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Wii U Mario Kart 8 Promotion brings Club Nintendo to its knees



With the recent release of the highly anticipated Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U, Nintendo sweetened the deal by offering early adopters a choice of four games with purchase.  You simply buy the game, register it to your account on the Club Nintendo site, and it will offer you a download code for one of four games.


  1. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
  2. Pikmin 3
  3. New Super Mario Bros. U
  4. Wii Party U
The highly anticipated game was release on May 30th, and the promo offer extends until July 31st for game registration. Once registered, Nintendo will allow you to claim your download by August 31st.   The problem is that the Club Nintendo site has been brought down to its knees due to this offer.  Logging in is currently an exercise in patience.  Registering the game mostly works, but when you attempt to get your code, it will either log you out, or loop you endlessly in re-registering the game and then error out. 


How Nintendo could have underestimated the traffic that this would generate is unfathomable.  Even if they did not, the Wii U is not exactly its best selling system.  The adoption rate for it is still fairly low, and unless they quintupled their Wii U sales overnight, Nintendo should have been better prepared for this.  



Club Nintendo will drag you through endless loops at this time, unless you get lucky.
I did almost get through one time, was allowed to choose from one of the four games, and then after I selected Wind Waker HD, I was looped right back to the registration page.  It's extremely annoying to say the least, and has not encouraged any thoughts of Nintendo understanding the "online" experience.

For the more patient among you, this is the time to rack up on three games for the price of 1.5 games.  Toys R Us currently has a promotion where you can buy Mario Kart 8, and get 40% off an eligible second Wii U game at the same price or lower.  Once done, I should have Mario Kart 8, Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze, and Wind Waker HD for less than one hundred bucks.  Not a bad deal.  

Have you had a better or worse experience with this special offer?  Sound off in the comments section below and let the world know!


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