Club Nintendo rolls out a digital line-up of Elite Status rewards

093-Club Nintendo Elite Rewards 2014

Club Nintendo’s 2014 selection of Elite Status rewards is available to peruse now. If you were able to reach Gold or Platinum status on the service during the year starting July 1, 2013, these rewards are available…right now, in fact, as a downloadable game of your choice. Click here to sign in to the Club and find out whether one of these games will be yours soon:

Platinum Members Only

  • Game & Wario (Wii U)
  • NES Remix (Wii U)
  • Earthbound (Wii U)
  • Dr. Luigi (Wii U)
  • Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (3DS)
  • Fluidity: Spin Cycle (3DS)
  • Dillon’s Rolling Western (3DS)
  • Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move (3DS)

Gold/Platinum Members

  • Ice Climber (Wii U)
  • Kid Icarus (Wii U)
  • Super Mario Bros. (Wii U)
  • Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
  • Donkey Kong 3 (3DS)
  • Wario Land 2 (3DS)
  • Metroid (3DS)
  • Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (3DS)

This is a drastic departure from what we’ve come to expect on Club Nintendo, in terms of Gold/Platinum rewards. Previous Elite Status rewards were always physical and included desk calenders, playing cards, posters, official soundtracks, and more in recent years. Club Nintendo has offered digital games as normal rewards for a while now, but this still comes as a surprise to me. And it’s not exactly a happy surprise. Club Nintendo should be about exclusive, physical goodies that fans will collect and cherish in a way they don’t necessarily cherish their game collection.

This move combined with Club Nintendo’s currently poor selection of regular physical rewards has me worried. What are your thoughts on the subject? Leave your comments below.

Thanks to Anthony DeVirgilis for the tip.

In addition to being a girl gamer, Holly prides herself on being a red-head. Consequently, the blue shell in the Mario Kart series is her natural enemy. Don't worry, though: she still loves Mario Kart and is very good, despite the occasional blue shell-sabotaged race. Like any Nintendo fan, Holly also loves Zelda, Pokemon, Mario, Donkey Kong, Metroid, Kirby...you name it. But she'll try just about anything (besides horror games) and has a soft spot for unique, little-known rhythm games like Rhythm Heaven and Samba de Amigo. NNID: Aeroweth