Top shots: The best DS, PSP and mobile shooters at E3

The pocket gaming formats aren't ideal for shooting games. None boast controls on a par with their TV-based brethren, let alone the PC, which makes targeting either difficult or wooly. Smaller screens compound the problem.

On the other hand, you can't take a shotgun onto a bus (at least on this side of the Atlantic), and if you want a quick blast of aggression, we'd rather pocket pot shots to happy slapping. We've therefore scoured E3 to round-up the best upcoming shooters for gunslingers-on-the-go. Games that hit the target

Killzone: Liberation (PSP) This third-person reworking of the PlayStation 2 first-person shooter promises a lot of depth, thanks to a tactical menu enabling you to order troops about as you rescue hostages. But the core gameplay emphasis is firmly on flame-throwing, grenading and rocketing your enemies into submission. You'll also have to use trenches, trees and other cover to survive – neat, since these pseudo-3D games are too often flat affairs. And multiplayer is a blast. More Killzone>>
SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 2 (PSP) The sequel to the best of the not-so-brilliant bunch of PSP shooters, Fireteam Bravo 2 covers all the essentials – guns, ammo, and bikini babes touting machine guns. Okay, not the latter; in fact, given the developer's research with the US Naval Special Warfare Command, we'd be disappointed if this isn't the PSP's most authentic shooter when finished. The game retains the lock-and-fire targeting of the original, but you've also got a teammate to manage and civilians to avoid murdering, so it's no walk in the jungle. More SOCOM>>
Star Fox (DS) If you want to connect blobs, feed dogs or leap over logs, the DS is for you. If you want to blast the blazes out of something, however, you're far less favourably catered for. Thank goodness then for the arrival of Star Fox. Okay, it's hardly gritty urban gunplay – you're a space-faring fox whose best mate is a toad – but the focussed space combat we've so far seen is already the closet DS gets to all-guns-blazing. Star Fox also looks like building on Metroid's work on optimising touch-screen control in a shoot-'em-up (as well as course plotting, it's used here to steer your craft and pull off stunts). More Star Fox>>
Lunar Knights (DS) This just-revealed vampire slayer combines shooting with watching the weather reports – something many of us have fantasized about, but almost a first for games. Almost, because it's descended from Boktai, a quirky Game Boy Advance title which had a built-in light sensor that determined how much firepower you had in-game. Happily for gamers in the rainy UK, in Lunar Knights it's virtual weather on the DS's top-screen that controls your energy levels and thus attack plans on the bottom. As for the gameplay, expect to return the stored energy in spades.
Splinter Cell 4 (Mobile) Alright, so this is as much a stealth-based game as a shooter, but it's one of the best violent mobile games we've seen at E3, and we defy you to finish it without firing a weapon – particularly the harpoon gun in the underwater level! More Splinter Cell 4>>
Star Wars: Imperial Ace (Mobile) The downside: Darth Vader is your boss. The perks of the job – as an elite TIE fighter pilot you get to fly all the fighters in the Imperial battlefleet, from standard TIE fighters to bombers and interceptors, in your quest to crush the rebel scum gathering around the remote planet of Mygeeto. We're still waiting for screenshots; the image to the right is of a model made by a skillful home craftwork enthusiast with a lot of time on his hands, time he doubtless has lots of, living alone and all. More Star Wars: Imperial Ace>>
Space Impact (new N-Gage platform) To conclude in space, this next generation N-Gage shooter plays like an old skool afternoon bunk off session at the pier. But while the preponderance of bullets and the focus on power-ups is a traditional one, Space Impact has some next gen tricks up its sleeve. For instance, completing missions gives you access to over 30 different ship parts, which you can use to modify your Skyblade as you see fit. There are also power-ups you can only get from the N-Gage Arena. More Space Impact>>