Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce coming to PSP

When Koei announces a new game, the odds are it's going to include the words 'Dynasty Warriors' somewhere in the title. That's because the series is Koei's biggest, having sold more than nine million units since its conception and the publisher isn't shy about releasing what feels like about a dozen new versions every year.

The latest of which is Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce for PSP, announced as coming in early 2009. Unusually for a Dynasty Warriors game, this one won't just be one lone warrior against several million enemy soldiers. Instead, it has huge quests up to four players can join together over wireless ad-hoc to fight through. Working as a team (or rather, a 'strikeforce'), players can plan coordinated attacks, confuse their enemies and even lure them into traps.

Another new twist for the series is the introduction of the supernatural. Dynasty Warriors might have always been, to date, a relatively realism-based affair but all that's about to change. While environments feature familiar fortresses, towers and ships, the supernatural abilities of combatants will take the action into the skies.

Yes, not only are they going to be all around you like retail-hungry crowds in a newly opened shopping mall at ground level, but you'll find them streaking across the sky too, and killing them will call for new 'air' fighting techniques.

Other new features for the series include more customisation options for characters, downloadable content, new multiplayer quests and the 'Awakening Gauge' – a replacement to the Musou Gauge which improves your various abilities (and appearance) when triggered. You are also able to equip your character with two weapons (main and sub) which can be powered up using special items.