One of the marquee titles for Sony's upcoming Vita handheld is Uncharted: Golden Abyss. Developer Bend Studios has decided to take the Uncharted franchise to new territory for its first portable outing, taking advantage of the handheld's many control inputs. For example, Drake now carries a machete which can cut away obstacles by swiping on the touch screen. Gimmicky? Or clever? You can watch the video to decide for yourself.

Interestingly, the Sixaxis functionality from the first Uncharted game makes a return in Golden Abyss. Like in the first game, you'll have to use the gyroscope to balance Drake when he goes across narrow beams. Apparently, it works better on the Vita than it did on the PS3. (We'll see...)

It should go without saying that, at the very least, Uncharted: Golden Abyss is a technical marvel. It'll be interesting to see how far developers will be able to push this hardware in the future. But for now, we wait for a US launch date...