand, and the game encourages the player to experiment with different decks and card buffs. Each individual Crawler also has their own special traits, such as Krochi having free Revive power-ups that save you from death, or Mortaccio starting off with incredibly useful, zero-cost, Bone cards.

Vampire Crawlers is in My Veins

The more you play Vampire Crawlers, the more you get to see the incredible depth of its gameplay. At the start of the game, you'll find random items in dungeons, like sacks of gold, which just give a handful of coins when played as a card in combat. However, you'll realize that item cards are grey, making them Wild cards, which means they don't break combos. These junk items suddenly become incredibly powerful because they allow free combo extensions.

Similarly, the Gems have the power to alter the costs of cards or even make them Wild cards. As your deck builds throughout the dungeons and you start tailoring your cards, you realize the power of the lengthy chains you can unleash upon the enemy. Suddenly, an attack that deals 100 points of damage is doing 6000 points, all through combo building.

It's not just attacks that improve in scope. The Book cards that give you free mana can give more in higher combos, allowing for more cards to be played, while the Armor cards will do the same for temporary hit points.

It's hard to describe the thrill that comes with pulling off amazing combos in Vampire Crawlers. Those who love Balatro will nod, having felt the sting of that needle in their arm. It hits a certain satisfying part of the brain, the one that is teased whenever numbers go up, and you know that you're the person responsible for it.

The fact that the game doesn't hold the player's hand and lets them experiment is also in its favor, as it makes you feel incredibly smart, having mastered these mechanics on your own.

By the way, in case any of that felt optional — it really isn't. Vampire Crawlers can be a brutally hard game at times, and it practically begs the player to break it. If you wanna make it past the first Bridge level (Vampire Crawler's first choke point), then you must not only master the rules, but put them over your knee and snap them in half, as Bane did to Batman.

By the way, in case any of that felt optional — it really isn't. Vampire Crawlers can be a brutally hard game at times, and it practically begs the player to break it.

Vampire Crawlers' retro aesthetic helps evoke the joy of demolishing armies of enemies with a single combo. Watching the attacks grow in scope, the flashing colors, the arcade sound effects — it's ecstasy in video game form, all while the numbers keep going up and soaring through your bloodstream.

One issue that Vampire Survivors had was that it was too easy to get used to one weapon/Survivor and lean on them, only using other characters when needing to unlock something. This is what led to Poe and his Garlic becoming so popular: it was a reliable starting move that didn't require aiming, so the old man suddenly became the game's mascot because everyone loved his spicy vegetable.

Vampire Survivors First-Person Spin-Off Release Date Revealed (And It's Coming Soon)

Poncle has announced the release date for Vampire Crawlers, the first-person Vampire Survivors spin-off, and it's launching on PC and consoles soon.

Selecting a Crawler in Vampire Crawlers will guarantee a few cards, but the player is limited to what they can find on runs, save for a few card/Gem re-rolls. This isn't a flaw. Rather, it forces the player to experiment with new weapons, especially as more get added over the course of the game. Vampire Crawler's rewarding experimentation via cards and buffs makes each run feel unique and distinct, and even if a deck isn't strong, it smartens the player up about what weapons and items work best with others.

Basically, the age of Poe is over. The time of Mortaccio, and his amazing/cheap Bone attacks, has come. Having trouble with a dungeon? Bring Mortaccio and take those monsters to the Bone Zone.

The gameplay loop of Vampire Crawlers is utterly addictive, like no game I've played before. The Civilization feeling of "just one more turn before bed" is in full effect here. When I wasn't playing it, I was thinking about it, lying in bed, and planning different combos. Vampire Crawlers had its hooks in me more than any game has in a long time.

Vampire Crawlers has Difficulty/Balancing Issues

So, with all of this glowing praise, why did Vampire Crawlers (spoiler) only get a 9/10? It sounds like it's Game of the Year material, in an already stacked year, so why isn't it a 10/10, like Hades 2 was last year?

Unfortunately, there are some difficulty issues that just keep Vampire Crawlers away from a perfect score, or, rather, there are two of them.

Owing to the random nature of Vampire Crawlers, it's easy to be put into unwinnable situations, at least early in the game. If a battle starts and the enemies are already on the front row, and the player doesn't have a killer combo ready to kill them, or some Armor cards, to protect their hit points, then it's easy to either die straight away or lose so many hit points that the player will be left too weakened to survive the boss encounter.

There are healing items in Vampire Crawlers, as well as shops where players can sacrifice cards for one, but these are rare and can't be relied upon. This means the player can be left in the frustrated place of building an amazing deck, creating an entire strategy around it, only to get killed in the next encounter due to a bad hand or two.

Owing to the random nature of Vampire Crawlers, it's easy to be put into unwinnable situations, at least early in the game.

The other big issue is the boss encounters. In Vampire Crawlers, bosses have these eye symbols above their heads that fill in whenever a player uses a card. Once all the eyes are filled, the boss can take an action, which may include an incredibly damaging attack or throwing debuff cards into their hand.

The issue with the bosses is that they have way too much health and deal a ton of damage. But, more importantly, the fact that they interrupt player actions mid-turn means the player is punished mid-combo. You know, the entire thing the game is supposed to encourage.

Once I reached the later dungeons, I had to buy as many power-up stat boosts to survive, especially as they throw incredibly tough fights at the end of the early floors, where you haven't even had the chance to properly assemble/improve a deck yet.

The boss fights feel like a way of artificially extending the game's lifespan, as they act as these horrendous bulwarks. Unlike the FromSoftware bosses, they're so grueling that there isn't any thrill or satisfaction that comes from overcoming the later Vampire Crawlers bosses — just relief that they can be forgotten about.

It's a shame I had to end the review on a low note, but it feels like Vampire Crawlers is just a few more difficulty tweaks away from perfection. If it's anything like Vampire Survivors, it will hopefully receive more content/balance tweaks in the future, making the game as great as it can be.

Vampire Crawlers is a strong contender for my 2026 Game of the Year. If it weren't for some difficulty issues that need tweaking, it would already have taken that spot, Grand Theft Auto 6 be damned. The gameplay loop is fun and addictive, rewarding experimentation and offering countless opportunities for different builds. Exploring dungeons has never been more fun, and I'm far more eager to see more Vampire Crawlers content than a sequel to Vampire Survivors.

Released 2026

ESRB E10+ For Everyone 10+ // Fantasy Violence

Developer(s) Poncle

Publisher(s) Poncle

Pros & Cons

Incredibly addictive gameplay loop that is like Balatro mixed with Wizardy
Endless entertaining combos that the game practically begs you to pull off
Captures the retro spirit of Vampire Survivors without feeling like a cheap spin-off