History Main / SandIsWater

Water is cool, but how much [[RuleOfCool cooler]] would it be if we replaced it with sand? Rivers, lakes, whirlpools, even whole oceans of sand that behave more or less exactly like a body of water are common in desert settings. Bonus points if ships sail said sandy seas (say that ten times really fast). You will even often find native life swimming in ([[FlyingSeafoodSpecial or above]]) these seas, with everything from Sand Guppies to [[ThreateningShark threatening Sand Sharks]] to full-blown {{Sand Worm}}s.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'': On top of the Molduga enemy that acts as a fast SandWorm in the Gerudo Desert, there are also Sand Seals, walrus-like beasts of burden that swim through sand like it is water.

** Used during the Alabasta arc where Luffy comes across pirates whose ships can travel on the desert for some reason. There is an attempted justification, at least in the English Dub, writing it off as the wind pushes their sails across similar to blowing a paper craft across a smooth surface. However, sand is very far from a smooth surface and should abrade the ships down to nothing over time.
** Senor Pink of the Donquixote Pirates takes this [[ExaggeratedTrope Up to Eleven]], as his Devil Fruit allows him to swim through any solid surface. Ironic when you remember that the Devil Fruits' main common weakness is SuperDrowningSkills.
** [[spoiler:Jimbei's Seraphim clone S-Snake has an artificial copy of Senor Pink's Devil Fruit, which is made outright deadly by the fact that it synergizes with his inherited [[MakingASpash Fish-man Karate]] skills, letting him manipulate solid ground with as much ease as other fish-men manipulate water.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'': A sand whirlpool appears on a single screen of the [[ShiftingSandLand Yarna Desert]]. A Lanmolas appears here as a MiniBoss, and defeating it is necessary to get a key that opens the entrance to a dungeon.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' has a giant river of sand flowing through the desert. Using the Hookshot to latch onto a wooden post at the other side is necessary to avoid falling onto it.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'': The fourth dungeon, Arbiter's Grounds, not only features sinking sand but has sand whirlpools.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks'': This is how Malgyorgs move through it. Most sand-dwelling enemies in the ''Zelda'' series are worms of some sort, but Malgyorgs are sand-swimming sharks (serving as distant cousins of the sea-dwelling Gyorgs from ''Majora's Mask'', ''The Wind Waker'' and ''Phantom Hourglass'').
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'': Many rivers of sand flow across Lanayru Desert, and it's even justified because you're using [[spoiler:crystals that revert their surroundings to their past state. Most of the desert was once an ocean]]. It's also exemplified in the Lanayru Sand Sea, where the effect of the Timeshift Stone in Skipper's boat transforms the vast ocean of sand into water as you move along. Played straight, however, with a scorpion the size of a bus that can instantly burrow itself in the sand and move around, which you unbury with a reverse vacuum cleaner.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': On top of the Molduga enemy that acts as a fast SandWorm in the Gerudo Desert, there are also Sand Seals, walrus-like beasts of burden that swim through sand like it is water.

** These drifting sands make a return in ''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyNexus'', not only in the first floor of Sandy Barrens [[NostalgiaLevel once again]] but also in the MiniDungeon Forest of the End (despite its name, it's also a ShiftingSandLand location like Sandy Barrens).

!!Examples

* In the manga ''Manga/{{Stone}}'', this is pretty much what the entire world is like. It isn't ''quite'' "sand" or mud or water, but a combination of the three that pretty much behaves like water. Ships sail on it. Life lives in it, including whales, etc.
* ''Anime/SecretOfCeruleanSand.'' Funny thing about this anime is that if you read the title, you'd think "this is ''[[Anime/NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater The Secret of Blue Water]]'' [[RecycledInSpace with sand]]" and... yeah, it basically ''is''.

* ''Literature/GoblinSlayer'': The desert of Volume 11 has sand-dwelling magic sealife and boat-riding nomads. One of the locals in the capital city of the desert kingdom outright calls it "the sand sea."
* In ''Anime/ZoidsNewCentury'', the aquatic [[HumongousMecha Zoid]] War Shark got the ability to swim through sand as well.
* ''Anime/ProjectAKO'':
** The terrain of the desert world of ''Blue Side/Grey Side'' seems to shift from sand to water at the whim of the writers and animators.
** In ''Uncivil Wars'', a mercenary trying to kidnap C-Ko has a craft that travels through sand like a submarine. B-Ko even use depth charges to attack the craft.

