Star Wars games are a mixed bag really; for every great title there is something that stinks like Yoda after years spent rooting around in the fetid swamps of Dagobah.
One game that falls largely into the former category is
Star Wars Battlefront II. Unfortunately, the
PSP version felt like a rushed port, no doubt due to a pressured release deadline tied to it being a launch title. The game also suffered a blow from having a meagre four-player ad hoc multiplayer mode rather than a full-blown online mode, leaving us feeling a tad out of touch with the force.
All of these follies are something that LucasArts is hopefully going to avoid in the latest instalment of the series, especially since
Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron is a PSP exclusive. We're quietly confident that with the development emphasis being placed squarely on PSP alone, the game should be optimised for the Sony handheld.
Unlike the last PSP
Battlefront game,
Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron includes a full-on 16-player online multiplayer option as well as eight-player ad hoc blasting. The title also promises to feature a heavy customisation element to help spice up the multiplayer battles, which sound as though they are very much the focus this time.
That's not to say that there's not a fully-featured single-player campaign. The storyline goes something like this: the Empire (they're the bad guys) are causing all sorts of bother for the Rebel Alliance (the good guys). Playing as Han Solo and his merry band of intergalactic miscreants (that'll be the Renegade Squadron), it's your job to undertake various missions of sabotage, rescue and retrieval, all in the name of thwarting the evil Empire's attempts at being a stellar pain in the behind.
This will involve not only all manner of ground vehicles such as renegade T4-B heavy tanks and mountable carrion, but also a bit of space combat, with B-wings and TIE Defenders making for some tense dog fights.
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