SAND LAND

If you want a story that hooks you from the start, meet a group of unforgettable characters, have the chance to explore a vast map full of secrets, and face a great challenge in every battle, SAND LAND is the game you've been looking for.

SAND LAND offers a big beautiful dust bowl for players to explore to their hearts’ content. I found its story and its characters to be the main driver for my playthrough, but the fun vehicle combat went hand-in-hand in my enjoyment of the game. A great adaptation of a legend’s work.

Sand Land for Xbox Series X|S not only does a great job bringing one of Akira Toriyama’s arguably lesser-known works to life, but is also a lovely way to say goodbye to a man who has had an incredibly huge impact on Japan’s manga and anime industry as well as the world of video games. Although it’s not necessarily an evolutionary experience on the action RPG front, it should still be a fun ride from start to finish for fans of the genre and source material.

Sand Land has its shortcomings and feels a little overlong despite seeing credits around the reasonable 20-hour mark, but it maintains a charm throughout. Toriyama’s fun sense of humor is front and center with Beelzebub taking on the adventure primarily so his dad will give him an extra hour of video game time every day. I may not have had strong connections with most of the cast and was annoyed with a number of specific sections, but I liked spending time in Sand Land (and beyond) and seeing my garage upgrade and grow.

If you’re thirsty for a cool anime open-world adventure based on a new TV show, Sand Land is a really cool offering. Beelzebub and his crew are a diverse set of personalities, the tank battles are pleasing, and the plethora of upgrade abilities and accessibility features means Sand Land is worth digging into. These Sand Lands can be too empty, the sense of open-world repetition seeps in all too soon, and navigating that open-world can be troublesome, but Sand Land is otherwise an unexpected oasis in the desert that’s worth necking back and savouring while it lasts.

Sand Land manages to keep us glued to it from start to finish, with top graphics and consistently engaging gameplay, even if hardened gamers will frown at the excessively low difficulty. Anyway, if you are a fan of Toriyama's work, it is definitely worth considering.

I enjoyed my time with Sand Land, the adventures of Beelzebub and team was often times funny but really had a great story to tell. I loved the banter between them, and even helping to build up Spino City, which opens up new venders. I wish the team had put in more interesting side quests and enemy types but even though it felt kind of repetitive, as I said I had fun in Sand Land and that’s what it really is all about anyway.

Sand Land is a game that pays homage to Akira Toriyama's original work, with a living world that brings much of the atmosphere of the manga published in 2000. The good story and charismatic characters make the campaign a lot of fun most of the time, but the repetitiveness of the enemies and the shallow combat prevent the title developed by ILCA from soaring higher. For an open-world RPG that can exceed 40 hours between the main story and side quests, Sand Land still entertains, but it would certainly be a better game if it featured more variety of strategies in hand-to-hand combat or on board the various vehicles you unlock during the campaign.

It’s fair to say SAND LAND is an alright anime-based action-RPG that fans of the series might enjoy. But it pales in comparison to something like Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot.

Classic, repetitive, but devilishly effective. Sand Land is a game with many flaws, but it manages to captivate thanks to its pleasant universe, sensational soundtrack and addictive, customizable gameplay.

A charming, cartoonish action role-player that’s probably not going to make Sand Land the next Dragon Ball but is a fun and unusual adventure in its own right.

With Sand Land, the late Akira Toriyama lays the last stone of a prestigious building. Enriched with new storylines, this video game adaptation is the ideal extension of the manga and anime. On a playful level, the adventure is far from perfect, but the scenario and the events are faithful to the original work and the progression offers several notable moments. With its ultra-endearing characters and its universe, this production has enough assets to satisfy fans of (semi) open world games. If the idea of playing an action-RPG in a Mad Max-style universe interests you, this title may satisfy you.

As a role-playing game, there are simply a lot of Japanese adventures that are better, but combined with the very open world and the ability to explore as much as you want, as well as Toriyama's lovely design and "straightforward" storytelling, it still makes for a fascinating bit of fun.

SAND LAND looks phenomenal, recreating the late Akira Toriyama’s style with ease, but it’s charming looks can’t balance repetitive gameplay that stretches even minor quests into heavily grating tasks.