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'' attempts a justification by saying the sand-ships use a "scale system", where the vibrations of micro-scales propel the ship in the same fashion as a fish's fins. Naturally, it works just as well underwater.

** Orochimaru once uses a jutsu to let him traverse through dirt like water, even using a ReedSnorkel, to spy on Team 7
* Played straight in ''Manga/CardCaptorSakura'' when Sakura and Syaoran are attacked by "The Sand" card whose main power appears to be this trope, even creating a sand whirlpool!

* Sand ships and sand dolphins can be purchased in the ridiculously advanced future of ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}''; in ''Anime/DoraemonNobitasDorabianNights'', Nobita and company discover that Sinbad the Sailor (of the Literature/ArabianNights) was the beneficiary of such gifts from a grateful time traveling tourist who'd got stranded in the desert and saved by Sinbad.
* ''Anime/TheReflection'': Sea Serpent, besides having the ability to swim in water, he can also swim in loose sand.
* The ''Anime/SandsOfDestruction'' anime had this. Falling into sand made splashing noises, there were rowboats and motorboats that moved through sand like water, and a pair of apples were once seen falling into the sand...then acting like they were floating downriver. Taken Up to Eleven with a sand ocean... and a boat that docks from the sand ocean to the sand beach. There's also a sand submarine whose engines somehow don't clog, and sand jellyfish (which look like ordinary water jellyfish) and sand whales (which look like giant sea serpents) also live in the sand sea. The [[Manga/SandsOfDestruction manga]] played it a bit more realistically, with humans being capable of walking on the surface of the sand sea, but the snake-like sand whales still swim in it freely and humans typically use boats to get around on it because they're more efficient than walking.

* ''Anime/ChildrenOfTheWhales'' has this as a setting. Characters use boats to travel on a sea of sand.
* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'':
** ''Manga/GoldenWind'': Secco's [[FightingSpirit Stand]], [[InstantArmor Oasis]], gives him the ability to treat any stone or earth as this. It's a virtually unbeatable combo with his partner, [[FesteringFungus Cioccolata]], whose Green Day generates a virulent fungal infection that spreads extremely rapidly, but only when its victims move to a lower elevation.
** ''Manga/JoJolion'': Doremifasolati Do can burrow through ground like its water, but this only applies to ''natural'' ground like soil.
* In the desert world of ''Manga/CrazyFoodTruck'', there are still isolated lakes, like in Towata, but many areas of sand have sea life in them, like squid and oysters. Gordon mentions that life "adapted and evolved" (in only a few hundred years since the UnspecifiedApocalypse).

* In ''ComicBook/{{Lanfeust}} of the Stars'', a planet has oceans of sand due to a strong planetary magnetic field (that also prevents spacecraft from entering the atmosphere anywhere but at the poles). Bonus points for having ships hunting sand-whales -- including [[Literature/MobyDick a giant white one]].

* Invoked in ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin2011''. Tintin and Captain Haddock are in a desert when Haddock tells Tintin about his ancestor as he looks out over the sand dunes. Cue a virtually seamless transition between the dunes and a ship sailing on the ocean waves.

* ''Film/TankGirl'':
** Creator/LoriPetty takes a shower while in the Water & Power prison. In sand. Mmm.
** "Rain Lady" corresponds to the character "Sub Girl" from the comics, and plows her submarine through the desert for the ''FinalBattle''!
* In the first ''Film/{{Tremors}}'' movie, the survivors find themselves stranded on a rock "island" surrounded by Graboid "sharks".

--> "It's fun to charter an accountant / And sail the wide accountant-sea. / To find, explore, the funds off-shore / and skirt the shoals of bankruptcy! / It can be manly in insurance; / We'll up your premiums semi-annually. / It's all tax-deductible; / We're fairly in-corruptible; / We're sailing on a wide accountant-sea!"
* The kids' film ''Film/MagicIsland'' featured a sand shark -- which could be thwarted by feeding it ''bubble gum''.

