One week to go

How's your Club Nintendo account looking, North Americans? Did you register enough Nintendo Product™ since last July to qualify for a neat-o Gold or Platinum badge? If not, you might want to scrape your game collection for stray Coins as the second Club Nintendo year winds down on June 30 to ensure your reward.

To qualify for Gold status you'll need to have accumulated at least 300 Coins since July 1, 2009; Platinum status requires a minimum of 600. This doesn't mean you need to have that many Coins in your account balance by then, only that you must have earned that many during the year – you're free to spend them all you'd like without affecting your status.

Last year, Platinum members were posed with a Sophie's Choice between having a Mario hat sent to their home or the Club-exclusive WiiWare game Doc Louis' Punch-Out!! sent to their console. The decision for Gold members was much simpler, as a 2010 calendar was the only reward up for grabs.

The rewards for this year haven't been announced yet, but expect to hear more on that sometime in July.

Eligible (i.e. Nintendo-published) retail Wii games net you 50 coins plus an additional 10 when you fill out its Post-Play Survey, DS games grant 30 coins and 10 more with the survey, and if your console is tied to your account then anything downloaded via Virtual Console, WiiWare and DSiWare can land you 10 coins if you fill out their survey.

Maybe now you'll wade through those dozens of surveys you've been putting off. If you don't feel like it, well, hey, Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Skies is out on June 27!