Although I haven’t actually ever got round to seeing two out of the six Star Wars films (Jar Jar Binks kind of killed the new trilogy stone dead for me) and despite my only real connection with George Lucas’ monolithic Sci-Fi epic being the occasional urge to run around making pretend lightsaber noises and waving my hands about like a bit of a tool, I’ll readily admit that the whole shebang lends itself to some mightily entertaining video games. Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron proves this point rather well indeed.

This latest PSP effort from the chaps at Rebellion tells the story of a group of ruffians gathered together by Han Solo to battle the Empire. It crams a heck of a lot onto a single PSP UMD too, with some fantastic on-foot and vehicular combat woven together by some really rather beautiful cut-scene art, solid voice talent and epic soundtrack. It’s the kind of game that’ll remind you why you bought your PSP in the first place, and for anyone with more than a passing interest in the whole Star Wars thing it’s a great addition to the huge selection of galactic offerings already on offer.

The game plays itself out – in its main campaign mode – as a series of epic battles in which you control your fully customisable character on foot or in a variety of mechanised death-bringers. The variety of these vehicles, be it the choice between an X, Y or A-Wing, tank or Imperial Walker, packs in plenty of choice for your average gamer, and the rather immense selection of planets and locations you’ll visit keeps you on your toes. One minute you could find yourself sprinting around a dusty desert type area, whilst the next you will find yourself zooming through space picking Tie Fighters out of the sky.

The planet-based levels somewhat resemble territorial online games, with the player being given various objectives to achieve – destroying a weapon, protecting a character and the like - whilst also capturing enemy flag points. Capturing these points gives you a wealth of options much deeper into enemy territory and hence also the upper hand throughout their various escapades, with each captured flag point allowing shuffling of weaponry and equipment to suit whatever particular situation you find yourself in.

Say, for example, your initial task is to wipe out a clutch of Storm Troopers. Starting off at the initial spawn point you would pretty much take a rifle every time and use it to scatter enemy troops like bowling pins. Now this is all fine and dandy-as-a-bitter-shandy, but what happens when you stroll around the corner and discover a massive Imperial Walker strolling toward you, all guns blazing? Your rifle suddenly looks about as useful as a chocolate fireguard.

Hence, having a nearby flag point under your control becomes insanely handy, as these allow you to instantly re-equip yourself with something rather more appropriate, such as a rocket launcher. ‘Hang on you buffoon’, I hear you scream at the top of your collective voices, ‘why not just take a rifle AND a rocket launcher?’ Ah. Ah ha ah. Ha. This is where Renegade Squadron’s system of credit balancing comes in.

Each time you enter battle you are given 100 credits to spend on equipment. Some, such as a standard blaster pistol as a secondary weapon, have no cost. Others, such as some of the more powerful rifles, flame-throwers and rocket launchers are rather expensive, and hence cannot both be taken along for the ride at the same time. It all gets rather tactical and will see you making hectic dashes for flag points in a desperate attempt to capture them before your weaknesses are exposed.

Controlling your little guy through such madness is surprisingly easy and, although a little unwieldy at first, the control system gets the job done. The only slight issue is that the crosshair for shooting is fixed in one position rather than being moveable, meaning that most of the work is done for you by the lock-on system. There is an option to map the shape buttons to manual crosshair movement, but it removes the possibility of lock-on and if anything makes things rather too tricky. It’s a bit of a shame and at times makes things quite easy, but it’s hard to see how it could have been done any other way.

The space battles, meanwhile, do a great job of condensing something epically vast into something that works really quite nicely on the PSP. Zooming around space in the various craft on offer feels fantastic, and getting involved in skirmishes with a bunch of enemy Tie Fighters will get the ol’ pulse racing. One minor quibble raises its head in the way that the auto-targeting system can often leave you spiralling toward the side of an enemy carrier with only a fraction of a second to disengage and navigate yourself away from doom.

Sticking all this together like some glittery glue are some fantastic still-painting type cutscene images. They suit the nature of the story very well, and are backed by some typically sweeping music. The voice acting and sound effects throughout the game are also most definitely up-to-snuff, and the in-game graphics are pleasingly colourful and run smoothly. Technically, Battlefront II ticks a lot of the right boxes with big green happy ticks, and the storyline is an interesting addition to the Star Wars canon.

But the best bit, and I mean the best bit, is that all the above fun is also translated into a fully functioning, smooth online battle experience. Not only this, but it’s possible for 16 players to battle it out across the many various game types and levels packed in, which as you can imagine is pretty darned swell. It becomes even more swell when you realise that it’s virtually lag-free and insanely addictive into the bargain. For those with tons of rich pals it’s also possible to go ad-hoc and play 8-player games with the same options.

This all obviously greatly adds to the value of the package, making it a pretty nifty purchase indeed. Anyone with a bit of a craving for fast-paced combat action or a Star Wars title that is – gasp – actually rather good indeed will find themselves getting a lot out of Renegade Squadron, as will people who are falling a bit foul of a rather barren PSP release schedule. It scratches quite a few itches, then, and for the time being seems to have stopped me doing my rather inept Luke Skywalker impressions. A good thing on many levels, then!