Typically around this time every year, Nintendo gamers would be knee deep in excitement over the Club Nintendo Gold and Platinum Rewards they receive every year. Thanks to this loyalty program, the gamers who register Wii U and 3DS hardware and software would expect cool bonuses that would range from posters and calenders to figures and exclusive games during especially good years. So when July rolled along and it was time to figure out what free item they would be getting, why is it that the Internet is largely crying foul?

Unlike previous years, 2014 is the first where there won’t be a single physical gift offered for the people who may have spent a maximum of $600 on Nintendo products in order to qualify for the highest reward tier. Nope, this year, the only rewards for both Gold and Platinum members are digital games. So what’s to complain about? Sure, a figure or pins would have been great, but free is free, right? It’s not like Nintendo NEEDS to give anyone anything.

Or at least that’s only part of the story. While the word “entitled” seems to get easily thrown around in the world of gaming as of late, it’s not hard to see why this frustration is justified for a variety of reasons. First, North America has always come off as an afterthought when it came to Club Nintendo, especially since it was the last major region to obtain the program. Japan had it for years, giving out bonuses while we got nothing aside from extended warrantys. Occaisionally, we’d get great stuff like the GameCube Legend of Zelda collection, but these were few and far between. It wasn’t until the boom period of the Wii that we finally got the chance to join the club, but it was nearly a decade after Japan and many years after almost every other region. Still, better late then never, right?

Secondly, North American Club Nintendo members are constantly getting shafted in terms of gifts, even on the standard store where coins can be exchanged for prizes. We might get the occaisional Luigi’s Mansion statue or Mario pin. Hell, we even got an exclusive downloadable game in Doc Louis’ Punch Out in its innagural year. But aside from that, we’re usually getting screen savers, posters, notebooks… Cool stuff to an extent, but when compared to Japan’s numerous game soundtracks or Europe’s freakin’ Mario Kart replica trophy, and it’s no wonder why gamers have often said they wished they could uproot to another country, especially when Australia is giving this amazing Yoshi plush as I speak… Erm, type.

However, the above points are minor as far as I’m concerned, and up to this point, I would still side with the idea that it’s better than nothing. Even if our prizes aren’t nearly as interesting as the ones offered elsewhere, it’s still more than we would get if there was no club at all. So why is the backlash suddenly justified when it essentially boils down to people being unhappy with their free stuff? In this case, it’s because it comes off as an empty gesture, feeling like Club Nintendo is going through the motions, and offering a prize AFTER everyone’s coins and purchases have been accounted for.

To explain further for those who are unaware, Club Nintendo’s premiere statuses work on an annual basis. Within a year, members who accumulate 300 or 600 coins by registering purchased products and filling out their accompanying surveys, (the equivilent to $300 and $600 respectively if you neglect to register early or fill out bonus forms for extra coins). Once June 30th comes and goes, it starts up a new Club Nintendo year, resetting their count towards premiere and starting over. The prizes for Platinum and Gold aren’t revealed until July, so while it’s always been a bit of a gamble, previous years always delivered with at least one prize that most people agreed was a must have item.

But this year changed that. Rather than offering an exclusive set of items, or even an exclusive digital download, we got… Game and Wario. Not to say it’s not fun, but it, and the 15 or so other games being offered, are widely available to everyone who wants to buy them. Why is a free game that you don’t have to wait to be shipped to you a problem, you ask? Let me mention again HOW exactly a person becomes a Platinum member. They have to buy games. And I mean A LOT of games to qualify. So chances are, if the company’s most loyal customers reached this status, they’ve either already purchased the titles they wanted while the ones they don’t remain unpurchased for a reason. At best, we’ll get a game that we don’t want. At worst, we get nothing, because we already own everything that’s being offered. If there was ever a year to clue us in on the prizes ahead of time, this would have been it. That way, people who owned these games could have saved their coins for the following year. Instead, they have to start from scratch after using them on a prize that dones’t apply to them.

What makes this situation the most frustrating is that it could have been easily fixed by giving us more options. We might never know why a physical gift was ruled out, but for whatever reason, why couldn’t have we been given the choice to download any game within a certain price range? Game and Wario is going for $30 on the eShop right now. Why couldn’t Platinum members been given the option to purchase a game of their choice up to that amount? Or Gold members being allowed to purchase a game that’s $5 or less? But instead, we’re stuck with games we either already have, or don’t want.

This year’s prizes have left many Club Nintendo members with a bad taste in their mouths, and it’s hard to not see why. With that said, I’d love to hear some other thoughts on the subject. Do you think the anger is unjustified? Is anything for free better than nothing? Will you continue to fill out Nintendo’s surveys in the hopes of better prizes next year? Share your opinion and join the discussion below!