Club Nintendo's August Rewards Include Eight Games

Gather round, children, and hear my tale of a bountiful Club Nintendo harvest, featuring eight grand titles from generations past and present, all ready to be played on your Wii, Wii U or 3DS console.

Each month, Nintendo rotates in a fresh crop of downloadable games that can be earned by trading in Coins. You earn coins by registering your Nintendo games and consoles and taking various optional surveys. When you’ve saved up enough coins, it’s as easy as pushing a few buttons and redeeming them for a brand new copy of, say, Super Mario Bros. 2.

Last month, a decent chunk of the internet went irate when Nintendo announced its Platinum rewards, additional goodies available to those who collect enough Coins throughout the previous 12 months. In the past, these Platinum rewards have included downloadable games, as well as physical items like postcards, statues and the like.

This year, however, Nintendo went the all digital route, opting to only offer a slate of games and no physical prizes for their annual gifts. Considering the fact that these are all basically freebies to help sweeten the pot for purchasing Nintendo products, I have a hard time understanding why anyone feels the need to complain simply because they really, really, really wanted a calendar featuring the cast of Smash Bros. or some such nonsense, but that’s the entitled nature of some of our community these days.

I bring up all of that to take the long way to my point: Maybe this month’s mega-stack of Club Nintendo games is the Big N’s way of saying “sorry” to those who feel like they were somehow owed something more than what they received in the Platinum rewards. We usually only see four CN rewards a month, after all, and this month’s roster is double the size.

Speaking of which, let’s stop wagging our jaws and get to digging into the content, shall we?

First up are the Wii U Virtual console offerings, Super Mario Bros 2 (I’m psychic!) and Excitebike. Whether you’re looking to join Mario and Co. on a hijacked adventure through a game they weren’t initially intended to star in or feeling the need for speed on a 2D dirt bike racer, these Nintendo rewards will set you back 200 coins a pop.

On the Wii U/Wii menu, the Nintendo 64 Star Fox is joined by Vegas Stakes, both for just 250 coins. You could spend your days doing a barrel roll, then spend your evenings playing black jack. Not a bad way to pass the time.

Finally, there are four games available through Club Nintendo this month for the 3DS. The Virtual Console version of Nintendo Baseball could be yours for 150 Coins, or you could dive into the Game Boy Color version of Mario Golf. Not feeling sport? Prefer puzzles? Then 200 Coins will earn you either Puzzle League Express or Dr. Mario Express instead.

All of these games are available through Sept. 7, at which time a new crop of offerings will rotate in.