Nintendo has decided to end its Club Nintendo loyalty program with something on the opposite end of the spectrum from a whimper (that’s a bang). Over 100 games spanning the Wii, Wii U and 3DS are now available in exchange for the program’s coins, but act quickly, because it’s all coming to a close pretty soon. There are also a number of brand new physical goodies, such as a Majora’s Mask jigsaw puzzle or messenger bag.

No more games released by Nintendo or publishers who might have partaken in the program will be eligible for registration within the program, but if you have a game to register that released before January 20, 2015, your window has not yet closed. Until March 31, 2015, those games be registered for varying coin amounts just as they used to, and you’ve got until July 1, 2015 before the whole program shuts down for good and the redeeming of wonderful Nintendo goodies in such a way goes silently into the night.

The reason for all this, according to Nintendo, is the introduction of a brand new loyalty program. From Nintendo:

“In order to focus on planning for a new customer loyalty program for our fans, we’ve decided to wind-down the Club Nintendo program. We are deeply thankful to our members for being a part of Club Nintendo for all of these years…We will share details about our new program at a later date.”

Find the entire list of redeemable rewards right here. Be warned, the website is under considerable strain due to the feeding frenzy. Each system has a number of notable highlights, though, so we’ll naturally note them right here:

Wii U

The Wonderful 101 (600 coins) Here’s the most “video-gamey” full title on the Wii U’s list. It’s the other action-based adventure from Platinum Games exclusive to the console, and though it introduces a few odd frustrations with its unique, touch-based combat system, it’s also one of the most inventive games of its genre in the past few years.

Wii Fit U (600 coins) Personally, Wii Fit U isn’t my most exciting game on this list, since I’m prone to simply lying about my fitness rather than chasing my own physical superiority, but for anyone who already owns one of those original Wii Fit boards, now’s your chance to continue the adventure of self-torture.

Game and Wario (600 coins) The main issue with Game and Wario when it came out was that it cost money. It’s a pretty tiny mini-game collection, especially relative to the superior NintendoLand, but now it’s free for those who enjoy such a thing. The games themselves are pretty fun.

And now that the Wii U has built a substantial base of virtual console titles, many of those titles are currently featured as rewards costing about 200 coins apiece. From the rare Earthbound to the prolific Zelda, Metroid and Mario titles, now is the best time to dig into the oldies. If you want to go the lazy route, nab NES Remix for 300 coins and jump between bite-sized snippets of the classics.

3DS

Kid Icarus: Uprising (700 coins) Here’s the 3DS’s first great title, from Masahiro Sakurai, the dude behind Super Smash Bros. and Kirby. It’s a classically structured third-person adventure with an intuitive, Smash-inspired combat system and a sheer quantity that will keep you playing for hours.

Star Fox 64 3D (700 coins) Fox McCloud’s space-faring adventure is the single best argument for 3D games. The depth of field fundamentally improves both the visuals and mechanical soundness of an already stellar game.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star (700 coins) The latest in the Paper Mario series is also the first one on portable systems. Happily, nothing was lost in translation.

Super Mario 3D Land (600 coins) This precursor to the excellent Super Mario 3D World on Wii U is a great little title on its own. Also, it’s actually in 3D.

Dillon’s Rolling Western: The Last Ranger (300 coins) I just put this game on the list to further promote my agenda of getting the game’s title character, the cowboy armadillo named Dillon, into the next Super Smash Bros. as a fully playable character. He’s just an assist trophy right now, which is like telling the Vice President he actually matters.

The 3DS’s own virtual console is also well represented on the list.

Wii

Mario Kart 64 (250 coins) A classic precursor to a series still relevant today.

Super Smash Bros. (250 coins) A classic precursor to a series still relevant today.

Paper Mario (250 coins) A classic precursor to a series still relevant today.

Super Mario 64 (250 coins) A classic precursor to a series still relevant today.

The Wii is a virtual console.

If this announcement makes you sad, don’t let it. Instead, think on the past as a classic precursor to a future still relevant today. Above all else, channel the Nintendo 64 kid, another classic precursor to a future still relevant today.

