Last April I wrote about my first impressions on the then brand spanking new “My Nintendo Accounts.” I spoke of how I was disappointed that it was far worse than its predecessor, Club Nintendo. I ended it with the hopes that maybe after some time the site would get better. And I am here today, after the site being live a whole year, to see if it has gotten better.
The quick answers…Is it better than a year ago?
Sort of…
Is it better than Club Nintendo?
God no…
In case you forgot, Club Nintendo was the companies old rewards program. Any digital purchase would earn you coins on your account, while physical copies of first party games and even some third party games gave you a code you could enter to earn coins. You had to fill out a bunch of fun surveys with each game you bought, as well as random ones every so often.
If you obtained 300 coins, you achieved “Gold Status,” while 600 coins netted you the mighty “Platinum Status.”
At the end of every year, (the sites year was from July 1- June 30) you got to choose a reward based on your status. There was a nice mixture of digital games and just some cool Nintendo related collectibles and such. Obviously the platinum rewards were much better than gold.
During the year, however, you were free to spend coins on other collectibles that were pretty nifty, as well as some Virtual Console games that changed monthly. Good games too. I got many a free game using my earned coins. The only trouble was that the games typically cost a hefty amount, but hey, I’d rather spend coins than dollars.
Another thing I should mention is that if you didn’t use the coins, they would eventually expire, though it took like 3-5 years, so I was never worried.
Now that you know all about Club Nintendo, let’s talk about the current My Nintendo Program.
As I said in my blog a year ago, you earn platinum points for doing basic things like signing onto the eShop every week and the like. There is a whole list of “missions” you can complete to earn coins.
Gold coins are better for some reason, and can be earned by purchasing DIGITAL GAMES ONLY!!! That is an enormous load of BS!! I prefer buying games physically, so unless something goes on sale for ridiculously cheap, which rarely to never happens, or I buy some indie games that don’t have physical releases, I will never get gold coins.
But why on Earth would I buy a digital game at full price when I can get the physical game for likely $20-$40’s cheaper on Amazon.com. Are gold coins really that much of an incentive to buy digitally so the developers can make more money? Well, honestly, not if you look at the rewards. The coins are essentially coupons.
For instance, I will tell you the software rewards right now. You can spend platinum points to save 20% on Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones, which I got for free with the Ambassador Program when 3DS quickly dropped its price…
Fossil Fighters: Frontier, whatever that is…
Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars, a series I don’t like…
And Dr. Luigi and Game and Wario, BOTH IN WHICH I GOT FOR FREE FROM CLUB NINTENDO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now for gold coins, you can save a bigger 30% on some better games.
Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright, which I don’t want and if I did I would buy physically…
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, I already have…physically…
Kid Icarus: Uprising, I already have…
Kid Icarus, I already have…
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, I already have…
Mario Kart 8, I already have
Xenoblade Chronicles X, I already have…
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, I do want this game, so I might take advantage of this, but I can probably find it cheaper on Amazon even without 30% off…
The Legend Of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D, I have the original N64 game and don’t like to buy remakes…
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Seasons, have them both already…
Paper Mario, already own…
Rhythm Heaven Megamix, whatever that is…
and finally Chibi Robo: Zip Lash, which I already have.
So of all those games, there is one I might consider taking advantage of. And that is one more than usual. For just like with Club Nintendo, the rewards are always changing, but I think less frequently now. It is a nice way to promote some games I suppose, and I really shouldn’t be complaining about getting discounts on stuff, but I do have a right to complain when they used to give stuff away for practically free, no matter how you bought the product, and I can get coupons for my groceries by looking in a newspaper or whatever, so why should I have to buy digital versions of games just so I can get a small discount on games most people already own? And like a said last year, chances are, the games you would be buying to earn the coins are all the games that are discounted, so if you didn’t have any coins, you’d be screwed.
Now there is one last type of coin…the phone coins.
Last year, there was only one Nintendo mobile game, Miitomo. Now there are three. Each game has their own set of missions and rewards for you to earn and spend coins on. As I mentioned last year, the site is basically just a cheap way to promote their cell phone games, or at least it very much feels like it. These coins can also double as platinum coins, so that’s nice.
Aside from games, there are small rewards like 3DS themes and recently they added computer backgrounds…ohhhhhhhhhh!!!
So yeah, the benefits are simply not there. The only good thing is that the “rewards”don’t cost all that many coins. But then again, they might. That Tokyo Mirage Sessions discount costs 140 coins, which basically means I have to spend close to $140 dollars on eShop just to get one lousy discount. That’s 2 full priced Nintendo games and like a few indie games. F that!!! I can buy like 7 games on Amazon for that price.
Oh, and just like Club Nintendo, the coins expire. But instead of a hugely long time, the platinum ones expire in just 6 months, and my hard earned gold in just a year. I had almost 2000 platinum coins stock piled…I never spent a single one because the rewards stink…only to find 2/3 of them expired. I now only have 140 gold points, and many of them will soon expire, and who knows how many already did!?!? What is the point of making them expire anyway? It’s not costing anyone anything to have them there. It just doesn’t make sense. They just do it so you can’t stock pile coins and then utilize all the discounts at once…what cheap a-holes. So in fear of wasting the rest of my coins, I blew most of my platinum ones on some 3DS themes. I didn’t want them, but it’s better than just losing the coins. The gold I guess are just going to wither away.
The lack of a status stinks too. It was a smart business decision to make the consumer push for platinum status, because then we’d buy more games. I always made sure to get Platinum Status to get the cool reward at the end of the year. Now the only incentive to use the site is…I’m drawing a blank…maybe to have all your consoles linked to one site?
Bottom line…this “Rewards Program” is garbage. I would say only use it if you actively play the cell phone games, otherwise don’t waste your time. Unless you enjoy extra discounts and prefer digital games and somehow don’t have all these games. Then knock yourself out. But I personally feel like this is just a slap in the face after Club Nintendo. So my thoughts after one year, is the site has improved slightly, but it still is crap…just in case I didn’t get that across throughout the entire post.
