Xbox has announced the next batch of games joining its Xbox Game Pass subscription service for the first wave of April 2026 titles. There are nine games joining the service for the first time, including new releases like Kiln, Replaced, and Vampire Crawlers, and other games finally making their way to the service, like the 2019 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot and Hades 2 with its arrival on PlayStation and Xbox consoles. More than that though is the number of games getting shuffled around, so they're available not just to Game Pass Ultimate subscribers, but to those on the […]

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Vampire Survivors studio, Poncle, has been hard at work on a new game alongside various DLCs for its breakout hit. The new game, Vampire Crawlers, is a direct spin-off that incorporates deck building elements for a new addictive gameplay loop. Following a demo release earlier this year, Poncle has now announced the release date for the game. 

Vampire Crawlers will officially launch on PC (via Steam), Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and Nintendo Switch on the 21st of April. Like the original Vampire Survivors, it will be a cheap game even at launch, hitting the market with a $9.99 price tag. You can watch the full announcement trailer below:

Vampire Crawlers is described as a ‘turboturn deckbuilder', offering bite-sized chunks of gameplay for quick sessions. Players won't have to pause for animations to complete before triggering their next move, and the game intelligently stacks and executes your ability inputs, so you can speedrun through rounds and watch the chaos play out.

The game will also offer customisable cards, so you can create new cards with a variety of effects and multipliers as part of your own unique strategy.

KitGuru Says: I was a big fan of Vampire Survivors and ended up sinking an unspeakable number of hours into it. Hopefully Vampire Crawlers can capture that same magic with a new but equally fun gameplay loop. 

Vampire Survivors blew up when the reverse-bullet-hell rogue-lite released back in 2022, spawning an entirely new sub-genre of ‘bullet-heavens’. Developed by the studio Poncle, the team are now set to tackle the dungeon-crawling card-battler scene, with Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard now receiving an official demo ahead of its launch later this year.

Vampire Crawlers is a spin-off of the highly-popular Vampire Survivors. Set to release some time in early-mid 2026, this new take on the formula sees many familiar elements from Survivors being adapted to fit the upcoming first-person dungeon-crawling deckbuilder.

Seemingly featuring a similar level of buildcrafting, Vampire Crawlers looks to be a highly fun and addictive title which may very well spawn its own set of inspirations – bringing the dungeon crawling genre back into the limelight.

Regardless of whether this is the direction you were hoping to see Poncle head in, both fans and sceptics alike can try out ‘Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors’ right now thanks to a free demo.

Vampire Survivors is genuinely one of the most impactful indie games released in quite some time, and so it will be interesting to see how the industry responds to the team at Poncle’s next big project.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Vampire Crawlers? Will it scratch the same itch as Survivors? Let us know your thoughts down below.