I have a feeling the Platinum rewards are always going to be Mario stuff...

Ugh, suck.  If anyone wants to buy the shitty figures off me, pm me.

Would've been nice to get an actual GAME related reward (SNES Classic Controller, New Play Control! Pikmin 2, Super Mario All-Stars VC code, etc)...

Already ordered the figurine.  Cant wait to get it

Last year you could get an exclusive Punch Out game for WiiWare.

That's a game.

As for the past rewards: Mario Hats, CD's, figurines, those are all for COLLECTORS. Many of the rewards that you can buy with coins are for COLLECTORS. Those figurines are collectors' items. They aren't meant to be "fun."  Similar figurines can easily sell for over $100. You should be happy that you're getting anything. And besides, it's free.

Nintendo wants to give you exclusive rewards. You won't be able to get this authentic figurine set anywhere else (until people sell it on Ebay). You can get a SNES Classic Controller, and NPC Pikmin 2, and Super Mario All-Stars on the internet. They don't want to give you things that you might already have. If you don't like this year's rewards, then don't complain. It's not about getting stuff for free, it's the concept of collection.

These rewards aren't about getting fun stuff that you can use a bunch. It's about collecting memorabilia that you can't get anywhere else.

Eh, no.  I can't get a copy of NPC Pikmin 2 or a VC SMAS code for my US Wii.  I could hack and pirate I guess, but unlike some, I'd rather not.  Also, you can't get the SFC CC anywhere but 2nd hand, it was a JP Club Nintendo reward and now regularly goes for around $100 on ebay.

I chose the Punch-Out game last year.  I was hoping I'd get a similar choice this year, something actually GAMING related rather than useless chotskies or fanwank memorabelia.  Especially after amassing 600 points this year, which I can assure you was not "free".

Dude, relax. If you don't like the rewards, don't buy the products to begin with.

Well, that might be a good option if we didn't find out the rewards after we bought products and redeemed points.

I didn't buy anything I didn't want to "for points".  That's not the issue.  The issue is that these rewards just... kinda suck.

Figures for Alex, figures for Alex (little dance)

I don't know about the US, but in the U.K we've had quite a lot of games for our star points.  Within the last 18 months, Nitnendo's trying to sell off their GBA game stock, and selling (for star points) the likes of Mario Tennis GBA, Metroid Zero Mission and Mario vs DK.

I remember about 6 years ago, I bought Wave Race BS for the GC with some star points.