According to Siliconera, the game ExciteBots: Trick Racing will be available to club Nintendo members in Japan for 1000 club Nintendo points.
Until now the game has been exclusive to America.

I think this is an awesome way to gage interest in foreign games, not to mention the best use to date for club Nintendo points! It also shows that Nintendo aren't afraid of doing the actual work of porting over a game and translating it, as long as the costs of distribution are covered.

With that said, I'd love to see NoA and NoE follow suit with their own niche releases exclusive to club Nintendo members. Personally I don't even mind if successful games are given a full retail release later down the line (in fact, I hope they are) as club Nintendo members would still be getting them earlier and for free!

What games do you think could fit this type of program? It's probably reasonable to assume they should all be games that are pretty easy to port and translate (ie: not too text heavy - sorry earthbounders), but that still probably leaves more than a few options.

Discuss!

update: here is a link to the game's official site on club Nintendo Japan, where it says the game will even support online multiplayer!
It does seem like a large amount of work for such a limited release, but then again so was  Grill Off with Ultra Hand!

well not a bad idea....

i have 16000 points still to spend.

They are just testing, like NoA.

which games would you like to see?

Personally I wouldn't mind having Japanese games with subs since dubbing would probably be too expensive..

How about Zangeki no Reginleiv?

Also, perhaps European games could come to America's club Nintendo (and vice versa) since most gamers are fluent in English on both sides of the pond.

unlike NoA, at least they are testing by making it available in their own territory!

Japan always gets things first. It is interesting procedure, but in Europe I'd be expensive as hell - our club sucks a lot.

My account has zero stars, I used all of them when I noticed quite a few thousand expired. So now nothing expires since there is nothing there. Will register the games whenever a miracle occurs and something similar and affordable like this appears on our shores. Till then nothing.

i m not sure if buying the Zelda statue or not!

your club is better than ours! we still don't have the SNES classic controller, and we can't convert stars into Wii or DSi points - which is something I'd love to have, even if the conversion rate is crappy.

Also, what would happen of the game was made available in Europe with only English subs (in case of a Japanese release)?

Wouldn't that be enough for most gamers?

The grass is always greener on the other side :P There really is no incentive to register the games over here (only for Wii points). We don't have platinum presents like America or Japan does, all of our items have to be bought with the stars we get. But you are right, the star2points conversion is the only useful thing from the club, and what I bought with my remaining stars, but it's only valid for legacy devices like the DSi or Wii.

Yes, the games would be nice, but I'm not expecting this move from NoE.
I'd take Trauma Team, FF4 or Zangeki - though I wouldn't be able to get them

alright I see this thread is running low on ideas, so let me add a few.
How about the old Japan exclusive F-Zero releases? If I remember correctly there was an expansion to F-Zero X on N64 with a track editor, and also one or two GBA games in the series that never made it to the west.
They could be released digitally with a code to download via club Nintendo.

How about never before seen games like Starfox 2? Assuming it's complete and can be emulated that is..
Or some of the old Satellaview games?

To be honest, these are the kind of things I want to see on club Nintendo, not silly calenders and tote bags!

Other possible games that only saw limited release outside Japan, but are already translated to English could also work, such as Doshin the Giant, Cubivore, Giftpia and more.
NPC Chibi Robo is also possible since they could just slap the GC translation on the Wii port.

American gamers could get a taste of some of those European exclusives from this gen. like Disaster, Another Code: R, and more. I'm sure Europe has more than a few games from previous gens that they never got.

With all the recent discussions about Nintendo not caring about their fans and only publishing major releases, I think this is something that finally looks like a step in the right direction!
It's not the best option but it's something, and like I said earlier it shows that Nintendo still care about their fans, and more importantly, that they are willing to do the initial work of porting and translating even if there is no profit involved!

That's certainly commendable!