The folks over at Gaming Target have gotten an early glimpse into Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell franchise for the PSP. Will it live up to its predecessors? According to the write-up, it’s definitely a step in the right direction and is looking to be one of the best espionage games to come to portable gaming in a while. In this new release from Ubisoft, you will experience all-new missions and objective exclusive to the PSP system, and discover the untold story of Sam Fisher through flashbacks to various missions from the entire Splinter Cell franchise when Essentials comes out of hiding in March.

When it comes to the way Splinter Cell Essentials is played, there is good news and bad news. The bad news is that Splinter Cell Essentials will not be featuring any major revolutions to the old system of sneaking and stalking that the original three Splinter Cell titles have established. That said the good news is that everything established in those games is alive and well in Splinter Cell Essentials. The game will play out almost identically to the other Splinter Cells with the only real difference being the way the camera is moved. Since there is only one analog stick on the PSP, the player will have to keep Sam standing still to readjust the camera. Otherwise, all of Sam’s moves are intact as well as all of his weapons and gadgets from previous series. All of Sam’s moves are easy enough to pull off on the limited PSP controller so that the controls shouldn’t be an issue during the trickier parts of the game.

Splinter Cell Essentials is looking like a tight package. While it won’t replace the greatness of its console brethren, it is definitely shaping up to be the best portable espionage title this side of the Game Boy Color, and it really is about time.