Sand Land

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Sand Land review
JackCarter

Review

Comfort food for Akira Toriyama fans

Fan-boying


Akira Toriyama changed my life. Okay, so that may be slightly hyperbolic, but there is some truth to it. When I found Dragon Ball Z, through Toonami like most American kids, I was completely enraptured. I even went as far as trading my holographic Kadabra to a friend for his copy of Dragon Ball GT Final Bout for the original Playstation. That game was absolutely terrible and I absolutely loved it. I saved up money to buy the Dragon Ball (the original, not Z) manga, even though it was untranslated. I didn't understand a single word and I absolutely loved it. His work has influenced me so much that traces of it can be seen in practically every creative thing I make. A few years ago, I pitched a cartoon to a reputable studio and they told me it was like "Dragon Ball Z meets (I forgot the other comparison.)". When Toriyama died, I was utterly crushed, more so than I am when other celebrities die, except maybe Jason David Frank. I bring all this up to, for one, let you know that I'm extremely familiar with Toriyama's work, and two, I'm also probably a little biased. We all are biased in some way, it's simply human nature, but I will try to come at this as objectively as possible.

With all that being said, when Sand Land, developed by IILCA, Inc. and published by Bandai Namco based on the manga by Akira Toriyama, became available to review I jumped at the chance. At this point, it is almost like comfort food seeing Toriyama's character design, and I was ready to eat up. Visually, the game looks wonderful. It's vibrant and colourful, looking reminiscent of the recent Dragon Quest 11, another video game Toriyama did the character designs for. Sand Land itself, a desert wasteland that wouldn't feel out of place in a Mad Max film, is surprisingly beautiful and fun to play in. It can be easy to get wastelands wrong as most can lack visual diversity and end up with a colour palette of tan with some more tan, but Sand Land pulls it off, creating a world that doesn't ever feel too samey or bland. Not once through my playthrough did I get lost due to environments looking similar.

Story and characters


The main story is Shonen anime to a fault, and if that isn't your thing, then you probably wont like this one. But I certainly enjoyed it. The characters were all well defined and likable - I particularly liked the main character Beelzebub's, or Belz for short, personality. He's the prince of fiends with a heart of gold. Belz is a good boy through and through, but tries to hide it with a tough boy exterior. Luckily enough, he's not just a re-skin of Goku, or any other character for that matter, but his own. Rao, the old man of the group, was also interesting. His backstory is the backbone of the plot (I'm trying not to spoil anything), and his dynamic with Belz was a nice change of pace from your typical Shonen.



Gameplay is where Sand Land falls short. Don't get me wrong here, it is not in a bad way. When you're speeding through the desert on your motorcycle, or when you're blasting enemies with your tank the game is a heap of fun, but the fun factor dips when it comes to combat - something that most games will have as their main gameplay aspect. Again, combat is not awful at all but it's probably the least interesting thing, particularly the hand to hand combat. Indeed, the combat in the tank is quite enjoyable, but when you're playing as Belz, the combat becomes rote. It's not strategic enough to be an RPG and it's not deep enough for a beat 'em up. Combat starts as one combo and a heavy attack, while you also have a rechargeable super attack. As you progress you unlock more super attacks and a super saiyan like Darkness Power, but it never really evolves from that. There's unlockable moves and combos but they never feel fully fleshed out. This lacklustre hand to hand combat translates to its boss fights, which run the gamut of passable to time wasters. The most egregious one is around the halfway mark in the story, where an enemy uses a motorcycle to speed around you and throw firebombs at you, or shoot you. It's just a time sink where you're never truly in danger, and just have to take pot shots at him every once in a while until he runs out of health. The real fun of combat comes with the tank battles – upgrading your tank, changing weapons, circle strafing to avoid projectiles, and firing at just the right time was a surprising amount of fun. The tanks controls are smooth and quick (for a tank), and the battles are fast enough to not get stale. Some enemies will even drop upgradable parts for your vehicles so the risk reward is high.

Upgrades


Speaking of which, your other vehicles all have combat capabilities but aren't really meant for that. I won't spoil things so I'll keep this to just the first 2 vehicles after the tank, but the Jumpbot, as the name implies, is meant just for jumping. It's a little faster than the tank but its battle capabilities are not as fun as the tanks, having the standard gatling gun as its "smaller" weapon and a grenade launcher as its "bigger" weapon. The grenade launcher gets the job done but isn't as precise as the tank. The next vehicle, the motorcycle, is best suited for getting around quickly. Sand Land is a vast desert, and a tank can only go so fast, so when you unlock this vehicle it is a godsend. You'll be zooming around desert dunes avoiding giant raptors with ease. Its combat capabilities, however, are lacklustre as well, as the motorcycle moves so quickly it's actually terrible to manoeuvre in tight quarters. Its shotgun is also the weakest of the "bigger" weapons, needing you to be in close range to do any sort of damage. I do have to commend the developers though, as the quality of life options will save you what would definitely be the most frustrating part of this game. As you can already surmise, Sand Land relies on its vehicles for most of its gameplay, needing you to switch between them to achieve certain objectives. Switching vehicles could have easily killed the game's momentum, but it was never an issue. You're able to, while in one vehicle, switch to another on the fly with only a short animation in between.

Sand in all the cracks


Sand Land makes up for its shortcomings with its characters, its sense of adventure, and its world. It is one of the best representations of Toriyama's work in game form in a long time. If you're like me and miss Toriyama's world building and design, but have exhausted the plethora of Dragon Ball titles, then give Sand Land a try. It's a worthy adaptation that deserves attention, and hey, it's way better than Final Bout.


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8.5

fun score

Pros

The characters, world building, vehicles, tank combat, and beautiful visual presentation.

Cons

Lacklustre hand to hand combat, time wasting boss fights