Category: IGN

Palworld developer Pocketpair has announced the ‘Pokémon with guns’ crafting and survival game has seen over 25 million players since going on sale last month.

Pocketpair said the Steam version has sold an incredible 15 million copies, whereas on Xbox it’s seen 10 million players.

There’s one good reason why the Steam version is perhaps more popular than the Xbox version: Palworld on Xbox doesn’t have dedicated servers. On Steam, Palworld players can create and join dedicated servers that enable up to 32 players to play in the same world and create guilds together. But on Xbox and Windows PC (so, everyone playing on Game Pass), Palworld players cannot create or join dedicated servers, which means online co-op is limited to two to four players. Crossplay between Xbox and Steam is currently unavailable.

Pocketpair has said it’s working to achieve parity across the Xbox and Steam versions, and indeed Microsoft is working closely with Pocketpair to enable faster updates.

Palworld’s explosive launch, which saw it break a number of Steam concurrent players records, has cooled somewhat. Last week, Pocketpair commented on the debate around the declining number of players, calling the discourse “lazy”. While the concurrent player count on Steam has fallen steadily since the peak, it’s worth pointing out Palworld remains one of the most-played games on Valve’s platform.

Last month, Pocketpair said Palworld will get PvP, raid bosses, and new islands in future updates, but it has targeted critical issues first. Crossplay between Steam and Xbox is also in the works (presumably this will up the co-op player count on Xbox at the same time), as well as improvements to the building system.

While Palworld is one of the biggest game launches ever, it’s also one of the most controversial. Pocketpair has said its staff have received death threats amid Pokémon “rip-off” claims, which it has denied. Soon after launch, Nintendo moved quickly to remove an eye-catching Pokémon mod, then The Pokemon Company issued a statement, saying: “We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to Pokémon.” IGN asked lawyers whether Nintendo could successfully sue.

If you’re playing, be sure to check out IGN’s interactive Palworld map.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

If Elden Ring and Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyzaki had to put a name to the genre of games FromSoftware has become synonymous with over the past decade-plus years, it’d be “Souls-ish.” But even then, he would much prefer to call them “those dark fantasy third-person action games with a higher focus on melee combat and sense of accomplishment.” That’s not quite as catchy as ‘Soulslike’, but it does capture the renowned creator’s specificity. And we got even more of that specificity in our recent interview with Miyazaki ahead of the premiere of the long-awaited trailer for the first Elden Ring DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree.

Along with answering all the questions IGN had about the trailer, Miyazaki looked back on the past two years since the release of Elden Ring, a defining achievement for FromSoftware given its tremendous critical and commercial success.

It’d be an understatement to say that the hype around Elden Ring prior to its launch was bigger than any FromSoftware game before it, with fans even creating their own lore for the game in between official news and trailer drops. When Elden Ring finally launched, fans were treated to something truly spectacular: a masterful, open-world version of the famed Soulslike formula FromSoft popularized, complete with beautiful, hidden narratives, intricate world and dungeon designs, and of course, incredibly challenging fights.

When asked if there was any concern within the studio about creating an open world RPG without helpful tools like quest markers which in turn might turn off the format’s traditional fans, Miyazaki admitted there was some hesitation. But ultimately it goes back to something Miyazaki has in both the players and his team: trust.

“It would be a lie to say there was no concern about that from any of the dev team,” Miyazaki says. “But what I want to stress is that we didn’t set out with the goal to make an open world game in the traditional sense.” Instead, the director says his approach to open world design is similar to his philosophy on difficulty: “We don’t set out to create a difficult game. We set out to create a challenging game. And in order to achieve that, we need there to be threats and dangers, and we need there to be unknowns.”

For Elden Ring, there needed to be another thing: adventure. A feeling of exploration which he says was the top priority “above everything else.”

“We need this breadth of freedom — this high degree of freedom in how you approach this adventure,” he explains. “And in order to have adventure, in order to have discoveries, again, you need to have some unknowns. And for it to be a discovery, it needs to feel like it’s an unknown, feel like it’s there to be discovered.”

