Club Nintendo has arrived

Just got a email reminder from Nintendo that I can pick a gold reward. I'm leaning towards The Legend of Zelda (interested to see how the series started out) or Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga (been looking for a good Mario rpg after beating Paper Mario & Super Mario RPG)

Damn, those are two excellent choices. Personally, as much as I love the Zelda series, I don't think the original game holds up quite as well now. M&L, on the other hand, I could definitely recommend to anyone who likes the battle system of SMRPG.

Superstar Saga is a great RPG. I played the heck out of it in the original Game Boy Advance release. Highly recommended, especially if you like other turn-based Mario RPG games.

I'm having trouble selecting my Gold award. I'm kicking myself now for not scraping together the few more coins I needed to get into Platinum for some hot Tropical Freeze action.

I have Pushmo already and thought it was kinda meh. Is Crashmo significantly better, or is it basically more of the same?

Superstar Saga is the second-best Mario RPG. The best is, of course, Thousand Year Door. (Disclaimer: I bounced off SMRPG.)

Everyone should play Superstar Saga, it is pure delight.

merphle wrote:

I have Pushmo already and thought it was kinda meh. Is Crashmo significantly better, or is it basically more of the same?

I don't know, but I just opted for Crashmo for my own Gold reward, since I've played almost every other game on the Gold list (in particular, all of the re-releases).

merphle wrote:

I have Pushmo already and thought it was kinda meh.

IMAGE(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r127/mtdew747/Bakatest-anger.gif)

Demyx wrote:

(Disclaimer: I bounced off SMRPG.)

It an okay game, but every Mario RPG since has been significantly better. You really can't go backward.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

It an okay game, but every Mario RPG since has been significantly better. You really can't go backward.

Gotta give credit where credit is due though. Without Mario RPG we probably wouldn't have Paper Mario and/or Mario & Luigi. It's a good proof of concept but I agree it would be really hard to go back. Like trying to play Metroid after Super Metroid hard.

"Proof of concept" is a good way to put it. It laid the foundation for the idea of a Mario RPG. But it was strongly wedded to Squaresoft's RPG ideas at the time, and most of the mechanics and conventions we'd associate with the series now weren't put into place until Paper Mario four years later. If you go into it expecting a 16-bit Paper Mario, or even an SNES Mario & Luigi, you're going to be disappointed.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
merphle wrote:

I have Pushmo already and thought it was kinda meh.

IMAGE(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r127/mtdew747/Bakatest-anger.gif)

I'M SO SORRY! I'LL GET CRASHMO AND LOVE IT!

ClockworkHouse wrote:

If you go into it expecting a 16-bit Paper Mario, or even an SNES Mario & Luigi, you're going to be disappointed.

Unrelated, but if Nintendo gets their act together with the GBA and DS virtual console releases for the Wii U, there's going to be some really sweet rewards available for free via the Club Nintendo replacement (This goes double for Wii re-releases)

WolverineJon wrote:
merphle wrote:

I have Pushmo already and thought it was kinda meh. Is Crashmo significantly better, or is it basically more of the same?

I don't know, but I just opted for Crashmo for my own Gold reward, since I've played almost every other game on the Gold list (in particular, all of the re-releases).

I think I might be in the same boat. It feels like I have all the gold stuff except crashmo/pushmo. And I only had 150 coins left to use. Kind of the same boat there. All the 150 coin games I think I have. Some of the 200 ones look nicer to me, but no way to get those now.

Of course I'm only looking at 3DS games right now. If I'd got a Wii U last month then I'd have more coins and have made platinum, and wouldn't have this problem.

Stele wrote:

Of course I'm only looking at 3DS games right now. If I'd got a Wii U last month then I'd have more coins and have made platinum, and wouldn't have this problem. :(

And thus, ladies and gentlemen, we have the first recorded case of someone regretting not buying a Wii U.

Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga it is then! Thanks guys for the help

b12n11w00t wrote:

I just got my e-mail about this. So now I decide between Mario Golf or Tropical Freeze.

From a monetary standpoint, especially, this just makes sense.

If you like Donkey Kong Country games at all this is a no brainer.

I don't like Donkey Kong. I got Crashmo.

I just got my e-mail about this. So now I decide between Mario Golf or Tropical Freeze.

Edit: Went with DK as I don't have that many WiiU games.

garion333 wrote:
b12n11w00t wrote:

I just got my e-mail about this. So now I decide between Mario Golf or Tropical Freeze.

From a monetary standpoint, especially, this just makes sense.

If you like Donkey Kong Country games at all this is a no brainer.

Yeah I do. DKC was one of my favorite games on the snes. I owned both version of DKCR. So it was an easy choice really.

