Sand Land Preview – What Akira Tokiyama did next
thesixthaxis.comHow do you follow up a hugely successful series like Dragon Ball? Having created a franchise that had captured millions of readers, viewers and players around the globe, that was the question Akira Toriyama found himself facing in the late nineties. The answer, surprisingly, came about by accident. He wrote a story about a man and a tank, intending for it to be something personal that he’d never release. Instead, it blossomed into something different. This is Sand Land.
The original Manga was serialised in Shonen Jump back in 2000, and follows the exploits of Sheriff Rao in the aftermath of a great war. Ecological damage has meant that the kingdom has been left without water, with the greedy king controlling the remaining water supply and fleecing the country’s citizens. Rao decides that enough is enough, and approaches the demons of Sand Land for their aid in discovering a new water source. He’s subsequently joined on his quest by Beelzebub and Thief, and they set out on an adventure together, hoping to fix the nation’s malady. This is where the game comes in.
Our hands-on demo picks up right after these opening moments, with Rao, Beelzebub and Thief racing across the desert with a huge Genji dragon in their wake. You’re immediately thrust into a spot of into-the-screen vehicular action with the crazed creature hammering after you, diving into the earth and springing back out in an attempt to overturn your vehicle, all the while soundtracked by some crunching heavy metal. It’s a fun introduction to the trio as they’re setting forth on their quest, but as the manga dictates, that journey doesn’t get off to the smoothest of starts.
After making a daring escape you find that you’ve already lost all of your supplies, including
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