Ultimately, while this philosophy is what guided the team in making Elden Ring an open-ended RPG, the follow-through was a result of having trust in the players. The same players who’ve played games like Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls. “Our main idea is just to trust players,” says Miyazaki. “We trust that they’ll overcome these challenges and we trust that they’ll make these discoveries. And I think giving them trust just creates a healthy landscape for them to play and adventure.”

Miyazaki might be thinking a lot about trust these days. Since 2009, he has served as director on all but one Soulslike game. That was 2014’s Dark Souls 2, on which the director’s seat was given to Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura while Miyazaki somewhat sat back as Supervisor.

Incidentally, Dark Souls 2 probably bears the Souls series’ closest resemblance to Elden Ring. Design wise, both Dark Souls 2 and Elden Ring stressed open-ended gameplay and ditched linear progression. Miyazaki agrees and in fact goes a step further. “In regards to Dark Souls 2, I actually personally think this was a really great project for us, and I think without it, we wouldn’t have had a lot of the connections and a lot of the ideas that went forward and carried the rest of the series.”

Miyazaki adds that having different directors also helped the series as a whole. “We were able to have that different impetus and have those different ideas and make those different connections that we otherwise might not have had.” He goes so far as to say that “there’s really no way of telling how or if the series would have continued the way it did without Dark Souls 2.”

With several more games released by FromSoftware since Dark Souls 2, Miyazaki now seems more comfortable entrusting future games to other directors, saying there “is a high possibility that we would delegate responsibility of director to those other Souls-ish games going forward.” It’s an idea he doubles-down on: “Yes, I think it’s very likely that we’ll see new directors going forward. And I think if we do that, I’d like to step away from that supervisory role and give them full direction and full control over those projects. I think really this is the best way and the easiest way for them to flourish within that environment and with those new projects.”

While Miyazaki doesn’t elaborate too much, he tells IGN that how he managed the role of Supervisor during work on Dark Souls 2 is “one little area of regret” for him. Personally, he enjoys “a lot of projects where I am director, so I think a supervisor role for me is just something I’m not used to and just is maybe not quite a good fit.”

It helps that FromSoftware is a team that seemingly all pull in the same direction, and understand, together, what makes a great FromSoft game. Miyazaki alluded to this when asked how the studio is able to release massive AAA games in such a timely manner, whereas development time for similarly sized games elsewhere seem to stretch over several more years.

“I don’t know if it’s some great secret… but generally we are just blessed with a great staff who love to create these games and who are, I think you could say, efficient at creating games,” he says.

“I think one area is we’re able to understand quickly what we want to make and [are] able to make these decisions early on in development,” he adds. “We’re able to iterate and we’re able to leave things on the chopping board. We’re able to go ahead with ideas and a quick pace. We’re able to quickly change and quickly decide on the kind of game we want to make.” See? Trust.

As for the future, not much is written in stone aside from the upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree. Armored Core 6 was released last year and revived FromSoftware’s other pillar franchise. While Miyazaki says the studio has “no definite plans going forward… I think AC 6 was a success in the sense that it showed that there is still a place for Armored Core, at least for us.”

And what about the much asked about Bloodborne sequel? “Unfortunately, and I’ve said this in other interviews, it’s not in my place to talk about Bloodborne specifically. We simply don’t own the IP at FromSoftware. For me personally, it was a great project, and I have a lot of great memories for that game, but we’re not at liberty to speak to it. I’m very sorry about that.”

For now, fans will have to look forward to Shadow of the Erdtree, which finally arrives this summer after a two-year wait. If you’re so inclined, you can start a new game of Elden Ring to prepare yourself, though we asked Miyazaki if there were any remaining mysteries left for players to find in the current version of The Lands Between. While Miyazaki says he doesn’t think there’s anything that hasn’t been discovered by now, highlighting how he and the devs “are always surprised and delighted by how much the players do discover, and how much these communities work to uncover these secrets,” there might be one small thing he hasn’t seen yet.

“For me personally, there is a small element that I feel has not yet been discovered. So, whether that’s up to user interpretation or up to just further investigation and playing, that’s something I’m looking forward to.” But he adds, “I think it’s a question of when and not if, but there may be something small still missing.”

