Any Nintendo fan should know what Club Nintendo is by now. It’s basically a loyalty program that gives you coins for buying Nintendo consoles and games, you then redeem saved coins for physical merchandise (all or most Club Nintendo exclusive) or downloadable games.
Now every July the accumulation of all the points you gained throughout the year after reaching a certain amount of coins earn you either a Gold or Platinum status that can earn you the coveted Elite Status gifts of the year. Silver is the highest status you can strive for, and the one with the best items.
Well, this year is mostly disappointing.
Let’s start with gifts for Gold which are all available to people who earned Platinum and I don’t recommend them picking out.
Gold Members only have one option for physical merchandise, the Club Nintendo calendar which has been a somewhat proud part of the Club Nintendo tradition. It will have beautiful artwork and promotional images of Nintendo games, some lovely, some much less visually appealing.
Everything else is a downloadable game, some which are beloved classics: Super Smash Bros., WarioWare: D.I.Y. Showcase, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX, Super Mario Land, and Sakura Samurai.
Gold Members should get a downloadable game they’ll enjoy. People who want calendars actively go out to seek a calendar, perhaps they’re cheap one dollar puppy calendars or the really nice expensive import anime calendars that cost a pretty penny. If in your opinion it’s just what you’ve been looking for knock yourself out, but if you get the calendar for the sake of getting a physical item you’ll just lose the opportunity to play a decent game. And in my opinion, no one should suffer seeing Wario’s face for one solid month.
And for those who spend an inhumane amount of money to reach the Platinum status have earned themselves two truly jealousy inducing items.
The first is a three poster set. It features Pikmin 3, the HD release poster for The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, and retro Luigi. The Wind Waker poster is a visual wonder (based on the art for the game’s soundtrack) I could stare at for hours and Luigi wins because he’s Luigi.
And the holy grail of all rewards Club Nintendo is offering this year, a Club Nintendo re-release of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask soundtrack. If you seriously don’t think this is worth getting because you can just download all the songs (probably illegally) online you’re mistaken. Majora’s Mask is probably one of the best games ever released and has an amazing soundtrack to come along with it. You’re getting a physical representation of Shigeru Miyamoto’s soul and a fragment of years of development. All wrapped up in a plastic case embellished with artwork that only reflect a portion of the game the music belongs to. The only way I can see anyone getting the posters over this is the intrinsic value of CDs has been completely lost, or they must really hate the Legend of Zelda for some reason.
