Having already spoken about two previous Star Wars games, the last one we bring to your attention is an exclusive title heading to the PSP this September. Star Wars Battlefront Renegade Squadron brings the highly successful Battlefront series to the PSP again, but this time it has been made a whole lot better.

Lucas Arts were very quick to point out that now, all the epic battles you played before on the consoles can be played anytime, anywhere. That’s the beauty of a handheld system, and it was why they chose to bring the Battlefront series to the PSP in the first place. Now, they hope to go one better than last time’s outing and create an even better game this time round.

There promises to be a deep storyline for the single player aspect. The player is part of the Renegade Squadron, headed up by none other than Han Solo himself. Battles will stretch right across the famous galaxy on missions of sabotage, rescue and retrieval. There will be eleven missions for you to battle through, which will definitely keep you occupied whilst on the train.

Lucas Arts haven’t simply just created another Battlefront game and based it on the previous Battlefront II for PSP. Gone is the class-based system, and in its place is a whole new idea that works brilliantly. Customisation is the order of the day here, and you have the ability to choose the appearance of your character. In a similar vain to Lego Star Wars II, the head, body, and clothes can all be mixed and matched to create a unique character. Not only that, but you get to choose the character’s weapon, specie, speed, health and other attributes that will have a direct affect in the game. This won’t create a huge unbalancing though, as there is a weighted credit system, so you’ll have to upgrade wisely if you want the best character.

Ship control has also been modified. Auto pilot is now possible, meaning taking off and landing can be done for you should you find it a struggle manually. Not only that, but your ship changes colour depending on what colour clothes you wear. Like pink? Well, why not fly a pink TIE Defender then. Yes, there are new ships too. Alongside the TIE Defender, B-wings and A5-R Juggernauts can be utilised too. You can also “fly as heroes” through space, and hop on board of the Millennium Falcon, Darth Vader’s TIE Advanced, Jango and Boba Fett’s Slave I, and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Jedi starfighter.

On land, and things have again been mixed up. New vehicles include T4-B heavy tanks and mountable carrion spats on terra ferma, with new land heroes being Admiral Ackbar, Ben Kenobi (Episode IV), IG-88, Asajj Ventress and Kit Fisto. Fourteen heroes will be returning to Renegade Squadron. New maps too include Ord Mantell, Boz Pity, Korriban, Sullust and Saleucami, plus new space battles at Kessel, Hoth, and the remnants of Alderaan. There will also be a second Hoth map, plus a new interpretation of Endor.

The order of the day is to once again capture command posts, and it is here where customisation really becomes interesting. You can make a super-speedy character to run straight to a command post, capture it and then swap out your character for one that is more suitable for defending, if you so wish. There are so many options, you could create a character for all needs; attacking, running, defending and so on. It’s really up to the player to create characters that match their playing style.

As for multiplayer, that too has been greatly improved. Gone is the four player ad-hoc only methodga, and in its place is a much more expansive system. Up to sixteen players can join in the fighting fun over an infrastructure network, and eight on an ad-hoc setup. Lucas Arts fully intend on supporting players on the infrastructure setup by going all Xbox Live on us, with Leaderboards available and profile pages, which will allow medals to be displayed, their battle statistics viewable and more undisclosed ideas.

Modes returning for the multiplayer will be the ever popular Conquest and Capture the Flag. Capture the Flag, whilst supporting one and two-flag varieties, also offers a little more for gamers, with a new Hero Capture the Flag, where the flag bearer plays as a hero.

The game was briefly demonstrated to us at the presentation, and it did look lovely. No doubt the controls will be a touch difficult to get used to initially, but that’s the fault of the PSP more than Lucas Arts. They have done a splendid job with the game, and graphics and customisation looked great. If you enjoyed the first PSP outing, it’s almost guaranteed you’ll enjoy this even more if this showing is anything to go by.