Earth Defense Force 5 releases on December 11, bringing its stable of more than 100 missions and some insight into the first assaults from the alien menace. Don’t expect those insights to be too deep, though – you’re in the EDF to shoot, not to think!

If you’ve never played Earth Defense Force, here’s the gist: Imagine if those old cheesy sci-fi movies with giant nonsensical monsters had a baby with PlayStation 2-era Armored Core, with loads of environmental destruction and waves upon waves of massive, murderous insects. That’s EDF.

The series hasn’t changed much from its PlayStation 2 roots, but this newest entry has upgraded from Earth Defense Force 2025 on the PS3 and the enhanced 4.1 re-release on the PlayStation 4 where it matters most: weapon and enemy variety, enemy dismemberment, better AI, and improved visuals with less slowdown when things get real crazy.

Check out my review for this baby on Friday, and get ready to toss some money over at D3 Publisher and Sandlot come next Tuesday if this all sounds good to you.

It sounds great to me, especially the couch co-op. Delicious bug-crunching couch co-op. Mmm.