Bandai Namco has finally shared an April 26 release date for its action RPG Sand Land alongside pre-order details.
For anyone not in the know, Sand Land is based on a 2000 manga by Akira Toriyama, who you’ll know best as the creator of Dragon Ball. With how many games there are based on that franchise (with another called Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO on the horizon), it’s perhaps about time one of Toriyama’s lesser-known stories gets a fancy video game adaptation.
A new Jan. 12 trailer confirming the release date also offers new gameplay footage, highlighting player character Beelzebub piloting various vehicles and mechs to traverse the harsh desert setting and battle with wild monsters and enemy soldiers. An accompanying PlayStation Blog post explains how you get to build and customize these vehicles yourself with “hundreds of parts that can be applied to main and secondary weapons, engines, and suspensions.”
The trailer also touches upon the game’s plot. Set in a post-apocalyptic world low on water, Sand Land sees demon prince Beelzebub team up with a ragtag band of humans to find the Legendary Spring. His allies include Sheriff Rao, a former soldier seeking redemption for his part in a terrible war, and a mechanic girl named Ann, who, as far as I can tell, is wholly original to the game and didn’t feature in the manga.
Sand Land will be released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. With a release date set in stone, pre-orders are live for the standard edition (which only includes the base game) and a Deluxe and Collector’s Edition. Those come with additional in-game items, such as weapons and decals for your vehicles. But only the Collector’s Edition includes a set of postcards, a SteelBook, and a customizable figurine of Beelzebub. Pre-ordering any version of the game nets you a Survivalist Camo Pack, which consists of three unique vehicle skins.
Bandai Namco is certainly going to be busy for the first several months of 2024. Its first big launch of the year, Tekken 8, is just around the corner, and then, in early February, it’s dropping another fighting game—one based on the hit manga/anime Jujutsu Kaisen.