Of course, Miyazaki will trust you to figure out what that means.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Additional reporting by Mitchell Saltzman

While we have to wait until May for a full reveal of College Football 25, EA Sports shared some new details, including how much players will get compensated, what will and won’t be included in the game, and more.

In an article by ESPN, EA Sports revealed how much it will pay players opting to use their name, image, and likeness (NIL) in College Football 25. The article notes that over 11,000 college football players can opt-in to be featured in College Football 25.

Players who opt into College Football 25 will receive $600 and a copy of the game. The game itself is valued at $70, according to ESPN. ESPN further notes that student-athletes will remain in the game for all their collegiate football careers but can opt out of future installments.

Yet, the $600 and a copy of the game is not the only form of compensation players will receive; should a player remain in the game for multiple years, they will be compensated annually, even if they transfer with the only requirement for transfer students be that they remain on a roster for that school’s football program.

EA Sports VP of business development Sean O’Brien told ESPN that the studio looked at deals they completed for other sports video games, such as the Madden NFL series, and that the deal made for the college football series “comes with no expected services by the athlete and will be guaranteed no matter the game’s success.”

In a separate article, EA Sports confirmed to ESPN several things that will and will not be included in College Football 25. Reiterating once again, Dynasty Mode and Road to Glory will return in the next college football game. In addition to returning game modes, College Football 25 will run on the same engine as Madden (currently, the Madden series runs on the Frostbite engine), include every bowl game, and incorporate a 12-team College Football playoff system. NIL, the transfer portal, and some of the newer inclusions in collegiate sports will also be featured, though EA Sports did not go into detail as to how both will be implemented.

Although all 134 FBS schools have agreed to participate in College Football 25, with up to 85 players on each team, EA Sports revealed that real-life coaches, such as University of Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, won’t be featured. However, O’Brien did not rule out the inclusion of coaches in the future and said that EA Sports is exploring ways to “offer coaches the opportunity to opt in beyond Year 1.”

EA Sports College Football will get a full reveal sometime in May, with a release window set for this summer.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Helldivers 2’s latest patch has caused a “nasty” PlayStation 5 login bug that’s currently preventing people from playing the game.

Helldivers 2 patch 1.000.11 launched across PS5 and Steam today, February 22, and promised to kick AFK players and fix the defrosting bug.

But it appears to have caused a PS5 specific issue that is now making Helldivers 2 unplayable on Sony’s console. IGN has received multiple reports from players unable to login, and have verified the dreaded “servers at capacity” message is present on PS5.

Elden Ring sales have grown to hit 23 million, publisher Bandai Namco has announced.

As part of the reveal of the hotly anticipated Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, due out this June, Bandai Namco issued a sales update for the base game, which, last we heard, had sold 20 million a year after launch.

This new 23 million sold figure is made up of shipped copies of the physical version as well as download sales, including those on Steam. So it provides a solid picture of Elden Ring’s breakout success. To put that into context, Hogwarts Legacy, 2023’s best-selling video game, has sold 24 million copies, generating well over $1 billion in sales.

Elden Ring is easily FromSoftware’s most successful game, with critical acclaim to go alongside its enormous sales success. It outsold each of the Dark Souls games, Demon’s Souls, Sekiro, as well as Bloodborne (don’t mention a remake!).

Will FromSoftware release Elden Ring 2 or more DLC for Elden Ring following the release of the Shadow of the Erdtree? In an exclusive interview with IGN, chief developer Hidetaka Miyazaki said both are possible, although he stopped short of making an announcement.

Earlier this month, a Genshin Impact-inspired Elden Ring mobile game was reported to be in development, but progress was described as “slow”.

The base version of Elden Ring returned a 10/10 in IGN’s review. “Elden Ring is a massive iteration on what FromSoftware began with the Souls series, bringing its relentlessly challenging combat to an incredible open world that gives us the freedom to choose our own path,” we said.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

“Most companies die with a bad launch, this one actually came out stronger.”

