Back when the DSi was announced, Nintendo revealed that the new handheld would pack more horsepower under the hood than the DS and Lite. It certainly wasn't the first time the company had released an incremental upgrade to handheld hardware; apart from the obvious color screen, the Game Boy Color was essentially a slightly beefed-up Game Boy, complete with exclusive games to take advantage of its new power.
History is set to repeat itself this fall, as Kotaku is reporting that the first DSi-only retail releases will hit this fall. To set them apart from your run-of-the-mill DS release, the boxes and game cards will be Wii-white, with a big disclaimer that they'll only play on a DSi.
Game Boy Color-exclusive cartridges included larger corners to prevent older Game Boys from booting them, but it's unclear whether there will be any kind of dimension changes for these new ones.
No word yet on what titles will be DSi-only, but keep it tuned to Nintendo Life for more as this develops.
[source kotaku.com]
Comments 39
Let's just hop that if the exclusive DSi-only games use the camera that they are better then the DSiWare WarioWare: Snapped! game.
Hopefully, that take advantage of the better CPU instead.
I doubt upon the different dimensions due to there not being a semi-useless feature on the DS Nitro and Lite that the DSi carts can exploit. (The Game Boys had a natch in order to prevent the game cart from being accidentally removed, but the GameBoy Colour games fill out the whole square.)
Well could we see a picture of the box? Also that's great becuase right about then is when I will be getting a DSi, so yeah! Also as for WarioWare: Snapped, in my opinion, when it worked it was loads of fun, for the Minute it lasted......The Only Problem, the camera only seemed to work about once a day, so that was what ruined it for me!
I'm glad to hear that the boxes will be a different color and have a very clear diclaimer of functionality. Hopefully, that will help cut down on confusion among customers at Gamestop, a consideration I've had it mind for a while as I thought about the possibility of DSi-only games being made. I very much doubt they'll change the form factor of the games at all, though. Like MarkyVigoroth said, there's no real point, whereas there WAS a point with GB/GBC because of cart slot design differences.
Oh beans...Is Nintendo forcing me to buy a DSi before I'm ready? Well, I guess it was bound to happen sometime, but I'm still perfectly happy with my DS Phat atm. Hopefully it won't be anything I'll be wanting to buy on release day, because if it is, I'm not gonna be a very happy customer.
First off; gee it took this site that long just to post this kind of news we already knew about just today?!
Second; I know we all are anxiously awaiting for DSi exclussive cartidges... but hasn't this still been rumored & not yet official!
Third; why would anyone already start thinking about this anyway... Nintendo has to officially give us the word about if it's real or not!
And I end by saying: Who still trusts that stupid Kotaku site or people who claimed their sources about this anyway?! As far I would know; only geeks trust Kotaku! And yes someone had to say it; hate that it was me... but I doubt anyone wants to start this kind of argument already in this comment section!
So PS:
Don't trust anything about DSi exclussive cartridges until Nintendo officially announces it!
Must I state the obvious?! SIGH!!!
@Phoenix: what if GoldenSun is on the DS and DSi maybe you could get extra content with it more spells and abilities you never know eithier way i'm happy for this happening unfortunately after i get New Super Mario Bros Wii and Mario Galaxy 2 i will be done with gaming i'm getting too many sorry to say. i'll turn into a gamestop if i keep going
I can't afford the dsi right now either,but yet I bought a video game the other day.....
@Tails: That's the problem right there: even if it's just little upgrades like that, being the diehard fan of something like Golden Sun will compel me to go out and buy a DSi whether it's really worth it or not.
...Wario Ware: DIY? I hope so!!
Golden Sun DS on the DSi?!!!! That would be awesome!!!!!!!!! Seeing as how I already have one
Maybe this is why Nintendo is taking its sweet-ass time releasing Warioware DIY in America.
There were also many games for the Gameboy Color that were dual mode, meaning they could be played on the original game boys as well, but only monochrome pallets would be loaded. These were the black game boy cartridges to distinguish them from monochrome games. The dedicated Game boy Color cartridges were translucent just like the purple launch units were see-thru. If you had a game boy classic with a broken power tab, or otherwise deliberately forced a Game boy color game into an old game boy, a message on the title screen would be displayed politely informing the user that the game was not compatible with the system. I imagine that a similar message would be employed on DSi-only games.
The game boy advance was a completely different beast, as while the interface was the same, the pinouts and architecture were completely incompatible. The GBA carts had notches on their sides whereas the GB carts didn't; inserting a GB cart into the GBA would depress a special tab inside the unit that activated the GBC circuitry. In the GBA-micro and the DS, a similar notch in the slot prevents insertion of incompatible GB carts.
Assuming we are comparing apples to apples and not apples to oranges, I wonder if there is support for smart "DSi aware" games (like the dual-mode black cartridge GBB/GBC games) that could detect the system type and utilize the enhanced features of the DSi (say using the camera to create in-game avatars or loading background music off the SD card) while still remaining playable on the DS with some features locked? There were a number of Expansion Pak enhanced N64 games that utilized certain levels/ game modes that required the Memory pak, yet the rest of the modes would still be playable without it.
All game carts, packaging will be Wii-white!? Urgggh. While I have nothing against the color white, if it comes down to placing a white cart into my mat-black DSi, the aesthetics of the two together would just clash horribly...
Finally I can colour co-ordinate my cartridges and DSi while I start getting uppity to my friends about how they can't play all these new awesome games on their DS's and R4's.
