Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable Crawls Onto Vita In January

In just a few years, the world will be under attack by a alien race of giant monsters and bugs. We're going to need soldiers to fight off the creepy, crawly hordes and, thankfully, Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable is primed to give PlayStation Vita owners a chance to hone their alien smashing skills. And now the game has finally been given a U.S. release date, headed Stateside on January 8th.

In just a few weeks, portable gamers the world over will be able to suit up, strap on their favorite weapons and practice some buggy butt-kicking. D3Publisher Assistant Producer Miki Takahashi made the announcement official through the <="" href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/12/20/earth-defense-force-2017-portable-invades-ps-vita-january-8th/?PlayStation">, not only giving Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable a Jan. 8 release date, but also setting the price at $39.99.

As the game's name might imply, the year is 2017 and The Ravagers are attacking the Earth, intent on wiping out all of mankind. In retaliation, the Earth Defense Force is formed, a special group of highly trained soldiers with some sweet weaponry designed for the sole purpose of taking out the alien threat.

While Earth Defense Force 2017 was originally released for the PlayStation 3 back in 2007, this enhanced portable version adds even more weapons to the 150-plus total, new missions, the flying Pale Wing character and, of course, the ability to play co-op or versus with up to three friends.

As a final note, Takahashi says in the Blog post that the game will be available for digital download on the PlayStation Store, but no mention of a physical copy. Here's hoping you got some extra Christmas cash saved up to buy one of those expensive Vita memory cards, because it looks like the only way you'll be able to get your hands on this over-the-top shooter is via download.