and Dr. Slump might be some of the late Akira Toriyama’s more popular works, but I’ve always had a soft spot for , a 14-chapter one-shot manga from 2000 which, for decades, was considere🐻d a niche but beloved experiment. I was only one when it originally released, but as a lifelong Dragon Ball Z fan, I eventually worked my way through the original manga a few years before it made its resurgence.

Beelzebub’s adventure to bring water back to a desolate desert might not be as 🤪much of an ongoing hyper-fixation for me as Dee Bee Zee, but I still fell in love with it, and for many of the same reasons. From its wonderful art to its wicked sense of humour, Sand Land is another masterpiece from Toriyama.

As much as I love the original manga, its short and niche nature made it very surprising to see how many adaptations mainstream♌ attention it’s received over the past few years. We’ve had a movie, , and now we’re getting a video game that follows the anime’s expanded plot and turns it into an open-world, vehicle-focused adventure.

As I discussed in our Sand Land video preview, the many adaptations of the series are a little confusing. The anime is basically just the 😼movie cut up into episodes with a whole new arc added on after the events of the manga, while the game mixes and sets up that new Forest Land content at the start of the story.

The biggest strength of the original manga is its characters and world-building, something I was happy to see translated perfectly into the game. Beelzebub’s relationship and banter with Thief and Rao are just as charming as it was back then (even if the English dub takes some getting used to), while the exploration of deeper themes like ecologism through how humans have ruined the Earth and the prejudice against demons were still front and centre in my preview and hadn’t been diluted like I feared they might be within an open-worl෴d adventure.

Another core element of Sand Land that has been captಌured in the game is its love of vehicles, which are a key part of the gameplay loop. Beelzebub has access to a🐷 variety of different vehicles that can be swapped on the fly, ranging from the iconic tank that the series is known for, to new additions like a motorbike, a hover-bot, a jump-bot, and, best of all, a mech that can uppercut tanks and send them flying into the sky.

Each vehicle has different strengths and weaknesses. Take the motorcycle, it’s the꧙ fastest wa𓆏y to get around the massive open-world map but is easily taken down in fights. Then there's the jump-bot, which is slow and lumbering but lets you leap around and survey the environment. As different as they all are, though, there’s one thing that unites them - they all feel great to control and are a blast to mess around with.

Whether you’re just driving around the desert at full speed in the buggy or using the tank in an all-out war set piece, Sand Land’s vehicle combat and movement are the🐻 heart of its gameplay and help it stand out from other gaming anime adaptations. There’s🌳 a surprising amount of depth to them too, as their stats can be upgraded and their weapons swapped out at garages.

I didn’t mess around with the customisation options too much in my preview, but I did pick up a lot of loot from defeating enemies and saw a variety of different parts that can be swapped out. While some of the customisation options felt a bit tertiary and just seemed to be raising different stat bars, there are enough substantial changes that can be made to each vehicle that I’m excited to make the hoverbot my ow🍨n in the full game.

When you’re not drifting around in a motorbike and shooting dinosaurs in the face, you take control of Beelzebub for a mixture of platforming, stealth, an𒐪d hand-to-hand combat. While the vehicle combat surprised me with how satisfying it is and how much depth it has, things get a🌳 lot simpler and more basic when you’re not behind the wheel.

Beelz isn’t the only playable character outside of the vehicle sections, as my preview also let me briefly take control of Thief (in his iconic💮 Santa outfit) for a stealth sectio🍒n. Here’s hoping Rao gets a spotlight too.

Although it can be mindless fun to beat the snot out of humans as Beelzebub thanks to the flashy combat and variety of special moves that are unlocked via a skill tree, the exploration and stealth felt a bit barebones and generic. They do add variety to a game that clearly ha🅷s its heart set on vehicles, but as someone who usually prefers being on-foot, I was surprised at how much more I preferred being behind the wheel.

My preview also gave me a chance to explore what is unarguably the most exciting thing about Sand Land’s resurgence over the past few years - an expansion of the original story thro༺ugh a new area called Forest Land. Beyond the lush greenery being a nice change of pace from the scorching heat, it’s a treat to see Sand Land basically get a sequel after 24 years. It’s too early to tell if the tale it’s spinning will be worth the long wait, but I couldn’t stop myself grinning as Beelzebub reacted with as much curiosity as I did to his new surroundings.

One of the main ant🌱agonists of the Forest Land arc is Muniel, an angel who has a staff that is very reminiscent of what Whis wields in Dragon Ball Super.

As a big Sand Land fan and someone who was happy with it being a more niche series, I’ve been skeptical about the push to bring it into the mainstream and have its near-perfect original run expanded, but my time with the game so far has turned that nervousness into cautious excitement. The on-foot gameplay might be simple, but the engaging ve🦄hicle combat and excellent translation of the source material have me excited to be in the driver’s seat alongside Beelzebub.