The Final Club Nintendo Rewards are Plentiful and Delicious

It’s time to buy things you don’t quite understand for people you really, really don’t understand. That’s all gifts, to be clear. But when it comes to video games, there are lines you might cross and disappointments you may muster with even the smallest misstep. It’s a holiday minefield we’re here to help you navigate. We’ll begin with the only console recommendation on the list.

For the Entire Family

This is a public service announcement. Nintendo released a home console after the Wii. They really did. It’s called a Wii U and, compared to the Xbox One and PS4, it’s intensely outdated in the graphical department and woefully unsupported by third-party developers. Most good games on the Wii U are Nintendo games and there aren’t all that many of them.

The thing is, they’re almost universally great games and they do this weird thing that other game makers seem to have completely forgotten. They let people play in the same room together. There isn’t a console on the planet better suited for groups of people, now or before, than the Wii U. It also happens to be the one console that works with those amiibos everyone’s going nuts about.

There isn’t a developer more apt at touching in on that family and friends dynamic than the people who made Mario. They’re still doing it strong as ever, just don’t ask the so-called “hardcore” gamer about specs and advantages. Shut your earholes and read this: the Wii U is the console to buy right now, in 2014.

It may not be so in 2015 and it sure as hell wasn’t so in 2012 when the thing first came out. But in 2014, the Wii U is the most worthwhile new console on the market. At a time when families convene in their gift-giving holes, a console with games that support four, five or even eight people at once – that’s the one you want. It’s the one the family needs. If you do take the plunge, here’s a quick list of some great play-together starter games:

• Super Mario 3D World
• NintendoLand
• Pikmin 3
• Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
• Mario Kart 8

Search Ben’s for Wii U Deals

For the PC Loner

It’s okay. We all have our solitary hobbies. If it’s video games, well, that unfortunately doesn’t narrow down the spectrum of potential gifts. Your best bet isn’t to get a specific game for a specific console. No, your best bet is to go for something a little more generalized or universal.

Gaming chairs, headsets and other physical products are nice, but you also run the risk of poor workmanship or design. In the end, the best video game gift you can get for the lone gamer is choice. And choice, of course, comes in the form of a Steam gift card.

Multiple times over the course of every year, Valve’s Steam storefront, the go-to place for just about every worthwhile PC game on the market, goes into a frenzy of ridiculous sales on everything from the biggest AAA games to the smallest adored indie games. It’s called a Steam Sale, and PC gamers pretty much lose their sanity when it happens.

The best thing about a Steam gift card: the only requirement is a mildly powerful computer, since so many of the smaller games really don’t require all that much computing power to run. If your recipient needs a little help in that department, here’s a quick list of 2014’s best games that don’t demolish hard drives and graphics cards:

• The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
• This War of Mine
• Dungeon Defenders 2
• Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions
• Goat Simulator
• I am Bread
• Don’t Starve Together
• Nuclear Throne
• Super Time Force Ultra

For the Addicted Teenager

So your kid has chosen virtual people over real people. Don’t worry. It happens. It’s time to accept the way things are and look at this hobby in a new way. It can be a great segue into the inherent creativity and edification of video production. Watching other people play video games might seem a bit drab to the non-gamer, but within the community it’s a driving force of interaction and socialization across the entire planet, literally.

The first step is to get your kid a capture card so he or she can take all those wasted hours in front of a TV and turn it into a Youtube or Twitch channel. Some of the most popular “streamers” on the web aren’t even out of high school. It’s a bit of a technical, jargon-filled jungle getting through the capture card market. One of the simplest and most reliable devices right now, however, is the Elgato Game Capture HD.

Search Ben’s for Elgato HD Deals

For the Couples

There’s a bit of crossover with the Wii U on this one, but some games are just better suited for two people than others. In fact, some are even designed specifically for it. How quaint! Here’s a quick list of some of the best 2014 co-op games, particularly for their likelihood to end all arguments and cause spontaneous world peace.

Click below to open in Amazon.

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare

Destiny

Far Cry 4

Lara Croft and the Templs of Osiris

Best of luck with your gift giving and happy holidays from Ben’s!

