South Korean games publisher Nexon announced today that they will be bringing their popular PC title, Maple Story, to the DS. Rumors of the game being ported to the handheld have been floating around since last May when David Lee, CEO of Nexon¡¯s Japanese arm, revealed their plans to start developing games with Nintendo.

For the uninitiated, Maple Story is an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) with a twist¨Cit¡¯s presented as a 2D side-scroller with chibi-anime styled characters. While playing the PC version is free, there is a heavy emphasis on purchasing clothing, pets, and other optional items through their online ¡°Cash Shop¡± with real money.

A short trailer for Maple Story DS has been made available, though it doesn¡¯t show much beyond a brief gameplay clip and several energetic girls jumping. We¡¯ve also got photos and videos from the Nintendo Launching Conference event where Korean versions of Brain Training and New Super Mario Bros. were also shown.

While the Nintendo DS Lite will see an official Korean release this January 18th, Maple Story DS won¡¯t arrive until September later this year. There are no plans yet to publish the game in any other territories outside of Korea.

[via 4Color]