Australia now has eShop games to trade for stars. Ranges from 360 stars to 4,400.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Australia now has eShop games to trade for stars. Ranges from 360 stars to 4,400.

Do not pay 4,400 for Chibi-Robo Let's Go Photo!.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Australia now has eShop games to trade for stars. Ranges from 360 stars to 4,400.

f*cking arseholes...

Announce this 3 DAYS before we can no longer register new purchases (and then only digitals).

Wish I'd gambled and held onto those 2200 points from before.

Might download a few titles this weekend. Ones I've been eying up (Kirbys Adventure, on Wii, that sort of thing.)

m0nk3yboy wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Australia now has eShop games to trade for stars. Ranges from 360 stars to 4,400.

f*cking arseholes...

Announce this 3 DAYS before we can no longer register new purchases (and then only digitals).

Wish I'd gambled and held onto those 2200 points from before.

Might download a few titles this weekend. Ones I've been eying up (Kirbys Adventure, on Wii, that sort of thing.)

I have 2800 to burn, deciding between Super Metroid, Super Mario World, Zelda Minish Cap, Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga. The GBA games cost heaps more stars than the SNES games (2400 compared with 1300), I guess they're newer but the gap seems crazy to me.

radaxian wrote:
m0nk3yboy wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Australia now has eShop games to trade for stars. Ranges from 360 stars to 4,400.

f*cking arseholes...

Announce this 3 DAYS before we can no longer register new purchases (and then only digitals).

Wish I'd gambled and held onto those 2200 points from before.

Might download a few titles this weekend. Ones I've been eying up (Kirbys Adventure, on Wii, that sort of thing.)

I have 2800 to burn, deciding between Super Metroid, Super Mario World, Zelda Minish Cap, Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga. The GBA games cost heaps more stars than the SNES games (2400 compared with 1300), I guess they're newer but the gap seems crazy to me.

I was a little dismayed, then I realised that Super Metroid would cost me $10.40 to 'buy' in real money, or 12 full retail titles in stars (12 x 200 stars per registration). So I figured, at least on our AU prices, I'm at least $800 in front of the game

I've got 600 points, I get to choose between Alleyway, Aura Aura-Climber, or Paper Plane for 3DS, or 1 of the Panorama purchases for WiiU. Sticky notes, ringtones, and desktop images are still options I believe...

I'm tempted by Aura Aura-Climber as a time waster, but I might hold out until the final redemption deadlines to see if anything else appears.

radaxian wrote:
m0nk3yboy wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Australia now has eShop games to trade for stars. Ranges from 360 stars to 4,400.

f*cking arseholes...

Announce this 3 DAYS before we can no longer register new purchases (and then only digitals).

Wish I'd gambled and held onto those 2200 points from before.

Might download a few titles this weekend. Ones I've been eying up (Kirbys Adventure, on Wii, that sort of thing.)

I have 2800 to burn, deciding between Super Metroid, Super Mario World, Zelda Minish Cap, Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga. The GBA games cost heaps more stars than the SNES games (2400 compared with 1300), I guess they're newer but the gap seems crazy to me.

That's likely because the SNES games were coded back during the Wii-era for Virtual Console while the GBA emulation is a new thing for the Wii U.

And they're actually newer games too.

So for my Platinum Status gift I ended up deciding against Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, and going with Golf for the 3DS.

Even though you all unanimously told me to get DK, there is another factor, and that is my 10 yo daughter, who said she wanted a golf game to play. Usually they don't have much opinions on games, so when they do I want to encourage them.

Who am I to argue. This probably belongs in the Self-Indulgent Parents thread.

Ooph, I really wasn't a fan of Mario Golf on 3DS. I think it's because I'm unfairly comparing it to something like Hot Shots Golf but something about it seemed kind of tedious to me. I felt like the difficulty was a bit high, at least as far as what you need in order to progress. But let me know if you think differently! I could've been a sore loser because it wasn't Hot Shots.

My favorite "golf" game: Kirby's Dream Course, with save states.

Mario Golf 64 was a classic. Couldn't get into the 3ds version

The GBC and GBA versions were much better. I played the heck out of the GBA one a few years back. You actually start as a male or female golfer and are introduced to the game, and you earn xp, level up, get better clubs, and so on. It's not like the console versions where you just play with Mario game characters and unlock them.

But it seems they dropped all the cool RPG stuff from the 3DS version, so it's just like another console entry in the series.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

My favorite "golf" game: Kirby's Dream Course, with save states.

Ditto. Kirby's Dream Course was one of my most played SNES games. I would snap it up in an instant if they ported it to 3DS.