We love Atlus Software, the darling publishers of cult favorites like Etrian Odyssey and Odin Sphere in North America. The company recently announced that they will be bringing a localization of Irem’s R-Type Tactics to US shores, under the inspiring new moniker R-Type Command.

Like a number of other PSP titles, this game takes the established space shooter genre in an entirely new direction, veering into turn-based strategy for the first time. On one hand, this is somewhat of a disappointment given the relative lack of solid space SHMUPS on the PSP. On the other hand, no-one can accuse Irem of releasing an uninspired or unoriginal game, since Command has been designed from the bottom up to fit the particular strengths of the PSP platform. Early reviews from Japan suggest that the company has been more or less successful at making this transition from action to strategy gameplay. The notoriousy hard-to-please Famitsu Magazine rated R-type Tactics a solid 31/40 when they reviewed the game back in September.

If you are intrigued by the tactical gameplay challenges of R-type Command, you have nothing to lose by downloading the free demo of the game, which was released today on the Playstation Store. You can grab a copy of the demo, weighing in at 119 MB HERE.