I’ve seen the subject get brought up many times since the rewards became available and have heard lots of debates on them. The most common argument being “You should be grateful” versus “This is a rip-off”. I think both are a bit over the top. I think it’s right to be upset/disappointed while still being grateful and while also not necessarily feeling you’ve been “ripped off” (you can’t really be ripped off from a free gift afterall).
Now, I’m going to be honest, I don’t like downloading games. I’ve seen incredibly bad memory problems due to data getting full with no warning and then suddenly the last several things you’ve done reset again. and again. and again.
As someone who isn’t fond of replaying games, this is kind of maddening. While I know it’s not something that happens often, I’ve had it happen to me enough times where I just am not comfortable downloading games. If I have a choice between picking to get a game physically or digitally, I will always pick the former. Because of this, I have never liked Club Nintendo’s digital rewards.
I signed up for “Club Nintendo” back in 2003 when it wasn’t even Club Nintendo. It was just all “hey, register your game!” and I immediately would hop online to do so. I remember getting so excited when I ended up receiving a Wiimote Flashlight keychain for registering Brain Age. When Club Nintendo officially became a thing, I was so excited. I still enjoy registering games–I don’t think I ever won’t (unless Nintendo no longer lets me), but the physical rewards were always a nice bonus and seeing them dwindle as digital rewards started to pop up stinks.
I mean, we’ve had significantly less items than Japan has had and the items across each region’s Club Nintendo program varies. I wish I understood why though. Europe has gotten several things Japan has gotten, but the US has not and it’s something I don’t really understand. I think the physical rewards being equal across the board could help a lot. I remember a golden Mario Statue Japan had and a golden Link on Epona statue Europe had and both were really cool. Not to mention the Mario Kart 7 trophies Europe received as well. And that doesn’t even go into all the soundtracks and other neat things.
I mean, right now Japan can get a cute Yoshi Plushie while the US store has barely anything in it and hasn’t gotten anything new in ages. And I mean, we’ve gotten some neat limited stuff (Like the Luigi Statue and Kirby Coin–both which I sadly missed :/ The latter I was just barely short and the former I didn’t have time to grab it before it was gone) that could’ve worked great as a Platinum or Gold Reward.
The main issue with the Digital Rewards is we get these Coins to spend on rewards (and to hit Gold and Platinum) from buying games. I’ve seen a lot of people mention that they already have all of those games. I still have all my old systems so I can play my old games because I never sold them so I’ve downloaded very few things from the Virtual Console. While there’s two games I want that I haven’t gotten yet (Game & Wario and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D), I’d rather not download them and I have enough I’m playing right now and really looking forward to that I just don’t have the time and I don’t want to pick up games just to have them sit there. I’m a very proactive person with video games and when I get a new game, I will play it straight until it’s done. That’s how I am. Right now, I’m preparing for Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney’s release at the end of August and anxiously looking forward to that while worrying like crazy about October’s and November’s calendar of games.
Regardless, it feels kind of silly to get games which will give points due to getting so many points.
I love the Mario Hat we got in 2009. I love the Statue we got in 2010. I thought the Badge set was really cool even if it wasn’t my favorite thing. I wasn’t too big on 2012’s or 2013’s, but I got the Playing Cards and Three-Poster set and was still grateful.
And that’s the thing–it’s not that I’m not grateful. I can feel disappointed and still be grateful. It’s just that I don’t know what to do with it and with a program that seemed to put so much into physical items (or at least it felt like that was kind of the point of it), to see a sudden overhaul into just Digital (on a program where you get points due to getting games) seems really silly. I mean, even just the little card thing whenever I received something from Club Nintendo always made me super excited and I would easily pick a Post Card worth 25 cents over any downloadable game just because it’d have much more meaning to me.