The next installment in the Dragon Quest series is set to hit the Nintendo DS, and only the Nintendo DS (for now?).

Concidered to be one of the most popular fanchises by Japanese gamers, Dragon Quest is a role-playing game, and has been seen on most Nintendo platforms in one form or other, together with Playstation and PS2, and a number of mobile phone iterations.

The new game by Square Enix was hoped by fans of other consoles that it would appear on Xbox 360 or Playstation 3, but was, to their shock, announced for Nintendo DS, being developed by Level 5, will support network play, and be available by the end of 2007.

I can’t wait to get my hands on this little beauty!