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BREAKING: Club Nintendo Being Discontinued, Replaced With Successor

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Unfortunate news has just been posted by Nintendo of Europe, and then by Nintendo of America soon after, for all Club Nintendo members. Club Nintendo is being discontinued as of June 30th, 2015 in America and September 30th in Europe and Japan.

These gray skies come with a bit of silver lining as they are working on a new program that will replace Club Nintendo and “launch later this year”, according to NoE.

American Club members will receive a free download code for Flipnote Studio 3D (For Nintendo 3DS) in February as a thank you, whereas Europe Club members will obtain it as a free sign up bonus during the launch period of the new program later this year.

Points will need to be used prior to the cut off dates below, with an assortment of rewards in their catalog being redeemable until June 30th, 2015.

UPDATE: During the writing of this article, Nintendo of America posted their official release, as well as a change to the prizes being offered on their rewards catalog. This article has been changed to reflect this.

Below are both of the press releases that have both appeared within the hour on Nintendo’s official websites.

Posted to the American Club Nintendo‘s main page:

Dear Club Nintendo Members,

Thank you for your continued loyalty to Nintendo.

We launched Club Nintendo 6 years ago in North America, and we’re grateful for all of the feedback that our members have provided on their experiences with our products.

In order to focus on planning for a new customer loyalty program for our fans, we’ve decided to wind-down the Club Nintendo program. We are deeply thankful to our members for being a part of Club Nintendo for all of these years.

We will share details about our new program at a later date. For now, please see the schedule below for information on the discontinuation timeframe for Club Nintendo.

All Coins will be deleted when Club Nintendo accounts are closed on July 1, 2015. As a result, to give our members the best opportunity to use their Coins, we will add dozens of downloadable games and a limited quantity of exclusive reward items to the rewards catalog in February. In addition, as a small token of appreciation for your loyalty, all Club Nintendo members will receive a free download code for Flipnote Studio 3D in February 2015. Please visit here for information on the software and how to get the download code.

Club Nintendo program discontinuation schedule

1/20/2015
Products released after this date are not eligible for registration with Club Nintendo
3/31/2015
Last day to earn Coins, register products with Club Nintendo, and sign up for new Club Nintendo membership
6/30/2015
Last day to redeem Coins or access you account on the Club Nintendo website. Club Nintendo program shuts down at 11:59pm PT on 6/30/2015.

Your Account and Coin Balance

The information in your Club Nintendo account will not be transferred to the new loyalty program. We are adding multiple items to our reward catalog, so please be sure to redeem your Coins before the deadline on June 30, 2015. Unused Coins will be deleted as of July 1, 2015.

2015 Elite Status

In order to reach Elite Status, you must earn 300 Coins (for Gold Status) or 600 Coins (for Platinum Status) between July 1, 2014 and March 31, 2015. Members who reach Elite Status will be able to choose a downloadable game from a wide selection of Nintendo 3DS and Wii U titles. Your free Elite Status gift will be available between April 1 and April 30, 2015. A list of the Elite Status 2015 gifts will be posted here once announced.

FAQs about Club Nintendo program discontinuation

  1. How long can I keep earning Coins?
    1. The last day to register products with Club Nintendo, take surveys, or earn Coins is March 31, 2015. Surveys in your To-Do list will be deleted after March 31, 2015, so please be sure to register products or take surveys by that date. Please note that products released after January 20, 2015 cannot be registered at Club Nintendo, and will not be eligible for surveys or Coins.
  2. But I have Club Nintendo PIN # that is valid past March 31, 2015.
    1. Products cannot be registered after March 31, 2015, regardless of the expiration date written on the PIN card.
  3. Will the games I download still be registered with Club Nintendo?
    1. Club Nintendo-eligible games that you download will continue to be registered to your account automatically until March 31, 2015 if your Nintendo eShop account is linked to your Club Nintendo account. After that date, games will no longer be registered with Club Nintendo. To find out which games you can register, please see Eligible Products. Click here to learn how to link your Nintendo eShop account to your Club Nintendo account.
  4. When is the last day to join Club Nintendo?
    1. You can join Club Nintendo until March 31, 2015.
  5. When is the last day to redeem Coins on Club Nintendo?
    1. The last day to redeem your Coins is June 30, 2015. Any unused Coins will be deleted on July 1, 2015. We are offering a large number of digital games, and select physical rewards, so we are sure you can find something you like. Limited quantities are available for the physical rewards, so please be sure to check out our Get Games & Rewards page for each item’s availability.
  6. What happens to my Coins if I don’t use them all?
    1. Any unused Coins in your Club Nintendo account will be deleted on July 1, 2015.
  7. When is the last day to get the download code for the digital games I chose?
    1. The last day to access your Club Nintendo account is June 30, 2015, so please be sure to get your 16-digit download code(s) for any games you’ve received before that date.
  8. Will the download code ever expire?
    1. Yes, all download codes redeemed from Club Nintendo will expire on July 31, 2015, so please be sure to download your game from the Nintendo eShop before that date.
  9. Do I need to cancel my membership?
    1. No, your account will automatically be cancelled on July 1, 2015, so there is no need for you to cancel your account.

