Nintendo Announces 2014 Club Nintendo Elite Gifts For Loyal Customers

Nintendo of America has finally announced the crop of “Elite Status Gifts” for 2014, this year abandoning any physical goodies and opting instead to dish out a collection of free Wii U or 3DS games for members who have achieved Gold or Platinum status throughout the year.

You may have noticed that, at the beginning of each month, we like to list the Club Nintendo rewards. Basically, this is a group of (usually) four games that Nintendo makes available through their registration program for loyal customers to enjoy. Buy Nintendo consoles and games, register them, and you’re rewarded with Coins. You can then spend those coins on these monthly rewards, or save them up for a rainy day.

If you happen to buy a boatload of Nintendo goods throughout the year, you’ll be rewarded with Gold or Platinum status, which entitles you to an extra set of goodies to choose from each July. In the past, these rewards have included digital games and even physical goods, like calendars, postcards and statues. For the 2014 rewards, however, Nintendo has dropped the trinkets and opted instead to focus on a long list of games to choose from.

This is the internet, though, so of course a lot of people are already complaining about not having the ability to claim, say, a deck of cards featuring the cast of Mario Bros. Whether or not you fall into this camp, don’t let your frustration stop you from claiming your Elite Status gift, as it’s a free game that won’t even cut into your Coin stash.

As a reminder for those who aren’t sure how the program works, Gold members may only choose one free game from the Gold list. Period. Platinum members, however, may choose a game from the Platinum list OR the Gold list. You still only get one game, but your options are a bit more varied.

Without further ado, here are this year’s Elite Status gifts.

In the Gold category for the Wii U, you could claim Ice Climbers, Kid Icarus, Super Mario Bros. or Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. On the 3DS front, your options are Donkey Kong 3, Wario Land 2, Metroid and Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins.

Platinum rewards are a bit more enticing, not all of which are pulled straight out of the Virtual Console. For the Wii U, they include Game and Wario, NES Remix, Earthbound and Dr. Luigi. On the 3DS, the Platinum rewards are Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move, Dillon’s Rolling Western, Fluidity: Spin Cycle and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D.

So, there you have it. Decide which game you want, head on over to the website, and claim your prize sometime before Aug. 15. The site is experiencing a lot of crashes today, probably due to folks grabbing their rewards, so maybe wait until the wee hours of the morning or give it a couple of days to avoid the hassle.