Goodbye Club Nintendo

Today, Nintendo announced that Club Nintendo will be ending this year.

Just what is Club Nintendo? I'm sure there's some of you out there don't know about it. Maybe I'm wrong. But I'll just recap it anyway.

Club Nintendo is a free online service where people can register the Nintendo games they buy and get special coins for doing so. They can redeem these coins for special gifts. Basically, Club Nintendo is a loyalty program for Nintendo fans.

The service started out with lots of physical rewards that you could order and then receive through the mail. NO SHIPPING. In recent years, the service (in North America) has gone to more digital games and less physical rewards. One of the coolest things about Club Nintendo is that if you reach Gold or Platinum level, you are eligible for a free yearly reward. Previous years the Platinum reward was a Bowser statue, a Majora's Mask CD, and other cool stuff. Last year, it was downloadable games. Some of them were pretty cool, like Donkey Kong Country Returns for 3DS. This year, the final year of Club Nintendo, will feature digital games as Gold/Platinum rewards too.

Many people haven't liked that the service has had less and less physical rewards. Also the digital only yearly reward wasn't a big hit either. I was happy last year to get Donkey Kong Country Returns for my mom. This year I'm hoping I can get something for my dad, my mom again or myself. I do like the physical rewards, but it is nice not to have to wait till the end of the year for the reward...

It should be noted that the Nintendo of America Club Nintendo was NEVER as good as the Europe or Japan Club Nintendos. They got CDs and other cool rewards. America, well, we've had some cool stuff in the past, but never quite to the same level. Still, I'm extremely sad to see the service go. I enjoyed answering surveys and getting the occasional cool reward.

There are a few silver linings in this whole thing.

Nintendo will be offering up more physical rewards next month (hopefully some great stuff) so that people can use up their coins.

Also they'll be offering Flip Note Studio 3D for free for all Club Nintendo members. This is an application that a lot of 3DS fans have been wanting for awhile now. So thats pretty cool.

Another thing is that we won't have to wait till July for the yearly Club Nintendo Gold/Platinum rewards to appear. It looks like they will be up in April.

Finally, Nintendo will be replacing Club Nintendo will a new loyalty service. Will it be another free program (I hope) or something like Playstation's Playstation Plus (not sure how I'd feel about that)? We have no idea. Right now, everyone is just guessing. We'll have to wait and see.

So its time to say goodbye to Club Nintendo. Its a very Long Goodbye but its still goodbye. Hopefully its new younger sibling will be just as cool, if not cooler.