Author Topic: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards  (Read 25581 times)

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Offline Halbred

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Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« on: October 29, 2011, 06:25:06 PM »

Worst. Reward. Ever.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blog/28268

I didn't think it could get much worse than that stupid Wii Remote holder, but Nintendo has managed to do one better: cardboard. I had Club Nintendo Coins just piling up by this point and I wanted to spend 'em on something. I wasn't going to get terrycloth towels or a reversible pouch, so I decided on these new handheld history cards. They're 300 coins. And they're completely worthless.

Do note the largish crease in the spine of the booklet. This was not the fault of mine, but of Nintendo, who couldn't be bothered to put some kind of protective foam or something between the booklet and the mailing envelope. Thanks, guys. Now the spine is screwed up and perpetually folds over at an angle.

Here's the opened booklet, with a little pocket for all the cards and a nice montage on the inside cover. Quaint.

And here are the cards themselves. Twelve in total, the cards are straight-up cheap cardboard. I was expecting vinyl or something--you know, what they print alphabet cards on for babies--but no. This is Nintendo we're talking about. They're gonna do crap on the cheap.

This is the text of the "Game & Watch - Ball" card. Each cards lists the handheld's name, release year, color variations, and some fun facts. The descriptions are often overly optimistic, but what do you expect?

Here's the Game Boy card with a Game Boy to scale. The pictures are interesting: they're not photographs, but stylized paintings, basically, that are entirely color-based. My wife thinks they'd look good framed.

Connectivity co-host and editing wizard Scott Thompson asked if the Virtual Boy is included. It is not. I figure this is either because Nintendo doesn't consider that to be a handheld OR they're trying to rewrite history. Anyway, here's the Game Boy Advance SP card with three Game Boy Advance SP's for scale.

It's also worth noting that the color variations listed on each card are only those that were available stateside. My Japanese "ice blue" GBA SP is not among the variants.

Here's the DSi card with my DSi (complete with dinosaur stickers) for scale. There is a card for the DS, DS Lite, DSi, and DSi XL. I wonder if the pictures on the cards to to scale with each-other...

And here's the 3DS card with the 3DS to scale. From the description: "The Nintendo 3DS system is a breakthrough in portable entertainment systems, literally adding a new dimension to gaming." It goes on to mention that there's "no need for special glasses." It failed to mention that the system launched with no good software and only half an OS.

We'll finish things off with the booklet, standing up, with Boa Hancock for scale. Do NOT waste your coins on this pile of cardboard. You can get all this information on Wikipedia for FREE, and Wikipedia isn't quite as biased. The unfortunate thing is that now there are NO Club Nintendo rewards I give a crap about. I guess I'll just save up for that "Game & Watch - Ball" reproduction.

This would be my PSN Trophy Card, but I guess I can't post HTML in my Signature. I'm the pixel spaceship, and I have nine Gold trophies.

Offline Bboy

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #1 on: October 29, 2011, 06:33:55 PM »
The Zelda posters are actually really nice if you're looking for something to spend coins on.

Offline TurdFurgy

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #2 on: October 29, 2011, 06:43:07 PM »
You sound a bit butt hurt.

Offline UncleBob

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #3 on: October 29, 2011, 07:21:34 PM »
I liked them... :(
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Offline Halbred

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #4 on: October 29, 2011, 08:33:25 PM »
You sound a bit butt hurt.

How?! I spent 300 coins and got mid-grade cardstock trading cards.
Also, @Bboy: I totally would have jumped on the Zelda posters if the Phantom Hourglass one had been Wind Waker instead. We all know how I feel about Phantom Hourglass.
« Last Edit: October 29, 2011, 08:47:04 PM by Halbred »
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Offline Ras

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #5 on: October 29, 2011, 09:25:57 PM »
Quote
It failed to mention that the system launched with no good software and only half an OS.

Now that's just snotty.

They neglected to feature a few other GBA SPs.  I live in the US, and I got one of those snazzy NES-styled SPs.  I guess it being a limited edition is why it wasn't mentioned.

Offline BlackNMild2k1

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #6 on: October 29, 2011, 10:22:10 PM »
it being a limited edition is all the more reason it should be mentioned.

Offline fadelzz3454

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #7 on: October 30, 2011, 12:59:01 AM »
R u serious? U know what!?!?!? U POSTER THIS BLOG POST 2 HOURS AFTER I ORDERED IT!!! O MY GOD!!! THATS SO SAD! LITTERALLY I MEAN LIKE 2 HOURS B4 U POSTER THAT THING ABOUT HOW IT SUX I ORDERED IT. OMG I MIGHT CRY NOW >.< :@

Offline Majoras_Wrath

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #8 on: October 31, 2011, 10:31:09 AM »
Lol, it's funny that I should see this story today. I stopped coming here not too long after Berghammer stopped running the site. Basically, it'd just become a center for all the NWR/PGC writers that were left to nonstop whine and complain about the most petty things and trumpet how Nintendo was "DOOOOOOOOMED" if they didn't go "MATTTTOOOOR" with their games. Yeah, you guys were totally right about that one.

