Rockstar Games have given more information on their first ever DS title revealed at E3 ’08 – Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.

Alongside the official box art above a worldwide release date of March 2009 was given; the official site is still bare bones but Rockstar are promising to follow this up with more info soon.

Gamespot and several online gaming sites have found leaked magazine scans of an interview with Rockstar Games vice president Dan Houser for details concerning GTA on the DS and it’s M rating.

Huang Lee is our new protagonist, a feisty Triad member on a quest for vengeance through a slimmed down Liberty City taken from the latest GTA IV. Houser mentioned a drug dealing mini game within Chinatown Wars, confirming they’re not holding anything back on the Nintendo console but improving on a traditional formula with reworked gameplay focusing on police car disarmament over escaping, and being able to restart missions mid-way to abolish the old retry and repeat method.

Chinatown Wars will use a top-down 3D perspective on the third person action, hopefully at a frame rate the DS can handle in high speed car chases. The top screen of the DS is reported to host the main game action while the bottom touch screen will serve a menu interface in the form of a PDA. Triad gang members can be recruited and painted with the touch screen tattoo system to add a little more DS flair to a mature GTA affair.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is looking very promising on the DS. The style of game Rockstar are suggesting seems quite suited to the console but the question is if the DS is up to running it. GTA can tend to pack a lot of action in certain points so here’s hoping that Rockstar can continue the series shine of excellence onto yet another platform.