Posted to Nintendo of Europe‘s site:

Important information about the discontinuation of Club Nintendo

20/01/2015

Nintendo’s first loyalty programmes, VIP 24:7 and Club Member, started in May 2002, and were combined in December 2007 to become Club Nintendo. Over the years, players have enjoyed the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo DS, Wii, Nintendo 3DS and Wii U platforms, and countless software titles across them all. We’ve also heard the feedback and opinions of around six million Club Nintendo members across Europe and South Africa, which we have used to help shape our business.

We’re working hard to create a new programme, which we plan to launch later this year. And as a special offer, users who sign up to the new programme during the launch period will be able to download Flipnote Studio 3D to a Nintendo 3DS system for free. Please stay tuned to the Nintendo website for further details.

This new membership programme will replace Club Nintendo, so we will discontinue Club Nintendo according to the schedule given below. Thank you for all your support.

As Stars in your account will expire on September 30th 2015, please make sure you use them before this date. There are plenty of unique and exclusive items already available in the Stars Catalogue, and we’ll keep adding more over the coming months, so there’s plenty to spend your Stars on before September 30th 2015.

Please stay tuned for more information about the new membership programme, including its launch date.

Club Nintendo Discontinuation Schedule

  • April 1st 2015: From this date, Nintendo will no longer include product registration cards with its packaged games, so such products cannot be registered in Club Nintendo. You may still find product registration cards in games that were in stock before this date, however.
  • April 20th 2015: Termination of the registration of digital products downloaded from Nintendo eShop. Digital products obtained from Nintendo eShop after this date will no longer appear in the My Registered Games & Systems page in Club Nintendo. In addition, surveys for download software titles will no longer be available.
  • September 30th 2015: End of Club Nintendo programme. All Club Nintendo features, such as signing up as a new member, logging in as a registered member, earning Stars, and exchanging Stars for items from the Stars Catalogue will no longer be possible from this date.

New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS XL

These new handheld systems, which will be released on February 13th 2015, are not registerable in Club Nintendo. However, hardware bundles will still include a product registration card for the included software until April 1st 2015, so software bundled with hardware can still be registered until September 30th 2015.

Stars

Please exchange any Stars in your account for items from the Stars Catalogue before September 30th 2015. Any Stars not used by this date will be lost, so be sure to use them as soon as possible. There are plenty of unique and exclusive items already available in the Stars Catalogue, and we’ll keep adding more over the coming months, so there’s plenty to spend your Stars on before September 30th 2015.

Seemingly, they are still honoring all prior obligations, including, what appears to be the Mewtwo DLC offer for Super Smash Bros Wii U and 3DS. No word on if final Gold and Platinum gifts are being sent out this holiday, though.

Little Details Makes Smash Demo Shine

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On September 12th, “select” Club Nintendo Platinum Members got their hands on four codes each for the Super Smash Bros. demo on Nintendo 3DS. Why just select members for an intangible good with infinite quantity? Who knows!? My conspiracy theory of choice is that Nintendo didn’t want an abundance of traffic breaking the eShop, because the mustachioed video game company doesn’t think it can handle the business of its most loyal customers and their buddies at the same time.

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Let’s not be too negative, though! It’s a Super Smash Bros. demo, and everyone will be able to download it on September 19th. Heck, everyone will be able to buy the full game on October 3rd! I wasn’t able to get codes emailed me, since I was too forgetful and lazy to redeem enough of my codes for Platinum Status last time around, but I was still able to able to snag two codes for me and my friend. We both loved the demo. It’s a nice little tease at what is sure to be a delightful time.

The demo is very bare-bones; players can only battle locally or against CPUs on the standard “Battlefield” stage in a two-minute points-based match, using Mario, Link, Pikachu, Villager and Mega Man. This does, however, allow for hours of solid fun that shows off a lot of new quirks that seasoned Smash Bros. players will salivate over.

There are welcome changes to both Link and Pikachu specifically. Whenever Link goes into a running standard attack, he lunges at his foe, just like in the actual Zelda games. This animation is so much cooler than the bland slash of his sword from past games. Something I’m a huge fan of with Pikachu is the big-time nerfing that has been done to his down special attack. In past Smash games, spamming of Pikachu’s lightning bolt from the sky was a constant annoyance, but now, it is less powerful and lasts for a shorter amount of time. No more will you have to worry about that one annoying friend of yours who only plays as Pikachu in the most irksome way possible. Mario seemed just about the same as he was in Brawl to me, but he still gets to take advantage of a change every character gets: whenever a devastating hit is landed on a foe, there is a flashy visual effect around the character, increasing the satisfaction in a simple way.