I check out this story today, mildly interested in the reward, and it's (about the petty things) still the same crap. Shall we dissect a few of your offending points and make you just a little less prone to excessive hyperbole? I think we should.

1. No good games? Really, bro? I can understand wanting more of a killer app for launch, but there were *plenty* of good and fun games available for launch. And I'm sure you know that, so I'll refrain from list wars. Half an OS, I'll give you. There certainly are some features I was missing and still even want.

2. Excessive complaining about a free collectible? Come on. Of course all the info is available on wikipedia. Heck, I'm sure a lot of Nintendo fans can recite the info from memory. That's not the point. It's a cool little collectible freebie for long time fans to keep and hang onto. Like your wife said, I wouldn't be surprised if some fans frame them. You sound more like you want an in-depth 200 hundred page glossy history of handhelds book to put on your coffee table. Me too actually, but that's just not something that's going to happen as a free reward. Your expectations are off-the-wall unrealistic here.

And finally, just drop the snark and entitlement. Nintendo doesn't have to give you rewards at all, you realize that? You spent your money on games. These items are just free bonuses, and generally pretty nice ones at that.

« Last Edit: October 31, 2011, 07:03:57 PM by Majoras_Wrath »

Offline ejamer

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #9 on: October 31, 2011, 12:22:00 PM »
I understand people not taking kindly to the snark, but the history cards reward is cheap and the 3DS line-up (both at launch and today) is incredibly weak.


For people who have a limited number of Club Nintendo points, it's worth knowing that there are better places to spend them on this unimpressive collectible.
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Offline broodwars

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #10 on: October 31, 2011, 12:25:10 PM »
Except that these aren't "free rewards".  They are incentives to purchase Nintendo 1st party software new and preferably near their original release date, and to even get these incentives you have to supply Nintendo with marketing data via the surveys.

And let's take a look at that "free" angle again.  Let's assume a couple of things for the purposes of easy math:

1.  You're only buying Wii retail games at full retail price (rounded up a penny to $50).  No sales.
2.  You only concern yourself with the registration and post-play survey coins (60 total).

According to Halbred, these useless cards were 300 coins or the value of 5 Wii 1st party retail games.

5 x $50 = $250.  These cards cost you $250 in Nintendo Wii 1st party retail purchases, maybe around $150 when you factor in things like sales and VC/WiiWare releases.  Maybe you were going to buy those 5 games anyway, and maybe you weren't.  Maybe you only bought some of them because you were mildly curious and wanted the coins.  Regardless, do these cards look like they're worth what the player has to pay to obtain them? 

This cheap crap on Club Nintendo certainly isn't free, and Nintendo of America has an obligation to have the things on the service worth getting, especially since there have been some genuinely good stuff on the store in Japan and Europe.
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Offline Ceric

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #11 on: October 31, 2011, 12:27:10 PM »
They should have done a set of Playing cards with 52 different Handheld pictures on them and then on the Suit have Nintendo Characters playing around.  That would have been interesting.
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Offline Majoras_Wrath

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #12 on: October 31, 2011, 07:20:13 PM »
I understand people not taking kindly to the snark, but the history cards reward is cheap and the 3DS line-up (both at launch and today) is incredibly weak.

For people who have a limited number of Club Nintendo points, it's worth knowing that there are better places to spend them on this unimpressive collectible.

It's not that I think the 3DS launch lineup is perfect or that the history cards reward is beyond any criticism. I take issue with his exaggerations and whining. To say there were no good games at 3DS launch is an out-and-out fallacy. The same tone extends to the rest of the article - He might be a genuinely good guy, but here he comes off whining and entitled. It's annoying, and he should stop it.

I like my articles to be a genuine, realistic look at things. Not a competition to see how much snark can be added to each line for cool factor. We have enough of that crap on the internet as is.

Offline Majoras_Wrath

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #13 on: October 31, 2011, 07:34:43 PM »
Except that these aren't "free rewards".  They are incentives to purchase Nintendo 1st party software new and preferably near their original release date, and to even get these incentives you have to supply Nintendo with marketing data via the surveys.

And let's take a look at that "free" angle again.  Let's assume a couple of things for the purposes of easy math:

1.  You're only buying Wii retail games at full retail price (rounded up a penny to $50).  No sales.
2.  You only concern yourself with the registration and post-play survey coins (60 total).

According to Halbred, these useless cards were 300 coins or the value of 5 Wii 1st party retail games.

5 x $50 = $250.  These cards cost you $250 in Nintendo Wii 1st party retail purchases, maybe around $150 when you factor in things like sales and VC/WiiWare releases.  Maybe you were going to buy those 5 games anyway, and maybe you weren't.  Maybe you only bought some of them because you were mildly curious and wanted the coins.  Regardless, do these cards look like they're worth what the player has to pay to obtain them? 

This cheap crap on Club Nintendo certainly isn't free, and Nintendo of America has an obligation to have the things on the service worth getting, especially since there have been some genuinely good stuff on the store in Japan and Europe.

But is anyone really buying New Super Mario Bros Wii for the coins? No, they're buying it for the game. Whatever plushie, towel, or end of year bonus gift Nintendo happens to send your way is just that: a bonus. Even the surveys tend to be short and to the point.

