New details announced for Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable

We were pretty excited with the announcement of Earth Defense Force 3 for the PS Vita earlier this summer.

With plenty of alien bugs to kill and multiplayer support, the PS Vita port of Earth Defense Force 2017 looked like a great game to give the Vita's sluggish sales a proper shot in the arm.

D3Publisher took to the PlayStation blog this week to share some new details about the upcoming sci-fi shooter that should be available for the Vita this winter.

To begin, D3Publisher was quick to note that the core action arcade gameplay of Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable would be nearly identical to that of the 2007 Xbox release of Earth Defense Force 2017.

The Vita version, however, will have plenty of additions like new missions and weapons, along with a new unlockable playable character - Pale Wing from Earth Defense Force 2 - that will make it feel like and play like an entirely new title.

Yet the biggest announcement from D3Publisher's post concerned the game's multiplayer modes.

We already knew that Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable would feature a 4-player co-op mode, but it now revealed that it will also support a 4-player PVP mode and will allow players to chat with their friends while in combat.

Although D3Publisher confirmed that Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable would land on the PS Vita 'this winter' for North America, it did not specify when - or if - it would come to Europe.