Ever because it got here to Swap on the tail finish of final summer season, Vampire Survivors has been my aircraft sport. Positive, different run-based indies like Balatro and Lifeless Cells, all-encompassing triple-A titles like Tears of the Kingdom and Tremendous Mario Bros. Surprise, and retro compilations like Sonic Origins and TMNT: The Cowabunga Assortment, have shared that title, however I at all times know that once I have to move time on a flight, no sport does in order successfully as Vampire Survivors. Logically, I do know that every run will final, at most, half-hour, however for some purpose, it by no means feels that approach. And due to that, I look down for what appears like 20 minutes, and once I search for, 2 hours have handed.
I journey lots, so I play Vampire Survivors pretty recurrently. Nonetheless, every time I activate the sport, developer Poncle has snuck extra into it. New characters, new maps, new methods to customise your expertise – I am frequently shocked and delighted by extra options and content material the developer has added within the time since I fired up the sport. Positive, Poncle places out free updates regularly, generally at the same time as surprises, as was the case final week, however these paid items of DLC – every of which price $2.50 or much less – are the tentpole content material releases. The most recent, Operation Weapons, crosses over with Konami’s legendary Contra IP in each anticipated and surprising methods to ship the identical Vampire Survivors enjoyable we have identified with a definite Contra taste.

Operation Weapons provides a big quantity of Contra content material to Vampire Survivors. On prime of 11 new characters, 11 base weapons, and 11 weapon evolutions, Operation Weapons brings an infinite Contra-themed map known as Neo Galuga, which progresses virtually in lockstep with how the unique Contra (and its current remake, Operation Galuga) advances. You begin out blasting, slashing, zapping, whipping, and in any other case annihilating people and robots, however as you go additional into the map, extra sinister threats present that this is not just a few customary Earth-based conflict. Alien eggs, constructions, and enemies slowly be a part of the fray, as do an elevated variety of robotic adversaries. Similar to what occurs within the unique, the alien and cyborg presence finally takes over the conflict, giving Poncle loads of room to play with the Contra license.
Earlier than I knew it, I went from blasting away foot troopers to enemies on jetbikes to waves of flying Steel Aliens and snake cyborgs. I liked repeating the identical strategy of leveling up my character and their weapons, however with myriad enjoyable discoverables scattered all through the Neo Galuga map. Alongside the best way, I uncovered some enjoyable Contra-themed power-ups – like homing missiles – that allowed me to additional fight the alien horde.

Nevertheless, the most important shock got here close to the tip of my first profitable run on Neo Galuga, as a ticker appeared on the underside of the display, telling me that one thing massive was occurring in a particular nook of the map. I solely had a couple of minutes to get there, and with denser waves of enemies impeding my path, I used to be anxious I would not get there in time. Nevertheless, as soon as I did, I used to be greeted by one of many coolest issues I’ve seen Poncle do with Vampire Survivors. I will not spoil it past saying it is a distinctive encounter that pays homage to an iconic battle with one of many Contra sequence’ recurring enemies.
Although I’ve solely achieved just a few runs, I am steadily unlocking new characters and weapons. Many of the new content material is evident about the best way to unlock the following character, which is useful in unlocking extra weapons. You unlock Invoice throughout the Neo Galuga map, then unlock Lance by evolving Invoice’s Lengthy Gun, and so forth. It is all in service of giving the participant a transparent path to experiencing all of the content material that Operation Weapons has to supply with as minimal friction as potential. Add on prime the Bonus Stage, and the Operation Weapons DLC is properly value testing for all followers of Vampire Survivors, no matter your Contra fandom.

The wildest half about all of this, as I at all times tout, is the sheer worth of Vampire Survivors. Although the sport is commonly on sale, it by no means actually wants to be; even should you purchase the sport and all its DLC at full worth, you are spending lower than $15. It runs properly on Swap, which is the place I play it, nevertheless it’s additionally verified for Steam Deck, hammering dwelling that that is the final word aircraft sport. Although Poncle continues to launch free updates a yr and a half after its preliminary Steam launch, these main tentpole releases excite me for the way forward for Vampire Survivors.
Will the long run maintain extra crossover content material? We have already acquired collaborations with Amongst Us and Contra, however phrases couldn’t describe how excited I would be for crossovers with much more distinguished properties like Last Fantasy or Resident Evil; think about slashing your approach by way of hordes of fiends in Zanarkand as Lightning earlier than a boss battle towards Sephiroth, or exploring Raccoon Metropolis as Chris Redfield, taking down low-level zombies earlier than a Nemesis spawns on the map. The Operation Weapons DLC even has my creativeness working wild with some much less apparent crossovers like Avenue Fighter; so a lot of these characters have such iconic strikes. Beginning off with Ryu throwing a Hadoken earlier than evolving all of it the best way as much as a Shinku Hadoken can be a pure development that may very well be utilized to a number of of the sequence’ characters. And since Vampire Survivors contains music and remixes from the Contra sequence, that makes these crossover concepts much more engaging.

This text is not about hypothesis or making a wishlist, although. However that’s what Vampire Survivors’ newest DLC evokes. It reveals that Poncle is greater than able to giving these IPs the care they deserve whereas staying true to the Vampire Survivors formulation that made me fall in love with the sport within the first place. Vampire Survivors: Operation Weapons DLC is out now on all platforms except for PlayStation (that model arrives later this summer season when the principle sport involves the platform) and prices simply $2.50.
For extra on why Vampire Survivors is properly value your time, take a look at our overview of the bottom sport proper right here.