* Played with in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd'', when the crew arrives at the titular location looking for Jack and find him standing triumphantly on the ''Pearl'' as it sails over a sand dune- only to discover it's being carried by thousands of little sand crabs.

* ''Franchise/{{Dune}}''

* In Creator/RayBradbury's ''Literature/TheMartianChronicles'', Martians had sand ships.
* Meredith Ann Pierce's ''Literature/TheDarkangelTrilogy'' had a Sea of Dust, over which the heroine sails a skiff in the second book. It's even got fisherfolk, whales, and sea serpents.

* Creator/WilliamGoldman described this in great detail in ''Literature/ThePrincessBride'' and later lampshades the research he did for it in ''The Color Of Light''.
* One of the {{Impossible Task}}s in either Literature/ArabianNights or the Grimm Fairy Tales (or possibly both) is "create a ship that can sail on sand (or land, in the case of Grimm) as on water". The hero usually has to call in the help of [[AWizardDidIt some supernatural creature]] to assist.
* In ''Literature/TheRoadToOz'', the fifth book of the [[Literature/LandOfOz Oz series]], Dorothy, Toto, Button-Bright, Polychrome, and the Shaggy Man travel across the Deadly Desert to Oz in a "sand boat", which is described as "a sleigh with sails and a rudder".

* One history of Larry Niven, also of his ''Literature/KnownSpace'', takes place in a planet covered by sand-like organic compounds (fullerenes) that behave like a liquid and have almost null friction.
* Subverted in 'Demon', the third book of Creator/JohnVarley's ''Literature/GaeaTrilogy''. [[PhysicalGod Gaea]] created a replica of the sandworms from [[Literature/{{Dune}} intercepted earth fiction]], except that the replica barely moves at all; it just sort of sits there on top of the desert. [[LampshadeHanging The characters comment on the physical improbability of something that size moving through sand]].
* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' has the Great Nef, a desert with an ocean of ''dehydrated water'' (a silvery powder) at its centre. [[AWizardDidIt This is explicitly described to be a fourth state of water, only attainable in a high thaumic field]]. The desert nomads who live there sail on ships that wouldn't look out of place in the Circle Sea. It's also briefly mentioned to be home to very strange fish.

* Hugh Howey (author of ''Literature/{{Wool}}'') has another serial novel called Sand in which divers use vibration suits to swim through sand and scavenge treasure.

* The Series/{{Hercules|TheLegendaryJourneys}} and Series/{{Xena|WarriorPrincess}} series both featured man-eating sand sharks that could do this.

* ''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyI'': In the first floor of Sandy Barrens (16th floor overall in the Yggdrasil Labyrinth), there are several passageways where sand is flowing steadily, effectively acting as conveyor belts. These cannot be overriden, so the player's character party has to figure out the right path to advance to the next floor. These drifting sands make a return in ''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyNexus'', not only in the first floor of Sandy Barrens [[NostalgiaLevel once again]] but also in the MiniDungeon Forest of the End (despite its name, it's also a ShiftingSandLand location like Sandy Barrens).

* In ''VideoGame/Klonoa2LunateasVeil'', you can surf on sand with the surfboard [[spoiler: after the Sea of Tears has been dried up]]. The failed physics is corrected somewhat when you account for a floating board.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''

* In "The Sand Whale Strikes" episode of ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'', the titular character is forced by Eustace's mother to hunt a sand whale, who is trying to get his accordion back from Eustace's mother. And Courage is forced to row a boat in the sand. Subverted in that the ground only worked like water for the sand whale, [[MagicAIsMagicA and not the rowboat.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'' is a major user, including both ''Dune''-like sand worms and a giant shark that could swim through the sand. The landshark was also hunted by a [[Literature/MobyDick Captain Ahab]] CaptainErsatz who piloted a flying masted ship until it was killed by a tribe of Koala-like tribesmen.