I wouldn't worry about about DSi spcific titles chocking up shelf space too soon not until Nintendo is ready to realease there more powerful DS succesor.
Cameras: other than shovelware I wouldent expect too many software to make decient use of the cameras.
Double the memory: All the DS games worked fine with only 8MB tbe Lite/Phat has so 8MB ought to be enough for anyone.
SD card slot: I don't really see any need for an SD slot to be used for standard retail games.
Faster WI-FI: All the online games that I have works fine with the lites/phats slower wi-fi even back when we had only dialup so wi-fi isn't a problem.
Now that's all the ehancements sorted out there is no reason to worry as 95% of all upcoming games would work fine within the confines of the older systems & that any DSi's so called enhanced features would really add nothing to the games.
Until Nintendo releases the more powerful DS Successor I would not really worry too much.
@Kawaiipikachu: first: its 4, not 8mb. I do not blame you for the sd card, yet if they make it play your music instead of the regular background/sounds im sold. WI-FI !!! have you seen 85% of wi-fi, THEY RUN OFF OF CHANNEL 7,8, AND 9!!! DS AND DS LITE ONLY RUN ON 6!!!
sorry about that, but its true and so is this.....
THE BEST DS DEVICE CAME OUT!!!! THE WII !!! AND DSi !!!!
sorry again, but nintendo is done making ds systems.... i know "SOB", but we still have not seen Wii, GBA, and GAMECUBE!!!! they CAN become new....
I want Golden Sun DSi!
No list of games? Meh.
There already IS a DS game with special DSi features, actually: Classic Word Games. I've tried it, and granted, it's not very good. But it DOES prove that it can be done, which is worth SOMETHING.
HHmmmm
@Stuffgamer
We know that, but that is a DSi enchanced game, this article is about DSi exclusive games
damn i dreaded when this day would come.. i didnt want to have to buy a dsi...
Great news for me. Will we finally see Mega Man for the Nintendo DSi, among other games?
Hopefully companies are hesitant to make DSi exclusives, and decide that the massive userbase of the older DS's is the way go.
So, what will the boxes look like in Europe? (Since European DS boxes are see-through instead of grey and they are thicker.)
This is bad news
wonder what will make a "DSi" game as opposed to just a DS game. Camera usage?
I already have too many games on my DS "to play" list, so this won't have an effect on me for a while. Probably a year, at least, because I'm dreadfully slow about playing the DS.
While I actually love the fact that the DSi brings more power to the Nintendo handheld, it's not a very customer-friendly way to introduce it. The DSi is not marketed as a "faster" product but, instead, as one with a camera and other gimmicks. To be honest, I really couldn't care less about the DSi's camera or MP3 playback features. If it's faster, and therefore able to deliver games with higher production values, then you've got my ear.
As far as I can see, this stealth increase in performance is going to peeve off more discerning customers than it pleases. Assuming developers put this newfound horsepower to use, we'll see flashier games that Phat/Lite owners are unable to play. That wouldn't be an issue, except that it's not a generational hardware advance, but an incremental one. It just irks me, but I'll continue to play my Lite for the foreseeable future. (mostly because it's kind of a toy to me, not my main gaming platform) My hope (and expectation) is that the DSi-exclusive titles will be minimal and not worth the jump. This is fine, so long as N doesn't pressure devs into adding "just enough" new stuff to make it DSi-only.
Then again, parents will continue to buy this stuff for their kids by the truckload... So what does Nintendo care about a 20-something gamer's perspective... right?
hopefully there arent any major releases on it. $160 is way to pricey for me
The first one is announced! It is called Monster Finder ans comes to Japan first... Check my topic!
https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/ds/1st_dsi_exclusive_game_d#reply-09
i cant come here for news can i? so late....
I honestly hope that the camera feature is not the only distinguishing features of DSi exclusive titles. There is more hardware, why would they put more hardware down? It cannot be for the DSiWare only? Ugg...I would really like to see what the new hardware can do. If they can produce games like FF3/4, Suikoden, ACWW, SM64 and GTA:CW on the limited hardware of the classic, the DSi should demonstrate graphics inline with the PSP and iPhone.
well, finally. i wonder what the changes are though?
@Old School
I think the problem is that the DSi's hardware is not a generational leap, but an incremental one. Instead of being 8-10x more powerful, like a normal console upgrade, it's maybe 2x the CPU and 4x the ram. (and mostly to accommodate the size of DSiWare) We've also got to consider that these multipliers are using small numbers. It's not going from 64mb of ram to 256 or 512, but 4mb to 16mb.
I'd love to be proved wrong though, so we'll see what developers do with the new hardware.
now heres a reason to get a DSi!
I look forward to it. Maybe now the DSi'll get the recognition it deserves.
Great news for me. Will we finally see Mega Man for the Nintendo DSi, among other games?
Facepalm, I doubt it, the DSi exclusive releases will likely be mostly games that can't be done on the older models.
@KillTheHaterzzz post #22: I know that, but some of the discussion in the comments was theorizing on DSi enhanced games, so I gave the info I had on the topic.
@mjc0961: I never tried anything crazy like that, but I think my dad tried to play the GBC Klax on our Super Gameboy once. It had pretty much the same message.
Im thinking a LOT of this is because of the R4 and the insane amount of piracy on the DS. I think thats more the reason the DSi exist now that its been out for awhile. Im not very pleased with it at the moment but Im sure things will turn around.
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