Shifting Sand Land: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
The Desert. Hot, dry, dusty, and ''sandy''. Technically, the scientific definition of a "desert" is "a large, arid ecosystem that receives less than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of precipitation per year". Thus, deserts can be rocky, cold, and even covered with perma-frost.
Still, as far as video games go, the ''best'' deserts are the type with sand. [[Rule of Cool| That's how it is.]]
The video game desert is a vast, hot and dry place, usually with [[Build Like an Egyptian|Egyptian-style pyramids]]. It can be a big part of games set in a [[Scavenger World]]. Thankfully, heat stroke and dehydration are usually not a problem.
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Some desert worlds have stages that take place in or on the Pyramids; others may include oil refineries as part of the stage or in the background. Cities and towns in this world are often [[Qurac|Arabian]] in appearance, even if the people do not quite fit the distinction. The music will also usually be Middle East inspired.
Enemies in this world usually include vultures, snakes, [[Scary Scorpions|scorpions]], [[Sand Worm|huge sandworms]], giant antlions at the bottom of sand traps and other [[Big Creepy-Crawlies]]. Also vaguely [[Qurac|Arabian-style]]
Provided you manage to enter the desert without having to accomplish some kind of [[Impassable Desert|quest]] beforehand, you'll have to deal with [[Quicksand Sucks]]. Also common are [[Sand Is Water|rivers and whirlpools of sand flowing into]] [[Bottomless Pits]]. Camel may be found around here, usually to ride. [[Aladdin (Disney film)|Watch out, they spit!]]. Flying carpets and dust devils are another common mode of travel. Be assured that you will going to a [[Temple of Doom]] at some point. The nongame varient is the [[Thirsty Desert]].
Named for the Desert world in ''[[Super Mario 64]]''.
{{examples}}
* The desert in ''[[
* The Despair Desert in ''[[Alundra]]''.
* Desert Buttes of ''[[Backyard Sports|Backyard Baseball]]''. No quicksand, though, as it's a sports game.
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* This is the theme of two levels in ''[[Castle Crashers]]''. Here you find scorpions, men wearing turbans, men wearing weird chainmail helmets, a giraffe animal orb as well as the shovel item, some aliens (sure, why not?) and a giant sandcastle. You spend the last part of the desert area playing volleyball with the badguys, which makes you wonder if the desert is both a desert and a beach.
* Sandy Grave and the Forgotten City in ''[[Castlevania]]: Portrait of Ruin'' both start in the desert and lead into pyramids.
* Sand Zone from ''[[Cave Story]]'' is the game's local reservoir of sand.<ref>And there's no [[Slippy-Slidey Ice World]] to apply sand to. [[And That's Terrible]]!</ref>
* Fiery Sands, the third dungeon in ''[[Children of Mana]]'', is one of these
* Earth Dragon Island in ''[[Chrono Cross]]''.
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* Area 5 of ''[[Contra]] III: The Alien Wars'' is a top-down desert with 'shifting conveyor belt sand' and 'swirling spinning sand.' The boss of the level must be fought while on 'spinning conveyor-belt sand', forcing the player to turn at the same speed of the spinning sand in order to keep the boss's weak point at sight.
* ''[[Diablo]] II'', Act II is set in the desert surrounding the city of Lut Gholein in the region of Aranoch. Prince Jerhyn, ruler of the land, is dressed in white robes and a turban, and has (or had, rather) a harem living in his palace, which has a giant onion-shaped dome [[Qurac|typical of Mughal architecture]].
* ''[[
* The Noise Dunes of Fantasy in ''[[Eternal Sonata]]''.
* Pretty much every ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' game has a Huge Desert somewhere.
** The one in ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' even has a pyramid.
** Bikanel Island in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]''.
** ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' has the Altepa Desert, a vast desert region with an elaborate system of ancient ruins just underneath the sand.
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** The Lynari Desert in ''[[Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles]]'' is extremely large and requires purposefully sinking in quicksand in order to access the rest of the map. There are [[When Trees Attack|cactuar]], [[Snake People|lamia]], and scorpion enemies. In single player mode, the moogle companion is easily tired in the extreme heat of the desert.
* ''[[Golden Sun]]'' has a desert, where it eventually DOES become too hot for the group and they start taking damage unless they rest at an oasis. And the oases are magically hidden, to boot - you have to use a spell to see them.
** A second desert later on in the game isn't as hot, possibly because of all the sandstorms caused by dust-devil lizard monsters.
** The sequel has another desert, although there is no heatstroke mechanic there. Instead, there's a monster that digs through the sand that must be lured into a certain area with judicious use of the "Pound" spell.
* The first stage of ''[[Gradius]] III''.
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*** Part 2 kicks off in a desert as well, and has you face off against a titanic Scorpion robot.
** ''[[Mega Man ZX]]'' features a desert as well.
* The first and second stages of ''[[Metal Slug]]'' 2 and X.
* Sector 3 - PYR in ''[[Metroid]] Fusion'' ([[Hailfire Peaks|also]] a [[Lethal Lava Land|lava level]]), and parts of Chozo Ruins (''[[Metroid Prime]]'') and Agon Wastes (''Prime 2: Echoes'').
* ''[[My Sims]]'' has a desert region, accessed by pickaxe.
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* The Ruborian desert in ''Overlord''.
* The Dry Dry Desert in ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'' (pictured above).
** The Gritzy Desert of ''[[
** And Yold Desert in ''[[Super Paper Mario]]''.
** The Dry Dry Desert makes a return in ''[[Mario Kart]]: Double Dash!!'', this time with huge quicksand pits.
** Teehee Valley in ''[[
* Motavia in ''[[Phantasy Star]] I'' and ''IV''.
* ''[[Pokémon]]'' has a few examples of this.
