Firebrand's Nintendo DS entry in Nadeo's well-received arcade racing franchise TrackMania will fishtail into North American retailers on March 17.

The date was announced by Atlus, which will be handling the title's publishing duties in North America. New screenshots were also released, with the final game said to feature "over 100 tracks geared for blazing fast racing action" and a track editor.

Publisher Focus Home Interactive has passed in a trailer and new screenshots from Firebrand's TrackMania DS, in which the series' trademark track creation system is highlighted. Unveiled earlier this year, the title is set to careen into retailers this fall.

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Focus Home Interactive has announced TrackMania DS, a port of the popular PC arcade-style racer, and released a pair of images which include wee glimpses of the game in action, provided you squint hard enough. Developed by English studio Firebrand, TrackMania DS's debut on the handheld is said to feature the same frantic racing as the PC version, including a track editor that allows players to create courses from hundreds of different design blocks. The game will support both single-player and multiplayer racing, but no further information was mentioned in the release.

Rumors of the port surfaced when publisher Focus Home Interactive mentioned the title in a blurb on the official website of a publisher-oriented industry event. TrackMania DS is scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Nadeo's well-received TrackMania series of PC racing games will see an iteration on Nintendo DS, according to a slightly tweaked version of publisher Focus Home Interactive's media blurb on the official website of publisher-oriented event Game Connection.

The relevant passage reads, "The coming months will be exciting and full of surprises with the release of highly awaited games such as Blood Bowl, TrackMania DS, Runaway on DS and Wii, or even sport games dedicated to major events such as the Tour de France." (Emphasis added)

There has been no official announcement of the game. Shacknews founder Steve Gibson, who recently purchased a Nintendo DS and is known to go weak in the knees at the mention of TrackMania, has yet to be informed of today's news.

Update: It appears the previously-embedded trailer is illegitimate!