Nintendo tries its hardest to make its customers happy. They keep costs down by repurposing old hardware with motion controls, reuse old games with a slightly fresher coat of paint, and they have the best rewards program in the industry. Well, maybe only that last one is a good thing.

Club Nintendo, in Japan at least, is great. For every Wii or DS game you buy, you get a code for Club Nintendo points. The number of points you received increases if you register them within the first few weeks of a game’s launch. And even more if you had the foresight to register your intent to purchase in their Pre-Order Bonus section on nintendo.co.jp. Want even more points? Check the survey page on the site a few weeks after registering the game’s points, and you can take a survey about how much you liked the game to get more points. These surveys even apply to WiiWare, Virtual Console, and DSiWare. Nintendo of Japan gives its customers plenty of chances to accumulate points.

These points can then be traded in for various items, like game and system cases, limited edition CDs, playing cards, and stationary sets. If you build up 400 points over re course of the year, you get Platinum Membership, and are entitled to one of their super deluxe prizes. As an example of one, two years ago, I got a Super Famicon controller that connects to my Wii Remote so that I can play VC games the way they were meant to be played. Last year however, was a cat-sized Mario hat. Luckily, they were backed up and offered 400 points in its place if you wanted to just take the points.

Recently, I exchanged some old points that were about to expire and got a deck of Mario Party playing cards and a Mario DS game case, that should be arriving in the next few weeks. Overall, I love Club Nintendo, and wish other companies’ rewards programs were as good.