For years, those lucky Nintendophiles in Japan have had the pleasure of using the Club Nintendo program.  Basically what it boiled down to was that you register all of your first-party Nintendo tiles, and in turn you can spend those credits on interesting prizes.  Makes sense right?  So many people throw every bit of cash into their system, it’s nice to get a little something back.  After Japan had Club Nintendo for so long, America and many other regions (including Europe) were finally introduced to the program back in 2008 (Started here in America on Dec. 15).  I know this program isn’t new or anything, but the purpose of this post is to shine light on how the system works for those who are curious.

After reading up on it, I saw that the club runs on a year-by-year basis.  What does that mean exactly?  Well, They give you from July 1st to June 30th (of the next year) to save up as many credits as possible.  If you have not spent everything, and have either a Gold or Platinum membership, by June 30th, you will get a special prize from Nintendo.  Newcomers, keep in mind that on July 1, 2010, your credits will be reset to 0!  Platinum Members this year had the choice of getting Doc Louis’s Punch-Out!! in the form of DLC, and my personal favorite, a life-size Mario Hat.  I am a HUGE fan of Punch-Out!!, but don’t see the point in spending 600 pts. for one fight…unless Doc has some sort of chocolate bar attack.  For members that only have Gold Memberships by June 30th, they are mailed a Club Nintendo 2010 calendar, which still isn’t too shabby.

—

Breaking down the points system:

DS Games – 30 pts./each

Wii Games -50 pts./each

Wii Shop Channel Games/Wii Channels – 10 pts./each.

—

300 pts. – Gold

600 pts. – Platinum

—

mmm...nostalgia.

It’s nice that we finally have Club Nintendo…it’s just a pain in the butt that that our prizes aren’t as good as Japan’s.  I mean, I hate sounding like a whiny brat, but it’s true, their prizes are even cooler.  My favorite Japanese prize has to be the Super Nintendo controller that hooks into the WiiMote (much more comfortable than the Classic Controller.)  The gold-plated Wii-Wheel wasn’t anything to write home about…so I guess they have a few stinkers in the club as well.  I must admit though, we had the Game and Watch Collection for Nintendo DS (was available for 800 pts and ONLY available in the club).  If you can keep this gem in shrink wrap, it may be worth some money down the road…or sell on ebay for a pretty penny at this very moment.

It’s a shame I didn’t have any points by June 30th of this year, so I just started registering games and I am currently up to 300 pts.  Won’t take long to get to Platinum with titles like Wii Sports Resort, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Metroid Prime Trilogy, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 on the horizon.  For anybody that owns a DS or Wii, it would be stupid not to register all of those games and maybe get a little something back…it’s just a shame you can’t get credits for your old Gamecube games.  I’ll post the link, so hopefully people can get onto registering before the Club Nintendo year is up!

-Club Nintendo offical site

Other cool stuff: