Nintendo eShop Promotion: Get Pokemon X or Y free with purchase of Nintendo 3DS and a game

Nintendo is pushing North Americans to purchase a console in the Nintendo 3DS family (including the 2DS, 3DS and 3DS XL) by giving away a free copy of Pokemon X or Y with the purchase of a console and one qualifying game.  This promotion runs throughout March 2014 and the list of qualifying titles, while short, has plenty of staples.  The games that qualify are: Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins, Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land and Yoshi’s New Island.

The fact that this is Pokemon X and Y should turn heads already.  As one of the major titles of last year that is still running strong, the game still has a ton of value and is well worth the full MSRP of $39.99.  If you are a parent buying a Nintendo 3DS for your kids, this is a game that you will buy sooner or later anyways.  If you can pair this up with a good deal on a Nintendo 3DS XL, you are looking at a great bargain.

Unfortunately, the promotion isn’t as painless as it possibly can.  Nintendo has made the process quite smooth, and their customer service have been very accommodating, but at the end of the day, they do want you to fill out two short surveys before giving you the game.  I won’t be going through a step by step, but it is a basic registration.

To get your free game, you have to find a few slips with your new purchases that have a Club Nintendo PIN code.  If you’ve collected them from ages ago, you can tell which slip comes from which game from the little graphic at the back.  From there, you sign up for an account at http://club.nintendo.com.  It is pretty basic, enter a name and password, email, agree to a few terms, etc.  Once you’ve registered, you enter your two PIN codes.  After you enter each PIN code, you will be prompted to do a survey of roughly 15 questions.  You can answer as truthfully as you want, but in total it should take no more than a minute or two to complete.

I found it amusing that they’ve added two questions about this promotion.  I stated that the promotion affected my decision to purchase hugely in hopes of more promotions like these.

When you have completed both surveys, you get your free game.  There will be a popup button, but it’ll also be on your homepage when you login.  Just make sure to “buy” the game before April 30th, 2014!  You will get a code in your email.  The code can be transferred to anyone, doesn’t have to be that particular 3DS console, so if you’re in the mood to trade, that works too.  Just head over to the Nintendo eShop on your 3DS console, enter settings and redeem your code.

But before you drop everything to start downloading and eventually playing, you might want to consider sticking with Club Nintendo.  If you did everything according to the books, you now have 200 coins.  Club Nintendo is a great little service to get some Nintendo swag.  Admittedly, their current selection is disappointingly poor, but they’ve usually got a few items worth buying, if not a few free retro titles.  With 200 points, you are just 100 points shy of becoming a Club Nintendo Gold Member.  Becoming a Gold Member entitles you to a free gift in July.  I got a Mario Hat a few years back, a very nice collectible pin set, etc.  If you plan to buy another game or two in the next 3 months, hang on to your Club Nintendo account, there’s some cool stuff there.