Nintendo runs a pretty cool rewards program for people who love to buy Nintendo products called “Club Nintendo”.  When you purchase certain games or hardware, you’re given a unique code you redeem online to earn points, and you can also receive additional points for filling out surveys.  You can then spend these points on exclusive Nintendo merchandise.

Each year, Nintendo rewards the most financially-supportive fans who reach the “Platinum” level with a special prize.  This year’s will be the awesome figurine pictured below.  I’m certainly excited to receive mine, although I’m a little embarrassed to have spent so much on Nintendo products over the past year.

Nintendo’s E3 announcements provided a steady stream of nostalgic bliss. I can’t remember a year where I am more excited about the lineup, and the revival of classic franchises like Kid Icarus, Donkey Kong Country, and Pilotwings, on top of updates to Zelda, Mario Sports, and more means that this will be an exciting year for Nintendo fans. If you want a taste of what lies in store, check out The Big N’s special E3 site here.

Also, click into the gallery below to see the highlights.

Check out these amazing renders of what the Blue Bomber and some of his classic nefarious nemeses would look like if they broke into the 3rd dimension. Seeing these pictures make me wish they would create a new installment in the series that keeps flat 2D gameplay but works in high-quality character models like this. You can see the full gallery here.

Mario’s brother will also be a playable character in the next installment of the Super Mario Galaxy series that will be coming out later this month. Check out this trailer to get excited about the less-famous member of the family.

Capcom did a very cool thing with their first return to the 8-bit glory of Mega Man when they enlisted the artist Gerald de Jesus to create new “box art” for the download that evoked the vibe of the original Mega Man box art from the 80′s. Fans loved the treatments, and so Capcom commissioned more work for the relatively-newly-released Mega Man 10. Here are the new graphics, which include many favorite characters from the series.  You can read more about it on the Capcom blog here.