When USK, Germany’s version of the ESRB and PEGI games software ratings organisations, recently gave a rating to Hudson’s popular iPhone tower defence game Elemental Monster, labelling it as a PSP game, it sparked a whole host of rumours on games sites all over the web that Elemental Monster TD was about to be released as a mini. There has already been confirmation elsewhere on the internet that Elemental Monster TD is due to be released on the PSN for PSP in Japan on October 30^th.

Although the game has yet to be confirmed by Hudson as a mini, the signs look good. Essentially, with Elemental Monster TD being an iPhone app, it looks unlikely that it would be appearing on the PSP (as confirmed by USK) as anything other than a mini.

If this is the case, then we can look forward to a colourful trading-card battling game similar to the likes of Yu-Gi-Oh!, with the main difference being that Elemental Monster is also a tower defence game, whereby you use your cards to defend your base against attacks from enemy monsters.

50 beautifully designed cards are featured in the game, depicting all sorts of mythical monsters. Some of them are imbued with special power ups to use against the enemy or to bolster your own forces. With five stages, featuring four modes each, as well as a virtual card shop where you will be able to buy specific cards after defeating a certain number of monsters, there seems to be a lot of depth to the gameplay, and I for one will be looking forward to this being a mini.

It certainly seems to get good ratings as an iPhone app, although judging by some of the comments on the UK iTunes site some people think it’s a little complicated. This tends to be the way with card battling games though: Yu-Gi-Oh! can get pretty hardcore too, and card battling games in general are an acquired taste. Generally speaking though, I like the idea of mixing card battling with tower defence, and the graphics look fantastic judging  by the screenshots and video.

To learn more about the game, check out the official page at Hudson.