* ''WesternAnimation/MattHatterChronicles'': This happens frequently whenever the protagonists are in the Sea of Sand realm. Heck, even the realm's name lampshades the trope

** In ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'', bodies of sand and bodies of water interact with the player exactly the same way: like [[SuperDrowningSkills bottomless pits]]. [[ShiftingSandLand Dusty Desert]] is a rather egregious example, as thanks to [[ObviousBeta its shoddy programming shortcuts]], if you come in contact with ''any'' body of sand, it splashes. And if you happen to let the sand come above a character's ankles, they'll die instantly as if they fell into water.

* ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'': The desert of Volume 11 has sand-dwelling magic sealife and boat-riding nomads. One of the locals in the capital city of the desert kingdom outright calls it "the sand sea."

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons]]'' has a small desert with sand whirlpools and a half-buried pirate ship. One of the major quests is to get the ship unburied and back out to sea.
** ''Oracle of Ages'' has a mole miniboss who does this, attacking from underneath with its drill-nose. Fortunately, it's completely helpless aboveground when dug up.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'': The fourth dungeon, Arbiter's Grounds, not only features sinking sand but has sand whirlpools. A sand whirlpool also features in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' on a single screen of the [[ShiftingSandLand Yarna Desert]].

** ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Gundam SEED]]'' attempts a justification by saying the sand-ships use a "scale system", where the vibrations of micro-scales propel the ship in the same fashion as a fish's fins. Naturally, it works just as well underwater.

* Gaara from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' effortlessly controls sand, and with moves like "Sand Drizzle" and "Sand Waterfall", it's obvious that sand is water for him.

** One history of Larry Niven, also of his ''Literature/KnownSpace'', takes place in a planet covered by sand-like organic compounds (fullerenes) that behave like a liquid and have almost null friction.

** But Varley has it both ways, since Gaea also creates a race of monsters made of living glass that swim through the sand of the Tethys desert.

** The ''TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}}'' setting. The Sea of Dust had "dust lakes" which acted like water, including supporting boats and allowing people to swim through it.
*** In one Greyhawk novel, a group sets out to cross the Sea of Dust, using a ship outfitted with huge inflated wheels. This becomes a subversion when the wheels get punctured by cacti and the ship is left immobile, something that ''wouldn't'' happen on the water.

** Not to mention in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' has the two Fastitocalon enemies, FISH that not only treated sand as water, but could also do the same with air.

** Genuine "sand-swimming" vertebrates still have to remain very close to the surface to avoid suffocation. Most only "swim" far enough to cover themselves with a thin dusting of sand, thus acquiring camouflage and shielding them from the desert sun.
** The strange Kallar Dancing Frog was found to have tadpoles that, unlike most tadpoles that live in water, live in soil.

* One actually can have some fun with this trope [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjgURBIqJ6s as demonstrated here.]]
** If you're wondering, yes, [[https://youtu.be/My4RA5I0FKs?t=170 you can scale this up to a point where you can actually swim in sand.]]

** ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 3}}'' replaced all of the wet oceans with sand oceans. You even get a special boat to sail on these sand oceans later. There was an entire ecosystem living in the sand, mostly fish-like monsters and one BonusBoss SandWorm.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'' episode "The Invisible Enemy" had several giant monsters swimming through the sands of Mars, "living in the sand like a shark in the ocean!" (They weren't {{Sand Worm}}s, they had heads and crab claws). The sand sea even had a tide that rose and fell.

** In TheFilmOfTheBook 'Children of Dune', James [=McAvoy=] discovered that sand is most definitely NOT water (see 2:28 - 3:05 of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnmVKEKjEMw this interview]]).

** Bone-Dry Dunes in ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'' is surrounded by sand, with a crew of Toads on a pirate ship that throws coins onto the track.
** One part of the "Slipsand Galaxy" level from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' had Mario navigate a large river of quicksand on top of a large bird-shaped raft while at the same time avoiding the cacti and Magikoopas dwelling in the quicksand.