That’s a line from New York University’s Stern School of Business professor Joost van Dreunen, quoted in The Wall Street Journal earlier this year. He was describing the transformation undergone by developer CD Projekt Red from the rocky launch of Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020 to the triumphant release of major DLC Phantom Liberty late last year. And it was with understandable pride that Phantom Liberty game director Gabe Amatangelo opened his talk at the 2024 DICE Summit, quoting that exact line.

Amatangelo went on to describe to DICE attendees just how CD Projekt had accomplished such a monumental task, focusing on the most difficult part: rallying a discouraged and frustrated team around a belief that such a thing could be done. When Cyberpunk 2077 launched, he said, it seemed everyone around them knew that something had gone wrong at his company. The woman who worked at the local coffee shop. His landlord. Everyone. The perceived failure was almost inescapable.

That left Amatangelo with the critical job of rebuilding internal morale. He led by focusing on positives, encouraging the team to celebrate the elements of the launch that had gone well. He worked to build trust, so that developers who needed help felt they could ask for it. And he worked with the team to come up with a handful of key drivers that would enable the production of the DLC to be a success. These included distributing ownership over decision-making and other checks so that the game director role wouldn’t be a bottleneck on production, integrating and empowering QA closely with the rest of the team even in early development, and just…setting aside time for developers to actually play the game. A lot.

To the Stars

After Amatangelo’s talk, I spoke with him about how the team is carrying these lessons forward into its next Cyberpunk project, currently dubbed Project Orion. In addition to what he shared in his DICE talk, Amatangelo expanded on a number of learnings he’s carrying forward into the new game. He emphasizes the importance of contingency planning and the need to share backup plans both up and down the chain of command – and to have multiple backup plans, just in case. He tells me about the importance of putting oneself in the player’s shoes when establishing a new story or world, and imagining what they might hope to see or do in that space so that you don’t let them down.

And he reiterates the importance of making sure studio environments are environments of trust. “One technique, and a lot of the guys and gals that work for me know that whenever I put an idea forward, because of my position, sometimes people might not want to challenge it. So if I see that vibe, I’ll then just play devil’s advocate and I’ll start to break apart my idea. Sometimes they’ll be like, ‘Wait, so do you want to do this or not want to do this?’ I’m like, ‘I’m not sure. Let’s talk about it.’ We established a good chemistry and trust in my circle, my direct report circle, and I think that was replicated a lot as well.”

I was especially curious about Amatangelo’s plans in light of the announcement that he’s heading up a new CD Projekt studio in Boston. Announced earlier this year, the Boston studio is CD Projekt’s first studio in the United States, and will primarily be focused on Project Orion.

I ask Amatangelo what it’s like starting a new studio at such a challenging time for the industry as a whole. Amatangelo isn’t responsible for the cuts last summer to 10% of CD Projekt Group’s workforce based largely in Poland, but he does now find himself in the position of trying to build up a new studio in North America at a time when a lot of developers are looking for work. Over 10,000 developers worldwide lost their jobs last year, and roughly 6000 have been impacted thus far in 2024. Amatangelo calls it “one of the most difficult things going on right now,” but he’s hopeful the industry will bounce back… and maybe learn some important lessons about planning in the process.

“I think maybe there’ll be a maturing of structuring of certain facilities and aspects,” he says. “We’re seeing that with the rumors around consoles and stuff. I think we’re trying to figure out how to restructure things in a meta sense a little bit. But the bottom line is that the bottom line isn’t going away. That’s not decreasing. More people are interested in being immersed and taking a breather from day to day, so to speak, and having an opportunity to expand their minds or blow off some steam, stuff like that. It’s not going away. So I think it’ll sort itself out, but, obviously, some turbulent times.”

Speaking of maturing and restructuring, I ask Amatangelo specifically how, as studio head, he plans to work to mitigate crunch at the new studio he’s leading, especially given the company’s history with the practice.

“Similar to the techniques used throughout Phantom Liberty, you plan as best you can,” he said. “It’s all about getting ahead of seeing what might come up in the future and scoping accordingly, resourcing accordingly, and also being flexible. If you put in some extra hours this week, take some hours off next week. Because, admittedly, even at a certain point, there was where [responsibility] landed on me and I was like a bottleneck, and I’m like, ‘All right, I’m going to have to do some double time this week. Otherwise, too many people are pulled out, and then next week I’m taking some time off.’ You do the best you can to mitigate that, but as long as there’s that kind of climate and understanding of helping each other. Then when I took some time off, some of my reports rise to the occasion and fill in the gaps while I’m out, and you just do that at all levels.”

