It’s not exactly one that rolls off the tongue now, is it? Don’t let the long and somewhat strange name put you off however, as this is a slice of old school pie being served up by Sidequest Studios and Eastasiasoft, with Sony releasing it on the PS Store in about a month’s time.

Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer is very R-Type in its execution, even coming equipped with a cheesy and not very substantial storyline, but we don’t really care about that, do we? Oh, you do…. right. Well, in the not too distant future a global resistance force is set up to attempt to eradicate an infection threatening to kill off all things living or cybernetic, so in steps a cash grabbing mercenary (or bounty hunter, depending on his mood) who just so happens to be flying a prototype ship and becomes our greatest hope in a time of crisis and fearsome peril.

Ok, now that the tacky part is out of the way, let’s get back to the game proper. PC owners have already had a chance to play this scrolling shooter since last December, but the Playstation 3 will be the next port of call with a revised and upgraded version of the game. These enhancements include full Dual Shock/Sixaxis compatibility, loads of graphic and audio improvements and trophy support. It’s also going to have an easier difficulty setting though… I thought left-to-right blasters were MEANT to be kick-a-- hard, but I guess we must all be going soft.

The game itself is spread over 12 stages, which are grouped into 4 worlds. Söldner is in the same vein as not just R-Type, but Gradius as well, with the ability to power up whatever weaponry you choose by collecting items along the way and then deciding when to add things on (there‘s other extras too, but I don‘t want to spoil it for everyone now, do I?). Just to keep all the graphic-happy people amused, this will be available in glorious 1080p.

We’ll be watching this little piece of retro-styled joy with great interest. It’s currently on schedule for an October 2008 release in North America and the other Continents soon after. Let’s hope it shoots along at a fair old pace so we can all have a blast. (Those puns were free. Any more will cost ya..) With luck, we may even get an interview to go with this soon.