Club Nintendo: What Everyone Outside of Japan is Missing

Here in the U.S. if you purchase a brand-new title by Nintendo, there will be a code in the box on the back of the game manual to register your game on Nintendo’s website. What do you get for joining Club Nintendo and registering games in the U.S., basically showing your loyalty to the big N? Possibly some free games? Nope. Neat little items based on Nintendo games? Uh-uh. So what do you get? Basically…. nothing worth noting (except for Nintendo now having knowledge of your home address and e-mail).

In Nintendo’s home land of Japan, however, you get all types of nifty items that will appeal to any hardcore Nintendo fan. For showing your support for Nintendo in the Land of the Rising Sun, you’d receive awesome Nintendo merchandise, custom collectibles, and, occasionally, even games. Some of the items in the past year given away to Japanese Club Nintendo members were Animal Crossing tape, cool notebooks featuring popular Nintendo characters, collectible cards, a holder for DS games and stylus, Mario-themed washcloths, dog tags, and Game & Watch Collection, a highly sought-after DS title that compiles three classic Game & Watch games onto one cart.

More recently, however, Nintendo is offering the choice of one of two items to chose from: a customized Wii remote featuring your very own Mii character permanently printed on it or another sure-to-be sought after eBay collectible: Tingle’s Balloon Fight DS. Tingle’s Balloon Fight DS is a bizarre DS update of the Nintendo classic balloon fight except it now stars that wacky tingle from Zelda: the Wind

Waker.

Hey, Nintendo… The U.S. (and the rest of the world, for that matter) buys Nintendo products just like Japan does. How ‘bout giving us loyal Nintendo fans around the world some exclusive goodies as well?