Last Minute Video Game Gift Ideas for the Holidays

Nintendo’s amiibo platform, those little NFC-enabled Marios, Links and other franchise mascots, is proving to be a real, actual thing that people care about. Turns out it doesn’t matter that their functionality in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is basically inessential. It doesn’t matter that their functionality in the very few other accessible games is limited to the point of moot. In the end, people just wanted to collect some sweet Nintendo figurines direct from the video game company itself.

These things are flying off the shelves, but don’t worry if your niece, nephew, husband, wife or child has suddenly developed an irrational and seemingly unfounded need for a tiny version of some random dude named Marth, or something called a Wii Fit Trainer. That panicked sweat of ignorance shall wash cleanly away. We have you covered. This is the 2014 “how to amiibo” guide, starting with the three known waves of amiibo figurines, the first of which may already occupy a space on your desk.

At the time of publication, wave two amiibos are releasing at seemingly random days in random retailers across the U.S., likely wholly dependent on the availability of stock from store to store. Be assured, by Christmas the dust will settle. At this point, though, due to their surprising popularity, a pre-order is almost a must in order to ensure you get the one you want, no matter the wave or the place.

How to Choose

Every amiibo costs $13. Not coincidentally, that’s just a tiny bit less than most Disney Infinity and Skylanders figures on the market. Unlike those two groupings, the Nintendo choices are slim to the point of navigable for even the most out-of-touch relatives and, in the most important twist on the NFC figurine business model, Nintendo’s figurines have the potential to work with any games published on an NFC-enabled Nintendo console. Right now that’s just the Wii U, but next year the 3DS is getting a purchasable adapter and an entirely new model of the device, dubbed the New Nintendo 3Ds (and an XL version), which will ship with native NFC compatibility.

The grand conclusion of all this nonsense is you can worry far less about whether you bought the right thing to work in the right way, because even if it doesn’t, it could in the future, especially for anyone with a modicum of interest in new Nintendo games and consoles. However, there are ways to be more right than wrong when making your choice. Nintendo’s done the heavy lifting for you on this one, providing a fairly robust amiibo rundown on its own website, detailing which amiibo work with which games.

As you’ll see, the only three games the amiibo communicate with at all right now are Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Hyrule Warriors. More importantly, some amiibo grant you a showy costume for your Mii racer in Mario Kart 8 while others do nothing at all.

The Hyrule Warriors situation is, let’s say, less compelling, dispelling meager upgraded weapons upon NFC contact and nothing more. If it’s a way to enhance a video game you’re looking for, the only real option is Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, which actually plops down a virtual version of your amiibo into battle with or against you. The more he or she fights, the better he or she gets, so it’s a bit of a train-your-pet mini-game with a dose of violence. The persistence of the character, that your Donkey Kong or Captain Falcon is the same one every time he drops into the game, is the real interesting bit. Hopefully, future games will make as strong an effort, because Mario Kart 8 and Hyrule Warriors are just check marks on a list right now.

The future Wii U games already confirmed for amiibo connectivity are Mario Party 10, Yoshi’s Woolly World and Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, while the already released Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker will eventually receive a patch to enable its own amiibo features, though what those features might be for any of these games remains a mystery.

Where to find Store-Exclusive Amiibos

Much like any other physical, store-bound video game release, those nasty little retailer-exclusive offers are cropping up at an alarming rate. Wave 3, specifically, is set to split four amiibo among four retailers. Lucario and all his Pokemon-enabled kid friendliness is headed to Toys ‘R Us. Shulk, representative of the super video gamey Xenoblade series, will only be available through Gamestop. Meta Knight of the Kirby franchise is going to Best Buy.

And Rosalina, the latest core Mario character out of the Super Mario Galaxy games, shall grace Target with her eminence. Lucario is likely to prove the most popular of these figures, so start to get emotionally ready to enter the cave of color known as Toys ‘R Us, either a heaven or hell depending on your psychological age.

When in Doubt, Search eBay

You may have found your way to this article for a reason other than gift giving to yourself or others (no judgement). Indeed, it’s the land of Ebay that might’ve propelled these amiibos to their current level of marketplace prestige. The influence is two fold. First, the Samus and Peach amiibos have both shipped with unique and rare manufacturing errors.

Two Blaster Samus!

