Vampire Survivors In Co-Op Is a Shockingly Good Family Video Game

A screen shot from Vampire Survivors, lacking a six-year-old laughing at you.

A video game where players always lose does not seem like the ideal experience for a child, and yet, that’s what appears to be the case for 2022’s breakout hit, Vampire Survivors, which was recently released on Switch with a new feature that’s also available on the other platforms—Xbox, PC, iOS, Android—the game’s on: local co-op.

Credit where credit is due: I was tipped off about playing Vampire Survivors by my former editor and longtime friend, Stephen Totilo, who runs the excellent gaming newsletter at Axios, and had played greatly enjoyed Vampire Survivors with his family.

In Vampire Survivors, the goal is not dying, but your options are limited! Players are always surrounded, but unlike most games, you don’t aim a weapon. Here, you walk around, while whatever weapon you start with, such as a whip that attacks horizontally, launches automatically. Killing enemies drops gems, which fuels leveling up. When you level up, you can layer on new weapons, upgraded weapons, and other bonuses. But fundamentally, it’s a game about walking around and attacks going wild.

For most, Vampire Survivors lasts anywhere from a few minutes to the game’s soft cap of 31 minutes, where Death swoops in. Then, the loop starts over, albeit now with new items and weapon combinations to play with. (Of course, it’s possible to kill Death.)

It’s easy to invisibly sink dozens of hours into, but while I listed Vampire Survivors on Crossplay’s family friendly video games released this month, it came with a thinking emoji, because it was unclear to me how it’d work. It was “your mileage may vary.”

What changed was learning how co-op worked. Anyone who’s played a game with a young child is familiar with carrying. Hell, you’ve probably played games where you’ve carried adult friends. This is what I tell anyone who offers to take me on a raid in Destiny 2. I’ll be there, and promise to shoot wildly. I do not promise to be of any help.

In Vampire Survivors, whose co-op supports up to four players, the run continues so long as one person stays alive. There are no consequences for death, either. You don’t lose weapons, upgrades, or levels. If someone dies, the others simply survive while they spend a few moments in a coffin. Seconds later, the player can escape and continue. This is perfect for younger gamers, because it eases the burden of failure.

It’s hard to argue that me and my oldest made much progress while playing, but we did have fun. In fact, once she realized that she could die over and over without being punished, dying as soon as possible became the point. She’d cackle viciously every time a row of zombies overtook her, and eventually, I began leaning into the bit and acting jokingly exasperated when she’d die again. (Over time, it’s clear I’m raising a troll, a reality that brings mixed feelings but mostly smiles. I am the person who used to request the X-Files theme at bars and watch as everyone became painfully confused.)

“Honestly, the best thing about Vampire Survivors co-op with a kid is that there are next-to-no bad vibes or frustrating experiences,” said Nathan, a Crossplay reader who played the game with his seven-year-old son recently. “Sure, sometimes a run ends early due to bad luck or trying a new level too quickly without having bought enough power-ups from the main menu in advance—but you just spend that money on power-ups, pick a new character, and hop right back in. Plus if even dad died early on that level, then it must have been really tough, right?”

I, a person who has played games for decades, loves death. My daughter, a person still coming to grips with games, is less cool with it. If offered, I would happily switch off death entirely on most games, because it would give her a chance to continue understanding the rhythms of play. Death isn’t teaching anything, and usually becomes an incentive to turn it off, albeit less out of frustration than sheer boredom.

It’s no different, imo, than shifting the rules of a board or card game, which you can do with ease because they’re not programmed into the code. Every kid (and player) is different. It goes hand-in-hand with the arguments in favor of accessibility features.

It’s even better when a game acknowledges the gulf between players, like Nintendo did with last year’s Kirby and the Forgotten Land, which had a terrific co-op mode:

“Importantly, picking a difficulty is not a binary and permanent choice. You can swap between these modes at any time, for any reason, within the same save. Nothing changes except how the game handles health and currency distribution. (You get plenty of coins. It’s fine.) When you finish a stage on the easier mode, the game doesn’t brand it with an ‘easy’ tag, like a badge of shame that you need to overcome another time. You beat the level! Hooray!”

It’s unclear to me if Vampire Survivors was designed with families in mind—I sent a note to the game’s designer, but didn’t hear back in time to publish this—but it works.

“Top it off with the fact that the graphics are pixelated enough as to be fairly innocuous for a seven-year-old, even with blood/guts/weapons/etc flying around the screen,” said Nathan, “and I honestly think Vampire Survivors is a stone-cold classic for parent-kid co-op gaming moving forward. I'm definitely going to recommend it to other friends who have kids going forward.”

Agreed, Nathan. Vampire Survivors co-op has the Crossplay seal of approval. 

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Also:

• We’re going on a flight to Seattle soon as a family, and I’m hoping to spend a chunk of the flight playing co-op games, instead of making it entirely iPad time.

• But I also would like to play a lot or Blasphemous 2, so maybe…iPad time?

• I’ll have more to say about my trip to PAX West soon, but if you’ll be around on Sunday, please come by the parenting and gaming panel I’ll be co-hosting there.