I know there are a lot of people out there that would have liked a proper Xbox Series X/S sequel to Blue Dragon announced at Summer Games Fest. I know there’s a lot of people that would have liked some sort of Chrono Trigger or Chrono Cross rerelease or remaster, too. There’s a dedicated group of fans waiting for a new Dragon Quest game (no, the new Yakuza doesn’t count). There are even some people out there that’d celebrate the announcement of a new Dragon Ball game, despite the on-going proliferation of them over the past few years.

But, for the moment at least, we’re not getting any of them. What we are getting instead is Sand Land – a new Bandai Namco anime-RPG in the vein of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot or any of the many Naruto games on the market. Rather than pair this new title to one of the more mainstream anime shows, though, Bandai Namco has opted to revisit a relatively obscure Toriyama manga of the same name.

Sand Land forms part of the lesser-known works of Toriyama’s output, less-iconic than Dragon Ball and with less cult appeal than Dr. Slump. But the property is no less worthy, at least not in my eyes – Toriyama has become known for his exemplary work with lo-fi tech and grounded vehicles in his over-the-top fantasy worlds, and I think Sand Land is actually the best example of that in his entire catalogue.

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