Nice that Nintendo confirmed it. We already knew about it of coarse since a developer had already said they were working on DS games that would be able to take advantage of the DSi's features when played on a DSi.

So they'll be like early GBC games?

Sounds like what Nintendo did with a few key games when the GBC and the GBA launched.
Remember there were three types of carts?
Regular grey were for Classic Brick GB.
The Black carts were GBC enhanced games that also worked on the Classic Brick GB.
Then the transparent carts were GBC only games.

Link's Awakening DX had the dungeon that you could only access if you were playing on a GBC.
The Zelda Oracle of Ages/Seasons had a shop that could only be accessed if you played the game on the GBA.

There were a couple of other games as well but I can't remember them.

Those are great examples, however I don't think Nintendo made to many games that did that. it was few and far between.

To an extent, Pokemon Red and Blue did it too. If you played them on a Game Boy Color, you were able to get some color in them (even though they were technically Game Boy games, not Game Boy Color games).

Perhaps that was really Super Game Boy compatibility?

I think some games simply triggered special color schemes in the GBC. I'm still annoyed that it couldn't do SGB color though.

It didn't?  I don't think I owned any SGB games to compare.  Come to think of it, I did play Pokemon Blue on my GBC, and I don't recall any color at all.

Go back and play again. You will see that all the buildings have a slight color tint (red in Pokemon Red, blue in Pokemon Blue, yellow in Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition). The Pokemon also had some color and so did other stuff. If wasn't major, but it was there. If you played it on a regular Game Boy everything would be black, white, and shades of gray.

Ha!  I always held the direction for blue tinting at start up, so it's no wonder I never noticed.

Depending on how the original Game Boy game was programmed, it would use anywhere from 4 to 10 different colours when played on the Game Boy Color. Super Mario Land 2 for example, uses six colours on the GBC: white, black, brown, blue, yellow and red. The colour scheme can also be selected by pressing certain combinations of buttons at the "Game Boy" startup screen, and different schemes had a different number of colours. I thought that the games with a special Super Game Boy colour scheme used that as the default scheme on the Game Boy Color, but I don't know for sure. It has been too long.

All of this is vaguely related to the DSi somehow...

Remember how some GB games included special Super Game Boy borders? Those were the days.

Yeah this is just the GBC all over again.  And because of that I figure I'll just wait a few years for the real followup to show up.  The GBC's shelf life was pretty short.

Logically there's really no point in releasing the DSi if they don't do this.  It's a stopgap and that sort of thing usually takes advantage of customers but if you're going to do a stopgap do it full on I guess.

Will Zelda:Spirit Trackers make it 3 in a row? Hmmmm...

Good point about Spirit Trackers, I'll bet there is some dungeon that uses the cameras or pulls data from an SD card or something. You heard it here first ;)
Think making a certain face to unlock doors, or a mean face to stun enemies.

@Ian
Wasn't the GameBoy Pocket a shorts life cycle than the GBC? I remember a friend getting a pocket pretty early on and the GBC was already set to come out. I was unintentionally blunt and told him he should have waited a few months for the color model when he was showing it off to all the kids.

The Game Boy Pocket is to Game Boy as the DSi is to the DS is actually probably a better comparison than the Game Boy Color. The Game Boy Color was actually a hardware upgrade whilst the DSi is just tacking on features like the Game Boy Pocket did (better contrast adjuster, more battery life, used 2 AAA instead of 4 AA batteries).

I thought the DSi actually has better hardware inside like more RAM and a better CPU? The GB pocket is more like the DS Lite.

I didn't hear anything about such upgrades but then again I haven't really been following the DSi.

Did you forget about The Minish Cap? and A Link to the Past/Four Swords.

Agreed.  First, there was the Game Boy.  Then, the Game Boy Pocket was released - smaller, lighter, better screen, but still the same basic hardware.  Then, the Game Boy Color came out - Even better screen, better hardware (faster processor, etc) and games that would only play on it.

First, there was the Nintendo DS.  Then, the Nintendo DS lite was released - smaller, lighter and better screens - but still the same basic hardware.  Then, the Nintendo DSi was announced - Even better screens, better hardware (faster processor, etc) and games that will only play on it.

And Phantom Hourglass - but I think the point was each major hardware iteration was bridged with a Zelda game that was basically fully playable on the old hardware but had something exclusive for those playing it on the new hardware.  Of course, there was no such title for the GBA -> DS.

That would be difficult to accomplish because of the difference in game media. GB/Pocket/Color/Advance were all backwards compatible and used similar cartridge structure. The DS used a completely different media with the proprietary SD cards. Also be reminded that the DS was originally planned as a 'Third Pillar' and they weren't even sure what role or how popular it would be in the first place.

I agree with your comparisons of GB>Pocket>Color vs. DS>Lite>DSi. Good parallel there, UncleBob. Which makes you wonder if the DS 2 will follow a similar convention to the GBA upgrade.

So the DS 2 is just going to be the same as the DSi but with better graphics (perhaps on par with GameCube)? Hooray micro-evolution!

They should have added something to Phantom Hourglass that was a bonus if you played it with one (or more) of the Zelda GBA titles in the GBA Slot.  Hell, there were four of 'em, they should have given you exclusive ship parts or something...

I expected games with DSi features, but I don't see why it would require a new kind of game card (hardware).

I don't think it requires a new type of card  hardware.  It's just that there will be DSi-only games.  Though, I suppose it is possible that the DSi can address more memory and thus take larger-capacity cards.

"New type" doesn't necessarily mean the hardware is designed differently. Could just be cards filled with a new type of data.