** ''[[Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire]]'' versions feature a desert area in Hoenn's Route 111, complete with fierce sandstorms (in fact, the desert cannot be crossed without obtaining a pair of Go-Goggles, leading to a rare case where [[Goggles Do Something|the goggles do SOMETHING]]), homicidal cacti, bizarre spinning artifact-creatures, and weird convergently-evolved-to-be-ant-lions things. There's also the Desert Ruins in the southern area of the desert, which house the sleeping legendary golem Regirock.
** Oh yes, and in ''Emerald'', there's the Mirage Tower that disappears into the sand once you get a fossil from it. Clearly a load-bearing fossil. Also, underneath the desert is the Desert Underpass where the other fossil that disappeared before in Mirage Tower becomes available.
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** ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'' have Resort Desert and Relic Castle, with the latter featuring quicksand you can fall through.
* Nearly all of ''[[Quest for Glory II]]: Trial by Fire''.
* The Planets Aridia and Tabora in the ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]'' series.
** Tabora is sort of a [[Hailfire Peaks|double dip]], as the caverns below the desert are filled with [[Lethal Lava Land|hot lava]].
* The Kharidian Desert in ''[[
* Most of ''[[Sands of Destruction]]'' (both the video game and the anime) takes place in a world like this.
* ''[[Secret of Mana]]'' has a massive desert in which, when you crashland in the wrong location, is an endless ocean of sand until you get picked up by an Airship. After that part you find the village and the desert becomes seemingly smaller. Odd that.
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** Mirage Road in ''[[Sonic Rush Series]]''.
** An obscure example - Yellow Desert in ''[[Sonic Blast]]'', for the Game Gear.
** Dusty Desert in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (2006
* The second worlds of both ''[[Super Mario Bros. 2]]'' and ''[[Super Mario Bros 3]]''.
** And ''[[New Super Mario Bros.]]''.
*** And ''[[New Super Mario Bros. Wii]]''.
** The sixth world of ''[[Super Mario Bros. 2]]'', as well.
** And, of course, our lovely [[Trope Namer]], ''Mario 64''.
** Birabuto (the first world) of ''[[Super Mario Land]]''.
** ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'' has the Dusty Dune Galaxy, while [[Super Mario Galaxy 2|the sequel]] has the Slipsand Galaxy.
* Arabian Night from ''[[Wario Land]] 4'', Whoopsy Desert and Disturbing Tomb from ''[[Wario Land]]: Shake It'', and Pecan Sands from ''[[Wario World]]''.
* The main Mushroom'''y''' Kingdom in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Brawl''. It's World 1-1 of the original ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'', [[After the End|although looking a bit less lively]]...
* Similar to the ''Golden Sun'' example, ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'' has a desert area where you have to find cacti that contain water for your party to fill their canteens with. When they run out of water, they start to take damage.
* A good 90% of the maps in ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' used to be this, even including an Egypt-themed map. More recent maps, however, have focused on diversifying the themes, with more alpine and industrial landscapes.
* [[Tomb Raider|Lara Croft]] has been to Egypt a couple of times. Averted, in that, when you are in Mexico in ''Underworld'' it is scruby and wooded, rather than being a stereotypical American desert.
* In keeping with the [[Wild West]] theme, practically all of ''[[Wild
** Sand rivers and ocean themed areas appear in most of the other games in the ''[[Wild
* The Wasteland levels in ''[[Video Game]]/Wonderboy'' and ''[[Adventure Island]]'', where [[Wizard Needs Food Badly|food]] [[Drought Level of Doom|is scarce]], unsurprisingly.
* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', the Silithus desert is home to sentient insects with quasi-Egyptian architectural tastes, and the Tanaris desert is just a massive box of sand with a few oases and troll ruins ''very'' loosely scattered around the map. Post-''Cataclysm'', Tanaris has become a popular vacation spot due to the dramatically increased size of the beach area.
** Desolace, Badlands, and Durotar verge on this with a bit more of a sense of wasteland than
** Introduced in Cataclysm is Uldum, which combines this trope with a culture clearly modeled on Egypt with a south-flowing Nile-analogue to boot.
* Shows up without fail in every ''[[Fire Emblem]]'', short of ''[[Fire Emblem Jugdral|Fire Emblem: Thracia 776]]''. Tends to be [[That One Level]] as well due to reduced mobility for all units except for [[Squishy Wizard
* The second stage of Ice Cream Island in ''[[Kirby]]'s Adventure'' and its GBA remake is a desert island.
** ''Kirby's Dreamland 3'' gives us Sand Canyon as the third world.
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** Sky Sands from ''Kirby Air Ride'' is a desert track. And not to mention, Top Ride's Sand track.
** ''[[Kirby's Epic Yarn|Kirbys Epic Yarn]]'' has Pyramid Sands and Dusk Dunes as sand-themed levels, both located in the second world, Hot Land.
** Raisin Ruins in ''[[
* The Sandsea in ''[[Dragon Fable]]'' and ''[[Adventure Quest Worlds]]''?
* ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' has the Triet Desert, complete with sandstorms and an oasis.
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* The first Ark level in ''[[Halo 3]]'', and the Sandbox/Sandtrap multiplayer maps.
* The South Shrine from ''[[Shining the Holy Ark]]'' is set within a massive pyramid. Despite the fact the closest village is made up of Ninjas and the Kingdom itself is your [[Standard Fantasy Setting]]. Inside you get to face mummies, sand monsters and also travel on the ceiling.
* If you've never actually played ''[[Journey]]'' and only know it from, say, [[YouTube]] videos, you might think the whole game is this. Truthfully, it's only about half the game, yet it still arguably has far more [[Scenery Porn]] than any other desert in video games.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:The Ground Beneath Our Feet]]
[[Category:Video Game Settings]]
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