Vampire Survivors comes full circle with Castlevania DLC expansion

The world of Dracula and the Belmont family is coming to Vampire Survivors. The newly announced downloadable content for the auto-shooter survival game, Ode to Castlevania, promises a bunch of new stuff: 20 characters, 40 weapons, an extra-large stage, and over 30 music tracks. Developer Poncle said in its announcement post on X that the $3.99 expansion should contain more than 10 hours worth of gameplay — though it’s not clear if there will actually be any vampires in the game (I’m still betting there won’t be).

The new Vampire Survivors DLC is set to launch on October 31st on the PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, Android, and iOS. You can also track its release with a cheesy, ‘90s-era countdown timer site set up by the developer. (Mind your speaker volume before visiting, as it auto-plays a short loop of some of the sick new music.)

Vampire Survivors first came out in 2021 with Castlevania-inspired sprite art the developer purchased from an asset pack, but now the game is coming full circle with a Konami collaboration. Konami seems to love licensing its franchises in recent years, as Vampire Survivors had a Contra-themed collaboration earlier this year, and the Castlevania franchise was used in Evil Empire’s critically-acclaimed Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania expansion.

Vampire Survivors has consistently received free and paid updates for years now, and the game has swelled with new characters, stages, achievements, unlockables, and new modes like local co-op. The game has consistently been on the Steam Deck most played charts since Valve began tracking the games soaking up the most playtime on its handheld.