The Fun Phase

That’s how Amatangelo is thinking about it now in the early stages of the studio. The real test, the months leading up to launch, is still several years off. Project Orion is still in its early stages. Amatangelo points out that there really aren’t clear lines determining when a game enters different phases of production, but Project Orion is currently in what he calls the “fun phase” of game development.

“In the perfect world, when you’re making a game, it’s all ideation and concepts and putting stuff in concept art and then moving to the next stage once you’re feeling solid about your ideas or maybe your story outline, and then you start prototyping things,” he says. “We’re in that stage, but it’s kind of blurred, like prototyping some things as well as concepting some stuff and working on the story. So, yeah, we got some prototypes going on. We’ve got some exploration, some pipeline setup, some story ideas being thrown at the wall, back and forth, concept art, that kind of phase, the fun phase.”

Amatangelo isn’t sharing much more about what Project Orion is at for now. I did ask him if game console tech is where he wants it to be to meet his ambitions for the game, especially given recent online discussions about new generations of Xbox and PlayStation consoles. And sure, Amatangelo wishes tech was further along… but he admits he might always be wishing for that. “I wish there were Holodecks, you know what I mean?”

One relevant example is AI, which Amatangelo himself brought up to me when he asked if I had stayed to listen to a later DICE talk between Xbox’s Haiyan Zhang and the ESA’s Stanley Pierre-Louis on video games and AI. Amatangelo tells me he himself had been listening to an AI expert talk about large language models and generative AI recently, when they expressed how it would always be “unknowable” how these models arrive at their conclusions. While their comment was intended to be a positive one, Amatangelo says he finds that idea terrifying. He’d rather keep AI busy with menial tasks rather than content creation.

“My gut tells me that AI for pipelines, for tools for helping with, let’s call it, the busy work that no one really likes to do a lot of times, I think there’s a lot of promising stuff on that front,” he says. “It allows developers to have more satisfying jobs overall because they could spend more time on the creative elements. So that’s my optimistic take with AI and stuff like that.”

But as the game director of the next Cyberpunk, he admits the worst case scenarios, even if they terrify him, are useful fodder for storytelling at least. “On the other end, I got science fiction,” he says.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

We may not be getting a Fallout: New Vegas 2 any time soon, but Obsidian fans still have reason to rejoice! Magic: The Gathering’s next video game crossover will be a set of four Fallout-themed preconstructed decks for its most popular format, Commander – and today we’ve got the full reveal of the “Hail, Caesar” deck.

Led by New Vegas’ menacing Caesar himself (with the dice-rolling Mr. House as an altnerate Commander option), this Red-White-Black deck is full of creature sacrificing, token making, and a thematically fitting amount of Quest counters across its legendary characters. You can see the names and images of all 100 cards in the deck below, as well as some photos of what’s in the box itself and more info about it and the other Fallout decks further down!

Similar to its Warhammer 40,000 crossover, the four Fallout precons are ready to play with right out of the box, with brand new cards unique to this release and existing cards reprinted with new Fallout-themed art. While the cards inside can be picked apart and used in other decks as well, these four are designed as a bit of a set for the four-player Commander format so that any Fallout fans looking to simply use Magic’s game system in their favorite video game world can do so.

Caesar’s deck is built in part around what’s commonly called an “aristocrats” theme, making lots of little creatures and then sacrificing them for other beneficial effects. A sub-theme of the deck is also loosely tied around Quest counters, which have been used in Magic a small amount before, but take on a new meaning when themed after an RPG full of literal quests. Those often show up on iconic legendary creatures in the deck, and this crossover has pulled from every Fallout game stretching back to the very first for inspiration.

Beyond Caesar himself, the other three deck options include a Rad-themed one built around the Mothman, a deck that uses Magic’s Energy mechanic alongside a bunch of artifact cards (including Liberty Prime), and a deck led by the ever-faithful companion Dogmeat, who fittingly digs up scrap for you.

