Star Wars opens new PSP Battlefront

After taking 2006 off, LucasArts' Star Wars: Battlefront series of shooters is returning in 2007, but only on the PlayStation Portable. The publisher today announced that it will release Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron exclusively for Sony's handheld this fall.

As the only new entry in the series this year, Renegade Squadron will introduce a new character-customization system. Instead of picking from a lineup of regimented character classes, players will be able to tailor their character's weapons, abilities, and equipment to their liking. Renegade Squadron will also be playable online in battles of up to 16 players, so players will be able to pit their customized characters against others' to see which combinations work best.

LucasArts is also adding a new story for the single-player campaign mode, with the Renegade Squadron of the title being a secret group of shady characters running missions for the Rebel Alliance under the command of Han Solo. Battles will take place in a number of settings that should be familiar to fans of the space opera, with mission objectives including sabotage, rescue, and retrieval.

Development on Renegade Squadron is being entrusted to Rebellion, the outfit behind the PSP games Gun Showdown and Miami Vice: The Game. Previous entries in the Battlefront series were developed by Pandemic Studios (Mercenaries, Destroy All Humans!).