Club Nintendo Goes Live

AKAImBatman writes "Nintendo has launched their new North American Club Nintendo service that allows customers to earn 'coins' for purchasing Nintendo products. Coins can then be redeemed for items like exclusive DS games, playing cards, Wii Remote holders, DS cases, and other Nintendo branded items. Points are earned by registering Wii games (50 points), DS games (30 points), or by purchasing Wii Shop items (10 points) after your Wii Shop account has been linked to your Club Nintendo account. Users may link their account under the 'Settings' area of the Wii Shop channel. Prices range from 300 coins for a Wii Remote holder to 800 coins for the Game & Watch Collection for the Nintendo DS."

Link is wrong

[AKAImBatman]

Here's the link I originally submitted: http://www.wiimedia.com/news/view/club_nintendo_goes_live/ [wiimedia.com]

The information is more or less the same, but Ars takes a very negative view on the service and the issues they're having.

little dissapointing

[grendel03]

The Japanese version of this has much more interesting rewards. I know the Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack was offered. There were limited edition DS's (just a special skin) and I can't remember what else.

  Hopefully I'll be able to add the rest of my wii/ds games and the consoles. It's kinda weird how the eligible games are picked. I bought my Wii on launch day with Twilight Princess and Excite Truck but only TP was eligible.

Re:Less than I'd hoped for.

[MagicM]

Coins don't reset every year. Gold/Platinum status resets every year. Coins expire between 2 and 3 years.
From the FAQ [nintendo.com], Coins and Status (Gold, Platinum):

Gold or Platinum status is based on the number of Coins earned in a Club Nintendo year. Each Club Nintendo year begins on July 1 and ends on June 30. If you earn 300 Coins during a Club Nintendo year you will reach Gold status. Earn 600 Coins during a Club Nintendo year and reach Platinum status! [...] Your status will reset annually on June 30.

Unredeemed Coins will expire two (2) full Club Nintendo years (July 1 - June 30), plus whatever is left in the current Club Nintendo year, after they are earned.

Warning: Nintendo might screw you in the long run

[FornaxChemica]

That's not entirely true. There are many interesting prizes, such as games, which are still available, but the problem is that they cost an awful lot of points. Here's the top items that you can buy at the moment in the European Club Nintendo 's Stars Catalogue [nintendo.co.uk] with their sale price in points:

• Gold-like statuette of Link riding Epona [15.000]
• DS cases brown (sold out) / pink [5.500]
• Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising GBA (sold out) [5.000]
• Metroid: Zero Mission [5.000]
• DS Lite Value Pack (Super Mario) [5.000]
• Mario Power Tennis [5.000]
• Kirby and the Amazing Mirror (sold out) [5.000]
• Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack - platinum edition [4.850]

There are many fashion accessories and cute gadgets among the less expensive items; you can also turn your star points into Wii points.

I registered 10 GameCube games since I joined and barely earned 4000 points. I haven't bought games since then and Nintendo did something that is certainly not going to encourage me to change that: this year, they decided that some games people have registered are now too old! So they withdrew the points from our totals, just like that! For me that's 2800 points vaporized. And they plan to do that every year. Imagine if your banker decided that some of the money you have on your account come from salaries that go back too far in time and just took the money away. I feel that's what Nintendo did. You don't take back what you give, that's plain stealing. Besides, this new system favours kids who can spend a lot of money in games and doesn't reward other patient loyal fans. That really didn't help improve the rather negative image that I've been having of Nintendo lately.

So watch out for Nintendo's nasty tricks in the US too!