Each of those decks even contains two unique Bobblehead artifacts, all of which have different effects that get more powerful the more Bobbleheads you have out – for example, the Luck Bobblehead in “Hail, Caesar” lets you roll dice to make mana-generating Treasure, but will even cause you to win the game outright if you manage to get enough Bobbleheads (either by copying them in creative ways or mashing the Fallout cards together into a custom deck) and then roll absurdly precisely.

All four of these Fallout decks will officially launch on March 8, though they are available for pre-order right now. Wizards of the Coast is also selling Collector Boosters that give you a chance to open cards from the decks in special Pip-Boy themed art treatments, as well as other cards in Fallout’s signature cartoony style. And if Fallout isn’t your cup of tea, Magic also has upcoming crossovers scheduled for Assassin’s Creed, Final Fantasy, and even Marvel.

Tom Marks is IGN’s Executive Reviews Editor. He loves card games, puzzles, platformers, puzzle-platformers, and lots more.

While everyone has Elden Ring on the mind today with the official unveiling of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, there’s another FromSoftware title that has fans still hungry for love: Bloodborne. And today, the game’s director finally acknowledged the overwhelming fan demand for a remake…though he stopped short of confirming or denying that one might ever materialize.

In IGN’s own interview with Hidetaka Miyazaki about the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, we asked Miyazaki about the possibility of a Bloodborne remake. But he deflected: “Unfortunately, and I’ve said this in other interviews, it’s not in my place to talk about Bloodborne specifically,” he said. “We simply don’t own the IP at FromSoftware. For me personally, it was a great project, and I have a lot of great memories for that game, but we’re not at liberty to speak to it.”

But Miyazaki shared a few more thoughts with Eurogamer, acknowledging it made him “very happy” to see so many fans passionate about Bloodborne, and suggesting the game would benefit for a release on more modern hardware.

“I think having new hardware is definitely a part of what gives these remakes value,” Miyazaki said. “Things you weren’t able to achieve on previous generations of hardware, ways you weren’t able to render specific expressions – [new hardware] sometimes makes it possible.

“However, I wouldn’t say that’s the be all and end all. I think purely from a user perspective, modern hardware also allows more players to appreciate all the games. And so, it ends up being a simple reason, but as a fellow player, I think that accessibility is important. I think that can be the driving force between bringing an old game to a new platform.”

So that’s it. No promises, no hints of anything in the works, and to hear Miyazaki tell it, the decision isn’t even really up to FromSoftware – it’s entirely on Sony, who owns Bloodborne. In stark contrast, we recently learned that publisher Bandai Namco switched the ownership of its trademark on Elden Ring fully to FromSoftware, meaning the developer now has full control over what to do with that license. It seems highly unlikely Sony would ever do the same for Bloodborne, however.

Bloodborne fans have been desperate for a remake for years now. We gave the game a 9.1/10 when it first launched, but despite critical acclaim and incredible sales success, Bloodborne has remained relegated to PlayStation 4 exclusivity. There’s no dedicated PS5 version, nor is it available on PS5 or other consoles. With other FromSoftware games such as Demon’s Souls and the original Dark Souls getting a remake and numerous ports, respectively, hope has been kept alive. For now, FromSoftware fans will have to be content with the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, about which we also spoke with Miyazaki at length.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Not only is Akira Toriyama the creator of Dragon Ball, but he is a prolific manga writer, creating over 40 manga series. One such series was Sand Land, a manga about a desert world inhabited by survivors looking for water. Think Mad Max by way of Dragon Ball. For reasons that still aren’t super clear to me (though you’ll hear no objections) Sand Land is back in a big way. Not only is an anime adaptation premiering later this year, but Bandai Namco is getting ready to release a full Sand Land video game, and IGN got a chance to play an exclusive preview for Fan Fest and found a delightful throwback to a bygone era of anime gaming, with extra enjoyment for longtime Toriyama fans.

One aspect of Toriyama’s game that often goes unheralded is his brilliance as a designer. One look at his steampunk-y, circular car and airplane designs and you know instantly who drew them. Vehicle design is clearly a passion for Toriyama, having drawn everything from hovercrafts, airplanes, spaceships, to Toriyama-fied cars. His trademark machines have appeared in every one of his series, from Dragon Ball to Dr. Slump. Sand Land finally put me in the cockpit of these wonderful vehicles, and it was a dream come true.

My hands-on preview began with our hero Beelzebub in need of the right vehicle (a recurring element in my preview) to get across some quicksand. To do so, he enlists the healp of a new character, a brilliant mechanic named Ann, who says she can get Beelzebub and the crew across quicksand on her bike. Unfortunately, she lost her bike during a chase and now the gang has to go and retrieve it in an area called Talbo.

Sand Land, is at its heart, an open- world adventure game about Beelzebub and all of the cool vehicles he can pilot. The main mode of transportation is a customizable tank that can traverse the sands and blast away enemies. And yes, it utilizes classic tank controls for that extra hit of nostalgia.

But as we learn while trying to retrieve Ann’s bike, Beelzebub can swap between several different vehicles in an instant. Once we discover that some flying creatures have stolen Ann’s bike and taken it to their lair up in the mountains, we switch to the Jump Bot, a walker with the ability to, well, jump.

Whereas the tank is meant to be a sort of slow but all-purpose vehicle designed for combat, the Jump Bot is specifically designed for the kind of platforming areas I saw in Talbo. The Jump Bot can leap vertically to scale the tall mountain, as well as hop over some tricky ledges.

Once we reach the monster’s lair, it’s back to the tank to blast away at the flying creature. Maneuvering around while firing the tank’s cannon takes a bit of a learning curve, though my preview started part way through the game; you might be spared said learning curve through a tutorial and/or the practice gained in the early part of the game. Nevertheless, the controls are intuitive enough for anyone who grew up playing old PlayStation games, so taking down the flying monster was no problem.

The second part of my hands-on was where the vehicle customization truly shined. As you get further into Sand Land, Ann’s workshop will open up, allowing you to fully customize not only your tank but a variety of other vehicles Beelzebub has access to in Sand Land.

Focusing primarily on my tank, I was able to pick-and-choose different weapons, sub-weapons, threads, and other kinds of accessories to build my personal Sand Land destruction machine. I mostly went with aesthetics this time, but I did opt for a rocket launcher weapon that I got to try out later in my demo to great effect.

But customization doesn’t stop there, because once you have your loadout picked out, you can go next door to give your ride a custom paint job with a variety of colors and decals to choose from. Like I said, if you’re a fan of Toriyama’s unique vehicle designs, Sand Land will let you fully geek out.

Side Hustle

The second half of the demo was dedicated to some of the side activities Beelzebub can take on. There are side missions where Beelzebub can accept bounties on some high-profile targets (more on that in a bit), as well as races where you can take your newly customized ride for a true test. With three different race difficulties to choose from, each changing the course in some way, you can test your ride against enemy riders and time itself.

There are other side activities Beelzebub can take on in Sand Land. One of which is accepting bounties for tough enemies roaming the desert. I took my newly customized tank out to try and nab some of these bad guys and found that my new missile launcher equipped tank was more than enough to take out some of these bad guys in a blink of an eye.

One final note is that even with my limited hands-on time, Sand Land is shaping up to be massive. If it weren’t for some time constraints I wouldn’t have used the fast travel feature to get from place to place, and instead I would’ve loved to have taken my sweet time to take in the sights. Alas, that will have to wait until I get my hands on the full game.

Sand Land’s transmedia return is a true surprise so far, honestly. I haven’t thought about it since reading it in a copy of Shonen Jump over 20 years ago, and here it is with a brand-new game and even a new anime. For fans of classic, PS2-era anime games there’s a lot to be excited about in Sand Land, even without knowing anything about the series.

However, Sand Land really feels like a love letter to Akira Toriyama fans. I’m talking about the Dr. Slump and early Dragon Ball fans. There are dozens of amazing Dragon Ball games you can play right now, but if you’re a classic manga fan and someone who’s loved the Toriyama art style and world-building, be sure to check out Sand Land when it hits consoles and PC on April 26.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.