TrackMania DS isn't Touchscreen-Heavy

If you were hoping that TrackMania DS would let you race using the touchscreen controls, I bring to you the unfortunate news that it ain’t happenin’. Luckily for the rest of us, developer Firebrand Games isn’t going to force any touchscreen controls on the racing. Anyone who has played TrackMania on PC knows that it’s for the best — the game plays extremely well with the arrow keys on a keyboard, so the DS’ d-pad will certainly be sufficient.

In an interview, Firebrand producer Dan Fletcher explained, “TrackMania DS utilises all the unique features of the DS, such as the two screens and the touch screen, but does so in a way that does not feel forced, but feels great for the player,” explained Firebrand Games producer Dan Fletcher.

“For instance, we have not tried implementing touch controls where they do not fit, such as the race controls – which are all mapped to the D-pad and buttons. Where they do fit naturally, we have implemented them in an intuitive and sensible way; for instance, the Editor is controlled using the touch screen where players can drag and drop track pieces with the stylus or use the DS exclusive ‘Free Draw’ option to draw the path of a track directly on the screen.”

Free Draw sounds awesome, but what I wonder is how complex of levels will you be able to create. My favorite part about the PC games is the insanely crazy levels that players cook up. The technical limits of the DS seem like they might get in the way of creating levels of the same caliber, so we’ll have to wait and see.

via DS Fanboy