Club Nintendo Offers Free Indie Games to Members

The promotion includes two 3DS and two Wii U titles from indie developers, yours to own if you have gold points to spare.

5

When you purchase games on the Nintendo eShop, gold points are added to your connected Club Nintendo account. The idea is that you can eventually exchange them for sweet rewards, but until now those rewards have consisted primarily of slight discounts on select games in the online shop. Finally, Nintendo has begun offering something more exciting, in the form of free indie games you can download in exchange for those precious gold points.

Nintendo today posted a news story to let members know about the added loot. You can exchange your points for download codes you can then redeem on the Nintendo eShop to snag one or more of the offered titles, rather than whipping out your credit card or applying an existing balance. The available games are BIT.TRIP Presents… Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien and Art of Balance for Wii U, as well as Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo and Zen Pinball 3D for the Nintendo 3DS.

With a virtual price of 90 gold points, Runner2 is the most “expensive” of the titles listed. Before you spend your points, make sure you don’t already own it (the game was previously offered as part of a recent Humble Bundle special). In the game, you’ll run, jump, slide, kick, and soar through a variety of environments that host 125 levels and 5 boss battles.

Art of Balance costs 70 gold points and was previously also available on Wii. Your goal is to stack blocks to form towers in 200 levels, either alone or with a friend or online. The game was developed by Shin’en, a long-time Nintendo partner that more recently gained attention for its work on Fast RMX.

For 60 points, you can download Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo, an action/platformer with 90 levels. Your goal is to guide Mr. Nibbles as he “goes nuts for acorns.” Some other critters stole his stash, and he needs to gather it once more so he can feed his growing family.

Finally, Zen Pinball 3D is offered for 50 points and presents four 3D pinball tables that are brought to life by some of the most advanced ball physics you’ll find in a portable pinball title. Online leader boards are also offered, which makes the game a terrific choice if you want some handheld pinball action.

The above Club Nintendo rewards appear to be available through November 27, 2017 at 8AM (PST). Whether Nintendo will replace the games with new ones at that point remains to be seen, but at least for now, you have a potentially worthwhile use for all those gold points you’ve been hoarding.

Contributing Editor
From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 27, 2017 2:59 PM

    Jason Venter posted a new article, Club Nintendo Offers Free Indie Games to Members

    • reply
      September 27, 2017 3:14 PM

      Club Nintendo is trash. How you going to launch a flagship console without any rewards for it and points that expire before you can use them on your nonexistent rewards.

      • reply
        September 27, 2017 3:20 PM

        Nintendo has a lot of work to do before Club Nintendo will match its previous rewards program, which I liked a lot more (I got some really cool stuff from that). However, I'm still being rewarded for buying games I would be buying anyway, so I won't complain a whole lot even though Nintendo itself has proven the rewards program could be better.

        • reply
          September 27, 2017 4:17 PM

          I'm not sure they're even going to try to match the old rewards program. That was legitimately good, Club Nintendo is bad

    • reply
      September 27, 2017 6:11 PM

      It's actually called "MyNintendo". Club Nintendo was the previous rewards program which was actually good.

      • reply
        September 27, 2017 10:21 PM

        Nintendo needs a Clubbing for their complete lack of a viable online service. Just hire the Xbox live team or Steam and make it work.

    • reply
      September 27, 2017 11:11 PM

      i miss the old club nintendo. getting mario luigi shoe laces and stuff was great

    • reply
      September 28, 2017 8:10 AM

      Would really like them to start offering Switch games/discounts.

Hello, Meet Lola