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Seeing stars: Club Nintendo launches in Australia
Club Nintendo has finally launched in Australia, offering a sort of hybrid version of the older European Stars Catalogue and the US/Japan Club Nintendo models. Like the new US Club, the Australian site offers exclusive goods in exchange for points earned by purchasing games; however, the store uses the same "Stars Catalogue" nomenclature used for Europe's mostly-virtual offerings.The new Catalogue currently has but five items available, but that list of five includes the Game & Watch Collection (as found on the OFLC!) and one sort-of-awesome item we don't have in the US: these Mario face towels. They just cost 1300 Stars, 250 of which you can get for signing up! [Via IGN]
Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack on European Stars Catalogue somehow
We're assuming that this is a clerical error of some sort -- perhaps a new intern keeps uploading the wrong images and product descriptions for Wii Fit wallpapers. For the second week in a row, actual items have been added to the European Stars Catalogue, and they are cool.For 3,850 and 4,850 points, respectively, European gamers have the chance to buy the Gold and Platinum Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack discs previously exclusive to the Japanese Club Nintendo. The Gold edition features 28 tracks, and the two-disc Platinum set contains a staggering 81 tracks. It's been roughly one year since the items' release in Japan, but considering that nobody expected to see them available anywhere else ever, we have a hard time calling this "late." If you somehow have a ridiculous stock of Stars, go now! These items probably won't last the day.[Thanks, RICANJO!]
A brief history of Club Nintendo Awesomeness
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/A_look_back_at_Club_Nintendo_s_greatest_gifts'; By now, you've no doubt heard: Nintendo is rolling out Club Nintendo in the U.S. by the end of 2008. Wahey! Yeah, we know that Japan (generally speaking) gets the most excellent items when compared to elsewhere, but listen here, bub: it's free stuff. We're not about to complain, and nor should you (if you want to feel sorry for somebody, Australia's Club Nintendo scheme has gone AWOL, and check out South Africa's piss-poor Stars Catalogue).Anyway, as these are happy times for North Americans, we thought we'd reflect on some of the bestest Club Nintendo gifts and trinkets from both Japan and Europe to date -- some of which could end up in the U.S.! Hit the gray button to start DS Fanboy's whirlwind Club Nintendo Tour of Wonders! NEXT >> #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; }
Stars Catalogue music download service finally revealed
Nintendo of Europe accidentally posted a news item on their website a couple of weeks back announcing a program allowing people to exchange Club Nintendo Stars for songs from artists on the EMI label. The story was only up long enough for the headline to show up in our RSS reader before it was yanked.The Music Voucher Shop has finally grown from just a headline in an inaccessible story to a real website that you can look at! Club Nintendo members can buy one song for 350 stars, 2 for 700 (at a substantial 0% discount!) or an album for 3000. You're given an alphanumeric code to redeem at the EMI website.Okay, so it's not some kind of super-innovative Wii-based music service or something. But it's a way to download music basically for free, and it's another option for your Stars when everything else is sold out (which seems to be all the time). And, of course, it's a lot better than what you can get from the US Stars Catalogue, which is nothing because it doesn't exist.[Via GoNintendo]
Stars Catalogue now offering GBA titles [Update 1]
Two Game Boy Advance games have randomly appeared in the Stars Catalogue, leading us to surmise that Nintendo has been spring-cleaning its warehouses and found a bunch of old, unsold stock. Kirby & The Amazing Mirror and Mario Power Tennis are both decent purchases, we suppose, even if the price (5000 Stars each) is steep (you'd need to buy at least 20 DS games to amass that many Stars). We're still waiting on the warehouse with all the sealed Super Famicom consoles to get cleared out (it must exist somewhere).Some other new tat has also been added, including a Pokémon sports bag, and three further items that have (inexplicably) sold out: a Raving Rabbids T-shirt, a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon bookmark, and a Brain Training pen. Don't all rush at once, please.[Update 1: And the Kirbster has sold out!]
Europeans: Get rid of those excess Stars now!
Hey, Euro folk: those Club Nintendo Stars you've spent the last seven years compiling in the vain hope that you might bag something as glorious as this? Well, forget about it. From tomorrow at 17:00 (the time zone isn't specified, but we have a hunch it might be GMT), any Club Nintendo Stars that have been in your account for more than two years are getting atomized by Nintendo.In other words, now may be the time to resign yourself to the fact that you'll never get anything better from the Stars Catalog than some natty Animal Crossing wallpaper. Life's unfair like that at times, believe us. Alternatively, if you've got enough Points, you could always buy Wii Points!
Wii Fit incense comes and goes, 2000 Star Points saved
Luckily for you, UK gamers, the Wii Fit incense that Nintendo just started offering through the Stars Catalogue is now sold out (along with pretty much anything of substance). That means you no longer have the opportunity to blow 2000 points on some Wii Fit-branded incense.You've also missed some Mario game holders and Nintendo-character notebooks, which is actually sad. But take solace in the fact that you don't even have to spend one second of your time wondering if those 2000 Star Points would be best put to use on 500 Wii Points (or Street Gangs), or some grocery-store incense in a fancy tin.[Via NeoGAF]
Nintendo now accepting stars for Wii Points
It's taken some time, but Nintendo Europe is finally rewarding its 'star' collectors with an opportunity to exchange celestial tokens for Wii Points, at a rate of 4 stars to 1 point. If you've been a diligent Club Nintendo member (200 stars), registering codes packaged in first-party games and hardware (250-1,000 stars), recommending aliases "friends" (250 stars), and of course, hitting the website each and every day (5 stars), why not save the 8 euros and treat yourself to that Wonder Boy in Monster World download you've been pining after for all these months? Take it from us: you've earned it.