You’d be very lucky to stumble across, in your local Best Buy or Target, a Samus amiibo with two blasters, one on each arm, instead of the standard one. You’d be even luckier to find a Peach without her legs. Both of these have sold for thousands of dollars through Ebay auctions. That’s thousands, up from the original $13.

There’s now a flurry of listings for many other amiibo models on Ebay, desperate to reproduce the result. Some Fox amiibos have shipped without his eyepiece, and some Marios have shipped without painted hair. These “defects” range from the cool to the ridiculous to the completely fabricated.

No legs!

There are even a collection of people who seem to have simply shaken the box until the amiibo is upside down within the packaging, claiming a defect of their own making. It’s a wild west right now, only to get more absurd as waves two and three hit the market.

The other half of the Ebay equation is the current ambiguity surrounding Nintendo’s stance on whether certain amiibos, namely Marth, Wii Fit Trainer and Villager, will be manufactured at all following this holiday season. Through hazey statements on the subject and flat out conjecture, it seems Nintendo’s waiting to see if their popularity warrants further investment.

The ironic turnaround, of course, is if Nintendo decides to completely discontinue any amiibo, it’s value is bound to immediately skyrocket on the second hand market. Without an official word, though, it’s the waiting game for the opportunist in all of us. Try to imagine which amiibo you’d be least likely to buy and maybe that’s the one you should. But nobody really knows at the moment.

Search Amazon for  Amiibo Deals

Ben’s Guide to Choosing and Finding Nintendo Amiibos

If you haven’t heard, Nintendo had to aggressively slash sales projections by nearly 70 percent after a slow holiday season of Wii U sales. Despite the $50 price cut during late 2013, Nintendo is projecting sales of 2.8 million Wii U consoles for the 12-month period between April 2013 and March 2014. That’s down from a previous projection of 9 million consoles. It also pales in comparison to the 4 million Sony PlayStation 4 consoles and 3 million Xbox One consoles sold in the past two months.

Does this mean Nintendo is on the ropes? Long answer: Nope. Short answer: No. Here’s why:

1. Nintendo is an extremely solvent company with nearly 10 billion dollars in the bank, half in cash assets and half in bonds. The projected operating loss of $205 million is a drop in the bucket for the company and is typical of the gaming console hardware cycles that have occurred over the last 25 years.
2. While 3DS sales also dropped, it’s still the dominant, standalone handheld gaming device. Nintendo is projecting sales of more than 13 million 3DS devices over the same 12-month period, a figure that’s probably 4x to 5x the number of Sony PlayStation Vita devices sold.

Of course, there are definitely a handful of reasons why this will be good for gaming deals in 2014. Here are a few 2014 predictions:

1. Nintendo has no choice but to get more aggressive on the Wii U pricing structure and bundling options. While Nintendo didn’t have to cut the price on the first Wii for three years in North America due to gangbuster sales, the Wii U has much more in common with the Gamecube and N64 in regards to popularity. Historically, the Gamecube was cut to 50% of the original price in less than two years and the N64 got a 35% cut in the same time period. If history is any indication, the Wii U will hit a sweet spot around $199 before holiday 2014.
2. Nintendo has promised to “shake up management” and “think about a new business structure.” Hypothetically, this could lead Nintendo down the path of more mobile device integration (thus opening up the possibility of less expensive Nintendo games on smartphones) or branching out by developing multi-console releases of popular Nintendo titles. The latter is an extreme long shot (like 0.01%), but one that’s always delighted the imagination of PlayStation and Xbox devotees.
3. The starting MSRP for Wii U games will likely fall to the $50 price point (from $60) due to lagging software sales as well as the ever-prevailing view that the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are much more powerful than the Wii U hardware. This will mean retailer sales could hit at the $40 to $45 price point at launch and offer more aggressive discounts during the 2014 holiday season at a $25 to $30 price point.

While it’s possible that we will see all of these things happening by the E3 Expo (June 2014), it’s more likely that major pricing announcements and aggressive cuts will hit around the time of the Toyko Game Show (September 2014). In any case, anyone who’s been waiting to pick up a Wii U should be delighted with the deals. Be sure to check Ben’s deal feed for up-to-the-second deals on Wii U hardware and software.

Revealed!! What Nintendo’s poor Wii U sales will mean for gaming deals in 2014