* Any desert of the ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' franchise also has at least one kind of monster that swims through sand, such as Cephalos, Delex, and Cephadrome, all of which can swim through sand like dolphins in water. And then there's Jhen Mohran and Dah'ren Mohran, two massive monsters who are fought in sand-sailing ships.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' pulls it off, and it's even justified because you're using [[spoiler: crystals that revert their surroundings to their past state. Most of the desert was once an ocean]]. Played straight, however, with a scorpion the size of a bus that can instantly burrow itself in the sand and move around, which you unbury with a reverse vacuum cleaner.
** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', on top of the Molduga enemy that acts as a fast SandWorm in the Gerudo Desert, there are also Sand Seals, walrus-like beasts of burden that swim through sand like it is water.

* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'':
** ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'': In Maridia, when the Gravity Suit is acquired, water no longer renders Samus sluggish. However, flowing sand pits underwater still slow her down.
** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes''. The whole series in general usually replaces water with acid and/or lava.

* Played around with in ''VideoGame/{{Journey}}''. Sometimes, the sand acts like sand. At other times, you can surf through it like water, and watch it glisten and ripple like water as well. The use of marine animal styles for the "cloth creatures" makes the parallel even stronger.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' has a giant river of sand flowing through the desert.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' fourth dungeon, Arbiter's Grounds, not only features sinking sand but has sand whirlpools. A sand whirlpool also features in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' on a single screen of the [[ShiftingSandLand Yarna Desert]].
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' pulls it off, and it's even justified because you're using [[spoiler: crystals that revert their surroundings to their past state. Most of the desert was once an ocean]].
*** Played straight, however, with a scorpion the size of a bus that can instantly burrow itself in the sand and move around, which you unbury with a reverse vacuum cleaner.

* [[ThreateningShark Densharks]] in ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'' can vomit on the ground, making a puddle to swim into.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', far to the south, near the Pole, people actually have sand ships that are used as transport and in warfare.

** D&D also has a monster called the bulette, which is essentially a land shark.
** ''Dungeons and Dragons Abyss'' also has a river of salt... which will dehydrate you and grate you to a paste if you fall in.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Rocket Age}}'s'' Mars has Silt Seas, full of life. Good luck trying to swim in it if you're not evolved to, however, although you can sail ''over'' it.

* Sand ships and sand dolphins can be purchased in the ridiculously advanced future of ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}''; in one NonSerialMovie, Nobita and company discover that Sinbad the Sailor (of the Literature/ArabianNights) was the beneficiary of such gifts from a grateful time traveling tourist who'd got stranded in the desert and saved by Sinbad.

* Used during the Alabasta arc of ''Manga/OnePiece'' where Luffy comes across pirates whose ships can travel on the desert for some reason. There is an attempted justification, at least in the English Dub, writing it off as the wind pushes their sails across similar to blowing a paper craft across a smooth surface. However, sand is very far from a smooth surface and should abrade the ships down to nothing over time.
** Senor Pink of the Donquixote Pirates takes this UpToEleven, as his Devil Fruit allows him to swim through any solid surface. Ironic when you remember that the Devil Fruits' main common weakness is SuperDrowningSkills.

* The ''Anime/SandsOfDestruction'' anime had this. Falling into sand made splashing noises, there were rowboats and motorboats that moved through sand like water, and a pair of apples were once seen falling into the sand...then acting like they were floating downriver. Taken UpToEleven with a sand ocean... and a boat that docks from the sand ocean to the sand beach. There's also a sand submarine whose engines somehow don't clog, and sand jellyfish (which look like ordinary water jellyfish) and sand whales (which look like giant sea serpents) also live in the sand sea. The [[Manga/SandsOfDestruction manga]] played it a bit more realistically, with humans being capable of walking on the surface of the sand sea, but the snake-like sand whales still swim in it freely and humans typically use boats to get around on it because they're more efficient than walking.

* ''Film/TankGirl''
** Lori Petty takes a shower while in the Water & Power prison. In sand. Mmm.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs}}'' series has a few of these, which isn't surprising considering they all take place on the mostly-desert world of Filgaia.
** [[VideoGame/WildARMs1 The original]] had Sand River.
** ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 3}}'' replaced all of the wet oceans with sand oceans. You even get a special boat to sail on these sand oceans later. There was an entire ecosystem living in the sand, mostly fish-like monsters and one BonusBoss SandWorm.
** In ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 4}}'', there is a sand inland sea, which, yes, has ships that sail on it. Somewhat subverted as people are able to stand on this "sandsea." On a cutscene at least.