And if somebody really is buying games to rack up coins and not for the games themselves (My mind is blown), they should be made aware that this stuff regularly sells on Ebay for far, far less than having to buy a bunch of games.

And minus two popularity points (TM) on my post. Really? How about the downvoters come in here and explain why I'm so wrong for making the points that I did? Or are you too busy opening wide? I hope that's not the case, and you have a genuine disagreement with my post - I'd be glad to discuss it.




« Last Edit: October 31, 2011, 07:40:52 PM by Majoras_Wrath »

Offline Halbred

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #14 on: October 31, 2011, 09:59:22 PM »
So because something is a "free reward" (which, as broodwars explained, it's not), I shouldn't have ANY expectations as to quality? Sorry, but I've gotten other "free" Nintendo rewards that have been FAR higher quality than this: Kirby patches, the Mario hat, the Mario figurine, the Zelda CD, the box of playing cards.

What I'm saying is that THIS reward sucks by comparison to the others, or even to itself. I could make these handheld cards myself with some graphic design skill. That's not good enough--I expect more. Look at what Club Nintendo people in Japan, Europe, and Australia are getting, then come back here and tell me why these handheld cards are an option at all.
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Offline GoldenPhoenix

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #15 on: October 31, 2011, 10:25:53 PM »
One likely has issues if they just purchase games for coins at the Nintendo Club Store. But it is true that NIntendo does benefit from the surveys, and they make these rewards as incentives to fill out the surveys. If they release a lot of crap no one wants, people will be less likely to fill out surveys, and in turn it will hurt Nintendo, since a chunk of their marketing data is derived from this.
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #16 on: November 01, 2011, 01:04:35 AM »
They're free in the sense that I get them for buying games I would have bought regardless of the Club Nintendo Coins. I still think Nintendo could do better with the rewards, but they're definitely free, at least for me.
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Offline UncleBob

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #17 on: November 01, 2011, 01:09:16 AM »
But it is true that NIntendo does benefit from the surveys, and they make these rewards as incentives to fill out the surveys.

Not if everyone filling them out is adding comments like "XENOBLADE OR DIE!!!111". :D
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Offline MegaByte

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #18 on: November 01, 2011, 01:10:41 AM »
They could benefit. They just choose not to.
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Offline NWR_pap64

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #19 on: November 01, 2011, 01:12:55 AM »
Wow... if people are taking a deep, personal offense to Zach's snark, I am afraid to see how they react to the worst the internet can offer in terms of butt hurt, angry, snarky commentary... :p
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Offline UncleBob

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #20 on: November 01, 2011, 01:40:26 AM »
They could benefit. They just choose not to.

It's not really beneficial for a company to pay to find out what they already know.  It's like me telling Nintendo that I bought another Professor Layton game because I like Professor Layton games... I'm sure they're thankful for that spectacular input. ;)
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #21 on: November 01, 2011, 02:05:13 AM »
It would be cool if the grunts tasked with reading all these keep a running tally of how many of them mention Xenoblade.
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Offline broodwars

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #22 on: November 01, 2011, 02:43:37 AM »
One likely has issues if they just purchase games for coins at the Nintendo Club Store.

As I said, the key thing Nintendo wants is for you to buy these games new, and as close to MSRP as possible.  In  the past Nintendo coins didn't determine whether I bought specific Wii retail games or not (though they did influence me in experimenting with some titles on WiiWare and the Virtual Console), but they did factor into my decision over whether to purchase specific titles new or used.

Of course, that was back when I still believed that Nintendo of America would put something I'd actually want to buy on the service, and back when I still believed that Nintendo of America deserved a single dime of my money.  Now that the Club Nintendo store has proved itself a complete waste and NoA decided to kill off the Wii a year early, **** 'em.
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Offline Ceric

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #23 on: November 01, 2011, 12:15:48 PM »
They're free in the sense that I get them for buying games I would have bought regardless of the Club Nintendo Coins. I still think Nintendo could do better with the rewards, but they're definitely free, at least for me.
Unless the moment you buy the game in Club Nintendo your game is registered and the surveys are filled out then they do cost you something.

Nothing is free.  Take lawn mowing as an example.  I lot of people have people more there lawn when they could do it for free, assuming they have all the equipment already.  Though is that really free spending the Hour or 2 I could spend with my family or gaming mowing the lawn?

I was jaded when we didn't get rewards back in the day for registration so, I didn't do Club Nintendo at all when it came out because I figured it would amount to nothing unlike the pure awesomeness of all the Japan items.  I only did Club Nintendo this year because I knew I could get Platinum and might get something cool but I doubt I'll get anything but Recycled Trinkets.  In retrospect the hour or so I spent putting in codes could have easily bought me a Pizza or two.
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Offline Mop it up

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Re: Club Nintendo Rewards: Handheld History Cards
« Reply #24 on: November 01, 2011, 08:42:04 PM »
This seems like a wasted opportunity, they could have made some cards that could actually be used for something. A set of some sort of playing cards would have been nice, although what would have been awesome is if these were AR cards. Imagine if you could view a 3D model of each handheld, walking around it to rotate it.