Before I was even old enough to qualify as a teenager, I was obsessed with the works of Akira Toriyama. Dragon Ball, Dragon Quest, Dr Slump, Chrono Trigger – everything Toriyama-related I could get my hands on blew my 13-year-old mind.
It didn’t take me long to get around to Sand Land, Toriyama’s 14-chapter-long manga released all the way back in 2000. I was young and naive, fresh off the back of completing Chrono Trigger for the first time, but something about a video game adaptation of Sand Land immediately wormed its way inside my brain. Toriyama and video games had already proven to be a perfect combo, so I thought the scrappy, video game-obsessed protagonist Beelzebub and the barren, gang-filled wastelands of Sand Land were an obvious lay-up.
Then I grew older, and naturally I became more cynical. Sand Land’s story was barely long enough for a film adaptation, let alone a video game, and a couple of fight scenes and a few tank battles couldn’t provide enough inspiration for an in-depth combat system. Then, on the 1st of March, Akira Toriyama passed – long after his work on Sand Land was complete. My apathy transformed into dread. The odds seemed stacked against developers ILCA. Surely this would be another Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire or Astro Boy: The Video Game, one more uninspired, frigid anime game for the bargain bin. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to have been proven wrong.
About Author