* ''VideoGame/{{NieR}}'' has this in Facade and the desert in general. The sand-surfing mechanic returns in ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'', where 2B and 9S can surf down dunes like nobody's business -- the latter even comments on how slippery the sand is when you first arrive in the desert region ([[spoiler:which, if you do a certain archeology sidequest, is revealed to be located where Facade used to stand, thousands of years AfterTheEnd]]).
* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'':
** ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'': In Maridia, when the Gravity Suit is acquired, water no longer renders Samus sluggish. However, flowing sand pits underwater still slow her down.
** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes''. The whole series in general usually replaces water with acid and/or lava.

* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
** ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' (The {{Trope Namer|s}} for ShiftingSandLand)
** Another possibly ridiculous example from ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQbxoOxxNiE Mario Teaches Typing]]'' has Mario do the front stroke swimming through quick sand with a somewhat goofy expression.
** Many subsequent Mario games use the same idea again, for instance Dry Dry Desert in ''VideoGame/MarioKartDoubleDash''.
** Bone-Dry Dunes in ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'' is surrounded by sand, with a crew of Toads on a pirate ship that throws coins onto the track.
** One part of the "Slipsand Galaxy" level from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' had Mario navigate a large river of quicksand on top of a large bird-shaped raft while at the same time avoiding the cacti and Magikoopas dwelling in the quicksand.
* On ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'''s sixth level, Gobi's Desert, there are pools of sand that have small waves going across them, almost like boiling water. Obviously, entering these pools without the Wading Boots is hazardous to your health.
* One sidequest in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' features lots of sand currents and sand whirlpools. The characters can walk on the sand, they just won't stay in one place for very long. You access said area by falling through a sand whirlpool.
* ''VideoGame/SecretOfEvermore'' has whirlpools in a sandy area just before the Bugmuck. Which suck you down and then.. spit you back up somewhere else. Weird.
* One of the early areas in ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' involves a massive desert large enough to have ships "sailing" on it, along with gigantic unseen creatures such as "sand whales" and a "desert remora". The CoolBoat you get is one such sandships, which eventually upgrades to a [[GetOnTheBoat sea vessel]] and an [[GlobalAirship airship]] as the plot progresses. Some attention is actually paid to the technology needed to make the sand-sub work, which can make the scientific inaccuracy more or less JustForFun/{{egregious}} depending on the individual.
* ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV'' has dragons that can swim through water, including a transparent, worm-like dragon that lives in a sea of mud.
* Any desert of the ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' franchise also has at least one kind of monster that swims through sand, such as Cephalos, Delex, and Cephadrome, all of which can swim through sand like dolphins in water. And then there's [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100402003834/monsterhunter/images/1/11/JhenMohran.png Jhen Mohran]] and Dah'ren Mohran, two massive monsters who are fought in sand-sailing ships.
* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** In ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'', bodies of sand and bodies of water interact with the player exactly the same way: like [[SuperDrowningSkills bottomless pits]]. [[ShiftingSandLand Dusty Desert]] is a rather egregious example, as thanks to [[ObviousBeta its shoddy programming shortcuts]], if you come in contact with ''any'' body of sand, it splashes. And if you happen to let the sand come above a character's ankles, they'll die instantly as if they fell into water.
** The Sandopolis Zone in ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'' had sand ''waterfalls'' and sand rivers that you slide down.
** In ''VideoGame/SonicForces'', the rivers and waterfalls in GreenHillZone are replaced with sand due to Dr. Eggman's hostile takeover, [[HailFirePeaks adding some]] ShiftingSandLand [[HailFirePeaks elements to the stage]].
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''
** The temple in the Haruba Desert in ''VideoGame/PokemonRanger: Shadows of Almia'' has ''a lot'' of sand that acts like water.
** Taken to its logical conclusion with the Hippopotas, Sandile, and Gible families; Ground-type sand hippos, sand crocodiles, and sand sharks respectively.
* ''VideoGame/NexusWar'' has rivers of ''dust'' in the plane of [[{{Shadowland}} Nifleheim]]. For gameplay purposes they're treated exactly like water. If you can't swim, you'll drown. If you can breathe water through mystical skill or magical potion, you can breathe dust too.
* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}} Project'''s Moriya Suwako, a mountain goddess, can swim through the earth like water.