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Capcom’s Mega Man and Animal Crossing’s Villager are both interesting characters that don’t quite feel like any other Smash combatant, especially the former. Mega Man’s standard attack, standard running attack, and side smash attack are all projectiles, which is an odd thing to get used to. Having a projectile-based smash attack offers a big one-up over your opponents, making fully-charged hits much easier to land. Not having a melee attack to use while on the ground, however, is pretty inconvenient. Mega Man is checked and balanced in a neat, fair way, making him a fun and unique character.

I was interested to get past the meme-laden hype and give Villager a shot, and he did not disappoint. I prefer playing as Villager, a more mechanically standard character that is aesthetically strange. Riding atop a rocketing gyroid into rivals is a blast. His down special, which is a four-button process that eventually sends a tree into opponents for huge damage, is a creative mechanic that works best in four-player battles. While not as cool as Mega Man’s, which calls forth every version of the blue bomber for a big cooperative laser blast, Villager’s final smash is a cute callback to the Animal Crossing games, featuring that dastardly Tom Nook building a seemingly explosive-filled house for Villager’s foes.

The new items included in this demo are all fantastic. Some of my favorites are the Ore Club, Bullet Bill, Galaga Boss, and Special Flag. The Ore Club, pulled from Kid Icarus: Uprising, allows for walloping hits that are follows by big tornadoes that push foes off of platforms. Allowing players to rocket off in the direction of their choosing and packing a solid punch is Super Mario Bros.’s Bullet Bill. The Galaga Boss lurks around in the area, scooping players up off the stage if they land in its abduction ray. Pulled from Rally-X, the Special Flag gives a player an extra point (or stock, once those kinds of matches are eventually available to the masses) if they hold in the standard attack button long enough; this is unlike any other item in Smash Bros. thus far.

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The game looks and feels great. The graphics are about on-par with Brawl as is expected. The flat art for all of the characters in the menus are great-looking, taking advantage of a detailed and dynamic style. The 3D looks great, with multiple layers to it and occasional pop-out effects. It doesn’t control as well as it does on a GameCube controller, but it works about as well as it can on this system.

It’s the little things that made me most excited for this game to finally come out. It really says something about the popularity of game whenever slight variations in animation is enough to get fists pumping, and Smash Bros. is one of those games. October 3rd, dudes.

This piece was originally posted on “The Gaming Groove.”

To check out Matt’s about.me, click here. 

“Smash Bros.” OST Offered to Buyers of Both Versions

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If you buy both the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U versions of the new Super Smash Bros. game, Club Nintendo will ship you a free CD of the game’s soundtrack. In other words, if you are a human being who likes to have fun, expect a disc full of quality tunes in your mailbox. Actually, two discs; there are a lot of tunes in “Smash Bros.” games.

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This is cool, but hopefully it goes smoother than the Ocarina of Time 3D soundtrack CD deal Club Nintendo did back in 2011. Club Nintendo’s servers got wrecked with all of the traffic from excited nerds, making the whole process quite frustrating. Not frustrating enough to stop a certain Matt Petras from getting his gosh-darn disc of tunes, but frustrating nonetheless.

I am so excited for the new Super Smash Bros.! I’ll definitely be getting each versions on their respective release dates, and I suspect my eyes will bleed from all of the fun I’ll be having. I’ll opt for the $100 bundle of the Wii U version that includes a GameCube Controller converter, a special Smash Bros. GameCube Controller, and the game, because I’m no pansy. I also see myself splurging on all of the Amiib figures for the game despite not being much excited for that portion of the game at the moment; the figures just look freaking awesome.

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Have you guys seen the supposedly leaked character roster for the game? It’s super impressive, but one aspect of it frustrate me. Why is there no Ice Clumbers, a staple for the series, but goofy Dr. Mario and Dark Pit are there? I can go without Wolf and Snake, because they’ve only been in one game so far and the former is just a clone, but no Ice Climbers? There is no way Nintendo wouldn’t sell Ice Climbers as DLC if not on the game from the get-go, but that would be pretty lame. It’s Ice Climbers! They seem to be a popular character choice in tournaments, even!

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Along with that supposedly leaked roster is a rumor floating around that Snake, Chorus Men (from “Rhythm Heaven” I guess?), Wolf, Ice Climbers and Lucas will come as DLC. I’m cool with all of those but for Ice Climbers.

Why haven’t we heard anything about a campaign for the Wii U version yet? Are they cutting stage customization? It seems like they are! I loved stage customization! My friends and I would make so many stages and trade them around on SD cards. It was wonderful!

Guys! I’m so excited for this game. So, so, so excited for this game. I want it to be perfect, though.

This post originally appeared on The Gaming Groove. 

To check out Matt’s about.me, click here.