LucasArts confirms new Battlefront game

LucasArts has officially unveiled the Battlefront: Elite Squadron game for DS and PSP that was listed the ESRB site last week. The game will be out this autumn.

Elite Squadron lets players fight on the ground and air during the same battle, which is apparently a first for the Battlefront series. You might start on foot, for example, and then jump in a speeder or fly a spaceship up to a battleship, hop out, and run around causing mischief.

The story spans the entire Star Wars saga and introduces a new chap called X2, who's a clone. But he's made from Jedi Master DNA and was designed to wipe out users of the Light Side, although he's had a change of synthetic-heart and now wants to be a good guy. His brother X1, however, still campaigns for the evil Empire, which probably means there will be a confrontation somewhere down the line.

We're told the PSP version can support an impressive 16 players online and has a deep level of customisation where heroes can be created and not only their weapons, armour and items chosen, but also their species, gender, appearance and physical strength.

The DS version, on the other hand, supports only four players online and has pre-made characters split into classes to choose from.

Still, both apparently have access to the Heroes and Villains mode, which lets us play as familiar faces from the films and videogames like The Force Unleashed and pummel the snot out of each other.

The PSP version looks quite clean, judging by the first screenshots, whereas the DS offering appears squashed, a bit like an Ewok.