PSB: What makes a good mobile fighting game? Obviously, playing habits are different in a mobile environment.
EB: The fundamental necessity is quick access to gameplay, whether it?s online or locally. The mobile gaming experience is shorter bites of time. We identified the Challenge Tower as a perfect fit for mobile sessions, so we expanded it greatly for PS Vita. There are actually two Challenge Towers in the PS Vita version, and the new one has 150 challenges that are exclusive to PS Vita. A number of those challenges use PS Vita?s hardware features: the touch screen, the accelerometer?

PSB: So how does a touchscreen come into play in Mortal Kombat?
EB: In terms of gameplay, we?ve always wanted MK to be as accessible as possible. For example, you can touch your X-ray meter to execute an X-ray attack. For fatalities, you can ?slash? the screen with the appropriate inputs ? say, away, away, up ? to execute the fatality. It makes some of the more difficult fatalities easier and it?s fun to slash at your screen to fire off a fatality. I was surprised by how engaging it is.

PSB: Can you shed any light into how the accelerometer or sixaxis motion controls work in the new PS Vita-centric Challenge Tower?
EB: I?ve been asked not to completely reveal all of the details yet?But in the new Challenge Tower, there are challenges that are unique to PS Vita?s capabilities. Over the years we?ve had Test Your Might, Test Your Luck, Test Your Sight?well, we?ve added two completely new ones for PS Vita. We?ll be revealing those soon, and they will take advantage of the accelerometer and other features.

Those extra 150 Challenge Tower missions are tons of fun. Imagine tilting your PS Vita and affecting gravity in the game, things like that?