How Does Vampire Survivors Hold Up On Xbox?

In the last decade or so games have become decidedly more advanced, offering players better graphics, more buttons to press, more abilities to use, and more and more over games of the past. In this complex era of gaming, though, indie games that take a smaller scope and offer a honed-in experience stand out. "Vampire Survivors" is one of these games. 

As the player traverses its gothic pixel art levels, their chosen character auto-attacks with the goal to survive a bullet hell of increasingly powerful enemies with only the help of acquired items and permanent upgrades earned from coins — there is nothing to click on aside from upgrade choices, there are no hotkeys to press and no abilities to use, but this simplicity is part of what makes the game so replayable and addicting — it even has an endless mode to keep players hooked even longer.

That's what reviews of the PC version of the game said, at least, after it originally launched in Early Access in late 2021. The game became available on consoles for the first time after it was added to the Xbox Game Pass, and fans of the indie smash hit are curious as to how well it works on modern Xbox consoles. "Vampire Survivors" shows hundreds — if not thousands — of items on-screen at once, but according to reviews and fan reactions, it's no problem for the Series X and S — and not even for the Xbox One.

In his review for "Vampire Survivors" on the Xbox One S, Way Too Many Games reviewer Oliver Shellding praised the game's simplicity and how well-suited it is for console play. "It's you and the left stick, together against the world," Shellding said. "You literally play with one hand ... and you get rewarded the longer you play." He went on to say that he is glad "Vampire Survivors" isn't on the Switch because "it has all the hallmarks of a game to drag you in ... until you get to completion and unlock everything."

Fan responses on Reddit to the Xbox version of the game echoed Shellding's sentiment. One commenter said "it's fun because you can eat with your second hand while you play," a fair statement for the game that has so few player inputs. However, another commenter argued that "this could truly be a one handed game for extremely lazy gaming sessions" if menu selections could be made with the left trigger, which would put every input on one side of the controller.

One critic on Twitter derided the game's pixel graphics and the Xbox in an attempt to show how terrible console's latest games are. The post was ratioed by "Vampire Survivors" fans, who in turn derided the original poster for having "the most console brained take ever." One person summed up the fan response by saying "if it don't have a bow, a shoulder, bad parenting and three hours of cut scenes it's not a game" to console players.