Remember how much we all complained about Club Nintendo's North American Elite status gifts for the 2013-14 year?  I'm thinking now that we made out better than the program's Japanese counterpart which announced its Elite gifts today.  In previous years the loyalty program has handed out free exclusive controllers, shirts, and other awesome items, but this year Platinum members will receive a free Picross game featuring Nintendo's all-stars or a calendar, while Gold level members will receive a calendar.  Making things worse, this is apparently the last time that Club Nintendo Japan will give out Elite gifts (the membership agreement has even been updated to remove all mention of the Elite gifts and rankings).  The dream is over.

Suddenly that free Virtual Console download doesn't sound so bad.  No word on if other Club Nintendo regions will discontinue the annual Elite gift, but considering all the complaints the North American division received this year, I wouldn't be surprised if they decided the whole thing wasn't worth the trouble and ended it as well.  Truly we don't know what we have until it's gone.  Oops.