This Old Neon Forum

Kong Wen wrote:I think I'm going to end up going with Game & Wario myself.

LOL, I just realized that will be the third shitty minigame collection that Nintendo has dumped on me for free with this system (Nintendoland with the console, Mario Party U with MK8, and G&W from CN).

But Game & Wario is the best pick by far... if you have a Wii U Deluxe system (it qualifies for points in that promotion of course). The points I earned from that one help give me a $5 credit in the eShop.

Just a reminder to anyone who reached Gold or Platinum status this year: you have until this Friday (15 August) to claim your reward from the Club Nintendo site.

I hope Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D is good, because there aren't a lot of 3DS choices in the Platinum tier.

pdSlooper wrote:I hope Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D is good, because there aren't a lot of 3DS choices in the Platinum tier.

It is pretty good, I think it's a great prize for anyone who hasn't played the game before.

pdSlooper wrote:I hope Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D is good, because there aren't a lot of 3DS choices in the Platinum tier.

I went with this simply because I had no interest in Game and Wario, and the other options seems like a lesser value. I haven't played it yet, but if its anything like the wii version (which I am sure it is), then I will surely enjoy playing it again on the 3DS.

I just logged in to the Nintendo UK website for the first time in years.

The last thing I got from them was Game and Watch Ball. Which was nice but would have been nicer if it hadn't taken me years to accumulate enough stars to get. I believe the last Nintendo product I bought was Pandora's Tower, also a few years back so I haven't accumulated any more.

It looks like their catalogue is largely unchanged. Ball is still the top prize and apart from a few new keyrings and some bags, there's not a lot of new stuff since the last time I checked it.

I was surprised to see that I still have 250 stars given the idiotic and counterproductive policy a few years ago of these "expiring". Of course the age old problem persists that all their cheap tat costs thousands of stars and so is largely unaffordable to anyone...ever (probably why its always the same stock more or less).

I think you NA's are better off with your free games. They seem better value than the cheaply produced tat (Ball being the exception) that UK gamers get for spending a fortune on Nintendo products.

A Beta Fu7ure wrote:Ball is still the top prize and apart from a few new keyrings and some bags, there's not a lot of new stuff since the last time I checked it.

Ball has long disappeared from the North American prize pool. I was disappointed because I had been hoping to snag it.

Just took a look through the European Club Nintendo, I'd say your prizes are much better than ours at the moment. Highlights being Ball, Zelda case, Yoshi Backpack, Mario Galaxy CD, hell I wouldn't even mind having those wrist straps. Also I love those Pikmin fruit keychains, very cute. Better than our whoping 5 physical rewards; two greeting cards, a pouch, a poster, and a Kirby patch set.

We have lots of digital rewards right now, but I wish they weren't all DSiWare/WiiWare/Virtual Console - old games basically. You can redeem stars for Wii/DSi points so it's pretty similar to our free games.

Club Nintendo had some cool prizes back in the day like the Game and Watch stuff, the Giant AR card, and more recently the 3DSXL charging cradle and the gold Nunchuck. Lately it has made up this by offering lots of good promotions like Mario Kart 8's free game, free Pokemon with purchase of a 3DS, buy Fire Emblem and Shin Megami and get $30 ect.

That's true Shoe, we have had some good promos to make up for the lower-quality prizes. I definitely took advantage of the $30 eShop credit and the free game with MK8. Unfortunately I had some points expiring this summer so I had to spend them on a prize, and greeting cards aren't really interesting, so I took the Kirby patches.

Hopefully by the time my points expire next June there will be a better prize for me to liquidate them on.

The Shoemaker wrote:Just took a look through the European Club Nintendo, I'd say your prizes are much better than ours at the moment. Highlights being Ball, Zelda case, Yoshi Backpack, Mario Galaxy CD, hell I wouldn't even mind having those wrist straps. Also I love those Pikmin fruit keychains, very cute. Better than our whoping 5 physical rewards; two greeting cards, a pouch, a poster, and a Kirby patch set.

We have lots of digital rewards right now, but I wish they weren't all DSiWare/WiiWare/Virtual Console - old games basically. You can redeem stars for Wii/DSi points so it's pretty similar to our free games.

Club Nintendo had some cool prizes back in the day like the Game and Watch stuff, the Giant AR card, and more recently the 3DSXL charging cradle and the gold Nunchuck. Lately it has made up this by offering lots of good promotions like Mario Kart 8's free game, free Pokemon with purchase of a 3DS, buy Fire Emblem and Shin Megami and get $30 ect.

Don't be fooled by appearances, Shoe. I don't know how the NA club works but it seems that you guys can at least expect to redeem your coins for gits fairly often.

Club Nintendo in Europe has always been a case of dangling those cherries so high as to be constantly out of reach.

Take that Zelda bag for example. A nice enough looking prize at the "low" end of the chain. To get that you need 6000 stars. To get that you'll need to purchase about 25 first party Wii-U games. That's an expenditure of close to £1000....for a free bag! The same bag is available on ebay right now for a starting price of £6.99!

I appreciate that these are rewards and I'm not suggesting that you should get free stuff all the time but really, I'm supposed to spend a grand to get a free bag? How is that in any way an enticement? Quite frankly for that kind of dough I expect Miyamoto to come around for tea!