History Main / ShiftingSandLand

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'': The desert around Las Venturas qualifies to some degree: although it's rather realistic, it has Native American reservations, ghost towns, rock formations with funny names, an abandoned airport, oil pumps, a big Hoover-like dam, a geyser, and even [[DoubleEntendre ''Area 69'']], the local version of the Area 51.

* ''VideoGame/{{Meteos}}'' has three {{Single Biome Planet}}s that fit this. Anasaze has a WildWest motif, Dawndus is in perpetual twilight due the atmosphere bending the sunlight it recieves (which leads to it's city-dwelling citizens to become insomniacs who fake sleeping), and Forte is a meteor-ravaged wasteland where it's denizens live inside the planet's giant cracks.

%%** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'': The first example is the desert at Land's End.

** ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' versions and their remakes feature a desert area in Hoenn's Route 111, with sandstorms so fierce that the desert cannot be crossed without obtaining a pair of Go-Goggles, (leading to a rare case where [[GogglesDoSomething the goggles do SOMETHING]]), home to cute armadillos, 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. 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 with the Mirage Tower becomes available.

* The original ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest'' has the planet Kerona, where you will die of thirst unless you drink the dehydrated water in your survival kit.

* Area 5 of ''{{VideoGame/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. There is also a similar stage in ''VideoGame/HardCorpsUprising'', with different perspective and enemies.

** ''VideoGame/MarioKartSuperCircuit'': Yoshi Desert is a standard desert course with pyramids, quicksand, and a Yoshi sphinx. Sunset Wilds is a more unique approach, as it takes place in a Wild West-inspired desert where the time of day transitions from sunset to early nighttime.[[note]]The Choco Island tracks from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioKart'' have also retroactively become desert courses for some reason, as they share a tileset and background with Sunset Wilds.[[/note]]

** VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet has the Asado Desert, a vast area where you'll find one of the Titan Pokemon, and also is connected to Cascarrafa, which has a Water-type Gym, oddly enough.

** ''VideoGame/NewPokemonSnap'' has a desert area with trapinch and Flygon, rolling [[AllDesertsHaveCacti Cacnea]], buried Minior, Lycanroc, Kangaskhan and legendary Zeraora in it. There are ruins and an oasis as well.

* ''VideoGame/JamesBond007'' for Gameboy. You have to find a escape spot in the desert. Fortunately for the player, the desert is a toroid, and they should have already encountered the coordinates for the destination. Unfortunately for the player, scorpions love to sting and, in a subversion, dehydration ''is'' a concern.

** ''VideoGame/MarioKart7'': Shy Guy Bazaar an ArabianNightsDays version of this setting, as it features palatial buildings and references to the Arabian-inspired ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' (such as flying carpets, Cobrats and drawings of Phanto). There's also Kalimari Desert, which returns from ''Mario Kart 64'' and serves as TheWildWest equivalent.
** ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'': Special Cup has Bone-Dry Dunes, complete with [[SandIsWater rivers of sand and even sand fountains]] you can bounce off of. Banana Cup has Dry Dry Desert from ''Double Dash!!'', which is a bit less dry than before, now featuring an oasis where the players drive underwater, passing over underwater jets similar to the pipes in Dolphin Shoals. Lastly, the DLC of ''8 Deluxe'' brings back Kalimari Desert, which now features a lap where the drivers have to go through the train's tracks (this is also the case for the second version of this track in ''VideoGame/MarioKartTour'').

* ''VideoGame/U.N. Squadron'' has a desert level with a land-based aircraft carrier as the level's Boss.

* ''[[VideoGame/U.N. Squadron]]'' has a desert level with a land-based aircraft carrier as the level's Boss.

* ''[[VideoGame/ U.N.Squadron]]'' has a desert level with a land-based aircraft carrier as the level's Boss.

* ''[[VideoGame/U.N.Squadron]]'' has a desert level with a land-based aircraft carrier as the level's Boss.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': The southwestern section of Hyrule is comprised of the Gerudo desert, to which the [[OneGenderRace Gerudo race]] has returned for the first time since ''Ocarina of Time''. During the day, the environment becomes very hot, requiring you to prepare accordingly (whether via heat-reducing elixirs or equipment). At night, however, the temperature drops dramatically, requiring you to account for that if you're taking long treks through the wastelands.

* ''VideoGame/{{Ultrakill}}'' has the entirety of the Greed layer, with sand as far as the eye can see and sandstone buildings (and ''the Statue of Liberty'') dotting the landscape. To add to this, the second phase of the layer boss is a GetBackHereBoss fight with the both of you sliding down a huge pyramid.

* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansionSeries'':

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

* ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' has two of these. Fairly early in the game, during the trip from Threed to Fourside, your bus gets held up by a traffic jam in the middle of the Dusty Dunes Desert, where one has to watch out for poisonous insects and heatstroke. Later, your party takes a trip to the Egypt-themed Scaraba, which comes complete with haunted, mummy-infested ruins. Downplayed through an obvious AntiFrustrationFeature as the party doesn't suffer heatstroke in Scaraba itself. Only when they enter the nearby desert do they start to feel the heat. ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER1}}'' gave the music to Dusty Dunes Desert in its own desert area, the Yucca Desert. Then in ''VideoGame/Mother3'' comes the Death Desert, which Salsa has to guide Fassad through, much against his will.