It’s always interesting whenever game companies make good use of licensed music. Bethesda Softworks utilizes the songs of Bing Crosby and the Ink Spots in its Fallout franchise to evoke the 1950s-1960s – the era that the games’ settings seem to be inspired by. CD Projekt RED’s Cyberpunk 2077 features the futuristic synth music of Grimes that evokes the themes of the game. One of the strangest but oddly appropriate uses of music in video game-related media can be found in Bandai Namco’s recent Sand Land trailer, which features none other than Darude’s Sandstorm.

For those unfamiliar with it, Sandstorm is a 1999 techno song created by Finnish music producer Darude. The track’s escalating beats have been used in everything from sports tournaments to YouTube videos – the latter of which led to the practice of falsely identifying songs as “Darude – Sandstorm” whenever a person asks the name of a song. The troll isn’t as prevalent as it was back in the 2000s and 2010s, but those that experienced the height of the meme will recognize the song just by hearing a few notes.

Sand Land, on the other hand, is an upcoming action RPG based on the manga series created and illustrated by Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. As the Fiend Prince Beelzebub, players gather a band of unlikely allies to search for the Legendary Spring – a mythical water source that can aid in solving the world’s water shortage problem. The game loosely follows the manga’s story and allows players to explore a 3D world while fighting enemies from a third-person perspective. Sand Land’s video game adaptation was one of the last projects Toriyama was involved in before his untimely death in March 2024.

Sad news aside, Darude’s Sandstorm and Akira Toriyama’s Sand Land have almost nothing in common. Sandstorm is an upbeat techno song with no lyrics. Sand Land seems childlike, but as with Toriyama’s work on Dragon Ball, it is full of shouting, powering up, and all-out action. It may be because of this and the fact that both pieces of media have the word “sand” in them that the song works so well in the trailer.

Sandstorm does a great job of getting viewers pumped up for Sand Land just as much as the gameplay and cutscenes do. Comments for the trailer are very positive, with people praising the song’s use. Bandai Namco has also gotten on the hype train by asking for the title of the song. We’ll never know how Akira Toriyama would feel about a meme being used to promote the game, but based on people’s reactions, it seems Sandstorm was the right choice.

Sand Land will be available worldwide on April 26, 2024 for the PC (Steam), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. A free demo for the game is currently available to play too.