After receiving my Club Nintendo calendar, it got me thinking about the other cool stuff that I could buy in the Rewards section of the website. I headed over to club.nintendo.com, and found myself faced with a few things that maybe piqued my interest, but nothing that I was overly excited about. Some posters, game cases, and the like. Then, out of curiosity I headed over to other Club Nintendo’s around the world. I was shocked at the amount of awesome stuff that people outside of North America are offered for their points! The following is a recounting a summary of some of the cool stuff currently available on various Clubs around the world, including Japan, United Kingdom, South Africa, and Australia.
MUSIC
The first, and possibly one of the coolest things I noticed on the foreign stores was the array of music available from Club Nintendo. Sure, if you like to sail the seven seas of the Internet in your pirate ship you could probably find some of these albums, but I for one would LOVE to have these available in the North American store. There is also no reason to let these be available for the entire world. Don’t feel like you have to burn CDs, Nintendo. Have us pay the points then forward us to a page where we can download them, or better yet, give us a code that we can plug into iTunes. That way you can make your music available for paid download as well. For someone who frequents OCRemix for my video game music fix, I would spend A TON of my points on music.
APPARREL
Who wouldn’t love to sport that sweet Wii Music shirt?! Alright, so neither would I, but the idea to have some great t-shirts, hats, and even sweat rags is another great thing I would like to see. Now lets make clear that I’m fully aware that the North American market is Nintendo’s largest audience, and to have these made may be too big of an investment for them to justify. Then again, why not just create a limited number of each item (eg. a New Super Mario Bros hat), offer it until it sells out, and have another t-shirt ready for the site.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
Finally, I want to cover just a few more of the cool stuff that we in North America have not been offered. First, in Japan, Club Nintendo members have the option of custom-made business cards sporting their Mii. Not so good for the business world, but cool none-the-less.
Second, the awesome statue of Link and Epona. I would LOVE to put this thing on my shelf for all to see.
Third…a DS?! On Club Nintendo?! Granted, this DS Lite is a TON of points (this Club Nintendo had it running at 30,000 points, though I think their system is different than North America (more on that later). A special edition DSi, Wii controller, or the like could something great for hardcore Nintendo fans to strive for.
Which brings me to my last item on the list. This Super Famicom Classic Controller for Wii was a 2008 Platinum Members. North American Club Nintendo members would LOVE some special edition hardware, and just seeing this thing makes me drool. Very very cool. (Old news, I know, but worth reflecting back on)
ROUND ONE IS UP, ON TO ROUND TWO!
I don’t want to present all this stuff to bring on the rage to Nintendo of America. In fact, quite the opposite. This first year of Club Nintendo in North America has been a good test round, and although Doc Louis’ Punch Out was essentially a demo for the full version of the game, the rewards were nice and my desk calendar is now placed lovingly on my desk. As time moves on, I think we can hope for some of these greater options in the future. For now, I’m saving my points for when Nintendo pulls out something actually worth spending them on…unless I give in and buy the Game & Watch Collection that is no longer out of stock.
