Namco today announced Bounty Hounds, a sci-fi-themed third-person PSP shooter with a heavy emphasis on combat and more than 500 different weapons, armor, and items for players to play with.

In a far-flung future where humans both roam the galaxy in search of inhabitable planets and wage war against the alien ETI (extraterrestrial intelligence), who have their own ideas about interplanetary colonization, players asume the role of the leader of an elite group of mercenaries known as the Bounty Hounds. And it's up to the player to exterminate the alien threat and find a new home for humans.

That task will take gamers across 40 missions filled with more than 40 alien species. Fortunately, the player has some options when it comes to accomplishing the task at hand, because the game lets players dual-wield its many melee and ranged weapons, as well as lets them switch weapons on the fly. Namco's also promising advanced enemy artificial intelligence that will adapt its tactics to the player's weapon choices and health status.

Bounty Hounds will also take advantage of the PSP's wireless capabilities by offering a multiplayer battle mode between two PSPs using only a single UMD. For the less competitive, it will also be possible to download a trial single-player level from another player's PSP.

Developer Xpec is handling the duties on Bounty Hounds. The company's previous efforts have included the Xbox Gauntlet-clone Black Stone: Magic & Steel and the soon-to-be-released GameCube platformer Hello Kitty: Roller Rescue. Bounty Hounds is scheduled for a fall release in North America.