* In ''VideoGame/SandsOfDestruction'', the entire world is basically composed of islands in the middle of an ocean of sand. There are some lakes and sea, but players would be given the impression of ''more'' sand.

* In ''VideoGame/Klonoa2LunateasVeil'', you can surf on sand with the surfboard [[spoiler: after the Sea of Tears has been dried up.]] The failed physics is corrected somewhat when you account for a floating board.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Darksiders}}'', a giant desert exists populated by absolutely enormous {{sand worm}}s swimming easily through it. Strangely, War sinks hip deep into this stuff and his movement slows to a crawl but can run atop it when mounted on his giant horse Ruin...
* The sand sharks in ''VideoGame/{{Bubsy}}'' serve as NightmareFuel.
* In ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus'', there are two colossi that swim through sand. One essentially behaves like a large sand dwelling snake, whereas the other one actually flies, but when first encountered, is living in the sand, and breeches like a whale.
* Apparently, most Zerg units from ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' can swim through any material (including steel), not just sand, though they cannot actually move around when buried. This is likely for balance. In ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'', this is handwaved by the Zerg being able to erode any material with millions of micro muscles, effectively making them semi-liquid. Don't think too hard about it.

* Sand Zone from ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' features aptly named sand crocs which [[AmbushingEnemy prey on any hapless victim]] that falls into otherwise solid sand in which they can seemingly swim.
* In ''VideoGame/FantasyLife'', one of the places where fish can be found is the desert's sand. There are also some that live in lava.
* The makers of ''VideoGame/HomeworldDesertsOfKharak'' said that they intended to make a "naval" game. What with the aircraft carrier on treads. Wind-powered sand ships capable of making the trip from pole to pole appear in the backstory.

* ''VideoGame/TheHouseOfTheDead 2'' has a hydra-like boss known as Tower. In its first fight, the player kills 4 out of its 5 heads, but the last one has to be hunted and killed at either a watery or a sand-filled arena, neither environment stopping it from just swimming through.
* Side Eye, a Hammerhead shark Rabbid and one of the bosses of the ''VideoGame/MarioPlusRabbidsKingdomBattle'' DLC "DK Adventure" moves around by swimming into sand with only his fin poking out of the sand. Like, you know, sharks.
* ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'': Zig-zagged. The sands of the Crystal Desert are filled with marine-type animals like land sharks, sand eels, and skimmers (which resemble giant manta rays). However, walking through the sand is just like walking on other land. There are also pits full of quicksand that kill you quickly (similar to video game lava), unlike water which is swimable. However, skimmers can glide over both water and sand, and get the same speed boost for each.

* Once you've reached Hardmode in ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'', new enemies will spawn, one of which being the Sand Sharks which will spawn during sandstorms. They're powerful enemies that can swim quickly through the sand and then lunge at the player.
* ''Videogame/DeepRockGalactic'': The Sandblasted Corridors may have actual sandstone rather than sand, but Nayaka Trawlers don't seem to care at all. They're the only ones that get to treat the floor this way however, and it's specifically noted as something really strange they can do. But they will swim through sandstone at you, grab you, and then exploit the fact to you it's still sand to try and [[WhatADrag subject you to a horrible death through abrasion by dragging you through the sandstone]]; it's a good thing your heavy armor manages to stave off a lot of that harm.

* Given enough sheer stress force, the ground can undergo what is known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_liquefaction liquefaction,]] where the ground behaves like a liquid.

* Invoked in ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin''. Tintin and Captain Haddock are in a desert when Haddock tells Tintin about his ancestor as he looks out over the sand dunes. Cue a virtually seamless transition between the dunes and a ship sailing on the ocean waves.