Imagine this scenario: you're an intergalactic mercenary hired to kill aliens.

In a nutshell, this is the plot of the upcoming game from Namco, Bounty Hounds. Set in the 24th century, you step in the shoes of Maximillian the mercenary. See, humans "have expanded beyond Earth to colonize other planets." Thing is, those "other planets" already have alien inhabitants. So the solution? Obliterate all hostile alien life-forms, or Extraterrestrial Intelligence (ETI), to be exact. As a mercenary, you're going to be the one who has to do all the alien-killing.

In this PSP game, there are about 500 weapons, with various armors to be placed on five different body parts, with four attributes (Heat, Plasma, Bio and Laser) that you could equip your weapons with, and various types of alien enemies that have different attack patterns (some may be the close-range types, while other lug long-range ammo with them).

What makes this game unique is that it was specifically designed for a handheld console, not just a version of other console games made to fit a portable. To ensure this, the developers made a graphics engine "that is optimized for viewing in portable console screens." Players also get to see in-game cut scenes whenever they're aboard the mother ship, Quicksilver, so that they won't lose track of the game's story.

It also features two different multiplayer modes. One is called Game Sharing, where players could download snippets of the game from the net and play against each other. On the other hand, players who have a copy of the game disc could play against each other by hooking up their PSPs.

Players should expect lots of action, smooth controls and various references to previous Namco games. It is scheduled to be released by the end of the year, so you might want to check it out.