Project Sylpheed, a complete overhaul of the classic Silpheed shooter series, is coming to our shores for the Xbox360 -- that's right, 360-ownin' shooter fans, we're getting something that looks fun and gloriously pretty this summer. Rejoyce! 

By the looks of the screens (which you can dig in the gallery), however, it seems to be taking the Silpheed series in an altogether different direction -- a full 3D space flyer/shooter in the vein of Star Fox (at least, the off-rails bits) and Descent: Freespace. For me, this is great news -- the best of both worlds, if you will. Developed by legendary badasses at Game Arts and published by Square Enix, Project Sylpheed looks to be the kind of game to fill a hole that has plagued console gaming for the past two generations: space combat sims. Hell, I still bust out my copies of Colony Wars every now and then, but Sylpheed looks like it'll do nicely.

Project Sylpheed is set for release on July 10 for the tidy sum of $39.99 -- hopefully it'll be worth every penny. Check out the screens in the gallery below, and hit the jump for the press snippet from Microsoft. 

 

Reminiscent of summer days spent hunched-over a coin-op machine in a dark arcade, "Project Sylpheed" is a 3-D makeover of the classic, mid-'80s scrolling shooter franchise "Silpheed." Developed exclusively for the Xbox 360 by Game Arts and Seta Corporation for Square Enix, developers of the legendary "Final Fantasy" franchise, "Project Sylpheed" launches players through an exhilarating space combat experience driven by a deep, multilayered storyline. Feast on more than 50 minutes of visually stunning Japanese CG animation footage that propels the engaging story forward between space combat missions. As Katana Faraway, players must pilot a Delta Saber space fighter equipped with a highly customizable arsenal of weapons. In order to succeed, players must execute squadron commands and monitor their speed, shield, radar and weapons as they maneuver out of challenging situations and defend Earth against the evil ADAN forces.