Rule one when making a Star Wars game: don’t insult the hell out of those who live, breath and die for the franchise, because that particular gang is likely to kill you. So, having a main character in a Star Wars game state, “Solo might not shoot first when it comes to bounty hunters…” is a giant recipe for disaster. You’re about to open a can of worms that will go off a bit like a thermal detonator to your face. Even Mr George Lucas himself is apt to walk around the Indiana Jones IV set these days with a ‘Solo shot first’ T-shirt on. Developer Rebellion should have known better.

A digression, sure, but then, even by just revealing that Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron states that Han didn’t shoot Greedo first, we’ve put a fair portion of potential players off buying it… which is a bit rubbish, really, as it’s not half bad. Shame on you, Rebellion, for forcing us into this position. Okay, let’s turn the silly-ometer off for a moment. No one is killing anyone, and saying Han lost his itchy trigger finger won’t stop people buying Renegade Squadron, the latest in the massively successful Battlefront franchise (one that has sold more than 10 million copies to date since launching in 2004).

Despite being a capture-point multiplayer game in disguise, perhaps the biggest thing Renegade Squadron has going for it is an interesting and intriguing story. Set over the course of the original trilogy, beginning with the evacuation of Yavin 4 and ending with the battle of Endor, it’s a boy’s own war movie set in the Star Wars universe. Told through a beautiful and animated art style similar to those used on the original posters, Renegade Squadron sees a group of ragtag scoundrels, led by Han Solo, carry out a multitude of secret operations throughout the galaxy, with an abundance of dogfights thrown in for good measure, too. It’s not at all deep, and a lot of the animated stuff is crudely done, but it’s the kind of story that really could be expanded into something special. If you can forgive it alluding to Han not shooting first, that is.

But speaking of shooting, Renegade Squadron has clearly studied at the school of Doom – what with you being unable to actually look up and down when you’re on foot. That’s different when you’re dogfighting up in space, but the majority of Renegade Squadron is set down on the ground. And it’s here you’ll see the relatively bad job Rebellion has done covering the fact that, to all intents and purposes, the campaign is just a couple of multiplayer modes bookended by plot. It doesn’t make sense that, even in the face of an epic sci-fisaga dealing with space travel, other worlds and alien races, you would essentially win wars by capturing spawn points and, essentially, ‘the flag’ every now and then. It doesn’t matter how much the developer tries to dress it up: this is offline multiplayer gaming.

But it’s fun and it all works, which is the most important thing here. While the controls arguably plagued Battlefront II on the PSP, Rebellion is fairly adept with the system now, having developed several titles for it. As a result, it’s been able to embrace the PSP as a format – and what it’s learnt certainly helps Renegade Squadron. While not perfect, movement, actions and, in particular, the space stuff control charmingly. You’ll never get to the point where you’re cursing them. In fact, the space stuff is well worth singling out because even the thought of space-based battles on the PSP is a terrifying prospect. But Rebellion makes it work, and dogfighting has the distinct honour of standing out as some of the best stuff in the game.

It’s a little jippy how you just lock on to targets and arbitrarily follow them, meaning you’ll only have to worry about shooting. But it’s so much fun jumping into an X-Wing, taking out a dozen Tie Fighters in some epic space battle, then docking on an enemy ship, blasting some Storm Troopers, before getting back into your X-Wing to take the fight outside. And yes, it all works lovely online.

Unlike Battlefront II, which only supported up to four players via Ad-Hoc, Renegade Squadron enables eight. Play it via infrastructure and you can have up to 16 players duking it out instead. In short, the multiplayer stuff has been greatly expanded and is worth experiencing. There are a number of kinks, but this is the closest the PSP has come to emulating the console versions, and it’s the only game in this series released this year as it is. In that respect, it’s well worth checking out. Factor in a decent story and controls that won’t make you hate your hands, as well as some fun, if uninspired, gameplay, and the developers really have done a good job. One worth commending. Still... shame on them, eh?

Craig Gilmore