Earth Defense Force 4 is still working its way through development, and Sandlot seems to be holding nothing back with the latest in its budget priced giant ant extermination simulator series.

The latest batch of screenshots shows off the wide variety of tools, weapons, and vehicles which are available to the EDF soldiers on the battlefield. You name it, they can use it. Machine guns, turrets, APCs, helicopters, sniper rifles, laser cannons, laser sights, four wheelers, missile launchers, land mines, force fields, and radar spikes. All this stuff even seems to be dropped in via helicopter, meaning you’ll never have to worry about running out of the essentials on the battlefield.

Also showing up in the latest screenshots are the giant robots EDF veterans are all too familiar with. Most gamers recognize the giant ants from the Earth Defense Force games, but long time players will be more than happy to remind you that theses ants merely do the grunt work of distracting you and soaking up bullets. Backing up the ants are giant spiders, flying drones, armless dinosaurs, and, yes, bipedal robots with laser cannons the size of a car strapped to their arms.

These fiends are the true devils of Earth Defense Force‘s Inferno mode, so expect the worst from them.

Earth Defense Force 4 will be shipping in Japan sometime next year for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. D3 Publishers has confirmed they will be bringing Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable to America, so I doubt we will be missing out on this early Game of the Year contender.

[via All Games Beta]

Earth Defense Force 4 Gallery