Publisher talks up new TrackMania game for DS
All the fun of the track designer will be crammed into the handheld
There was talk of TrackMania coming to DS back in December when the game's name sprung up on publisher Focus Home Interactive's website.
And confirmed details of the title have now emerged, including the news it's in development with the studio behind the excellent Race Driver: Create & Race for DS: Firebrand.
As expected, the game includes similar track design options to the original PC release it's based on. So expect to be able to create tracks with all manner of jumps, loops and turbo pads before going on to try everything out yourself.
It's sounding like the game will take a more mainstream approach than Create and Race, with Focus emphasising it won't be a hardcore driving simulation and that it'll fit well on the more casual-gamer dominated DS.
However, it still promises races at mind-blowing speeds and hundreds of different design blocks in the track creator to ensure near infinite replayability – if true, races will be as easy or as tough as you fancy designing them.
Studio Firebrand apparently contains plenty of members of the team who are true TrackMania fans and were chosen for the project as much for this as for the studio's experience in the genre.
All in all, it sounds like a promising partnership, with TrackMania on PC being one of those games that grew in popularity not as a result of a huge marketing campaign but mostly on the basis of its entertaining gameplay.
The DS game's official website can be found here and the release is currently scheduled for this winter.
