It's almost time to start honing your rocket-sliding skills. Sega has announced that a playable demo of its over-the-top Platinum Games and Shinji Mikami developed shooter Vanquish will arrive on the Xbox Live Marketplace and PSN Store on Tuesday, August 31. Europe will get the demo a day later on September 1, with Australian gamers getting their hands on it Thursday, September 2. Famitsu reports (via Siliconera) that Japan will also receive the demo on the 2nd.

The "Vanquish Official Demo: Velocity Attack," as Sega calls the demo, will comprise the section of the game we played at E3 -- a space station interior with bipedal "Walker" mechs to commandeer and an enormous spider-like robot boss to defeat in incredibly stylish ways. (You know, the usual stuff: by grabbing the monstrosity's missile out of the air, turning it around and throwing it back like a giant lance.)