Club Nintendo is LIVE!

After announcing Club Nintendo would be coming to North America in early October, I’ve just found out that the site has gone live at http://club.nintendo.com. Club Nintendo has been around in both Japan and Europe for awhile, allowing gamers to earn points (or “Coins” for the North American version) to redeem for Nintendo-themed rewards. Up until just recently, Nintendo had tracked Nintendo game purchases with its “My Nintendo” program via Nintendo.com, though there were few motivations for registering products as about the only thing you could get in return was three issues of Nintendo Power for free. Well, now it’s ready to launch here, and it’s long overdue! From what I’ve been told, the version us North Americans are getting is more similar to Japanese version than European one (and that is a good thing!). Unfortunately, there are some (read: a lot) of bugs still on the website. I’d love to tell you all about what you can expect going there, but although I’ve transferred my “My Nintendo” data to Club Nintendo, I can’t log into Club Nintendo. I called NOA’s Customer Service line to find out that they are aware of these bugs and are working hard to fix them. The Rep I spoke to said they should hopefully be worked out by tomorrow, and assured me my data had transferred successfully, despite me being unable to log in currently.

What I have heard is that Nintendo made DS and Wii games are the ones that are worth Coins, with DS games racking up 30 Coins and Wii games 50. “Bigger” Wii games, such as the Wii Fit Bundle, are supposedly worth more, like 80 Coins. While they are not currently worth anything, there is word that Virtual Console & Wii Ware games may eventually be worth Coins too, although a modest amount, like 10.

Again, going on only what I’ve been told, 300 Coins nets you “Gold Member” status while 600 Coins gets you “Platinum Member” status. Rewards apparently range in price from 300-800 Coins.

Also, apparently Coins are earned by not just registering games, but registering them and then completing surveys on the games you registered. Not all Nintendo published games have surveys up (games like Children of Mana, Trace Memory, and Polarium) and therefore are not worth any Coins, even if you have them registered…not yet anyway.

I look forward to learning more about the program, and once I’m able to access my membership I’ll be sure to post more, including information about what rewards are available (right now I’m hearing Mario & Animal Crossing themed playing cards, game cases, DS cases, even the Famicom designed Nintendo DS). In the meantime, check out Club Nintendo for yourself!

Max

A Community for Nintendo & Wii Forthcoming?

I came across a story at Forbes which interviewed Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America president, AKA “The Regginator.” The story of course had comments about Nintendo’s Wii supply this Xmas, which for the first time since the console’s release in 2006, Reggie & Nintendo seem confident they’ll be able to meet demand for Wii, but probably not Wii Fit. Says Reggie: "With Wii hardware, I think we've got a good shot at meeting demand during the holidays. With 'Wii Fit,' I know we'll fall short. That's a product we have consumers lining up for each morning outside of our Nintendo World store [in New York City]."

What caught my interest in the story is the talk of community. Following stories on what the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are doing in terms of community building, it has long seemed that Nintendo is festering the opportunity to establish one for the Wii, despite the high sales of the console. It turns out, Nintendo has not necessarily been ignoring this idea of console gaming; instead, they’ve once again been holding back, doing things as they see fit. Quoth the Regginator: "Nintendo has always had a vision on community," he says. "The issue is that we define community differently than our competitors. ... Our consumers do want a sense of community, and we're going to deliver that--but in a way that is unique to Nintendo."

Of course, despite saying this, Reggie laid out no plans, nor commented on when Nintendo might elaborate. Forbes speculated next E3, but with Nintendo doing its Media Day where it revealed the DSi back in early October long after E3, who knows when we’ll see what the company has in mind? If I had to guess, this "community" will not only involve the Wii, but the Nintendo DS as well.

Max

A Chrono Trigger Wedding Proposal

To say I’m excited by the DS release of Chrono Trigger is an understatement. I’m incredibly stoked! I haven’t played the game in some twelve years (despite having J’s copy of Final Fantasy Chronicles the past several months), and last time I did, it blew me away. I’m definitely hoping that my return to the game (which hits this week, but is on the top of my Xmas list) won’t be one of those games where my memories are exaggerated of its greatness.

Anyway, poking around YouTube to stoke my excitement, I found this, an amazing video where a talented young man, posting as TheRealPfhreak, hacked a ROM of Chrono Trigger his girlfriend was playing to implant a wedding proposal. I’ve embedded said video here:

Fortunately for the guy, she said yes. Here’s what he had to say about it on the the video’s page on YouTube:

On October 17th, 2008, I proposed to my (now) Fiancee. Originally I wanted to return to the site of our first date, Mount Baker, near Bellingham Washington. Sadly, there was no discreet way to get her out there. So I turned to the next best thing, digitally recreating the mountain!

But why stop there? I figured I'd try and recreate many of our other favorite memories -- stargazing, dancing, even her favorite song lyrics (from the Princess Bride). I'm a college student who is studying Computer Science, and I wanted to do something unique that used my talents, so I did some research on Rom hacking, as she was playing through Chrono Trigger. (A perennial favorite of mine, I can't wait to buy it for my DS.) I even put in her cat, Cleo!

I had several goals in mind:

First) Keep the area in the context of the original game, the proposal should be a surprise.

Second) Get it done quick! I had the ring, I had the Father's blessing, and you can't sit on either of those for too long. You'll notice some of the NPC collision information is missing (the cat runs through a lot of weird places) and I didn't have time to properly debug every tile.

Third) Place memories that might be poignant enough to remind her of our relationship, while not inadvertently giving away that this was somehow hacked.(See goal #1.)

Overall, it was a resounding success. She had no idea that this wasn't part of the original. She asked, "Hey, are those the Princess Bride lyrics? Do the Japanese really love that movie?" to which I responded, "Yeah! That's probably it! Either that or a bored translator slipping in an easter egg."

When her name appeared on screen (blurred in this video), she glanced over to me (on one knee, with the ring out), wondering, "How did they get my name in this game?" When she saw the ring, she reread the proposal, nodded yes, and said, "You are such a huge nerd! I love this!"

I spent a long time debating whether or not this proposal was awesome or incredibly stupid. Her friends, and my friends helped talk me into it, and it was a huge success!

I built the area by fusing a pre-existing area (Denodoro Mountains) with concepts I had in my mind. Each NPC in the area (save the cat, and the young girl at the beginning) is supposed to be either myself or my fiance.

I’m a sucker for romance, so this seemed like a great story to me. When I told Maureen about it she replied: “It sounds like this guy had way too much time on his hands!” Well probably, but it's a labor of love! Anyway, check out the video and get ready for Chrono Trigger this week!

Max

Those Darn Kids: Big, Bold, Sassy & Brassy!

Last Tuesday, I started a new segment: Those Darn Kids…, which looks to showcase kids freaking out about video games for whatever reason. Since I started thinking about posting another one today, I’ve decided to designate Tuesdays as “Those Darn Kids” days, where I’ll post a video or two every week of youthful bad, spazzy, or mad behavior inspired by gaming until I can’t find anymore clips, or I drive the few readers we have insane. And what the hell, today I’ll post two of ‘em.

This first one is a kid flipping the hell out once he gets a rare Pokemon card. Calm down little guy! Your maniacal laughter is scaring me!

Rounding out today’s installment is our second clip, this one featuring a road trip turned hell ride. It involves a youngster going ballistic at his DS during what must be a long drive to grandma’s:

Believe me when I say Maureen and I are not in any hurry to have kids! Those Darn Kid brats will be back next Tuesday!

Max