GameWatch Japan has a new preview of Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception for the PSP. The PSP continuation of the fighter jet series is scheduled to hit Japan in Fall 2006, and the new screenshots look exceptional for a PSP game. As previously announced, the game will support multi-player combat utilizing ad hoc wireless networking. GameWatch has new screens of the multi-player interface. The screen-shots show off six possible base multi-player modes, with a “random” setting for quick play. Drilling down into the game modes shows a large set of configurable options for each basic online play mode, so the PSP should provide a large selection of battle types. Furthermore, it looks like a combination of 4 live players and 4 AI bots can be combined into two teams for battle, and plane type and ammunition payloads can be configured individually as well.

The fictional plane XFA-27, featured in Ace Combat 2, will make its appearance in the PSP release, and it will be joined by another Namco creation, the XFA-24A Apalis. Real-life planes shown in the preview include the Su-27 Flanker, the Eurofighter Typhoon , the F-5E Tiger II, and the Mitsubishi F-1.

With the large selection of planes, the abundance of multi-player modes (though sadly, infrastructure mode support has not been announced), and great graphical detail, this looks to be a worthy addition to the Ace Combat franchise.