This morning I woke up to an email from Nintendo regarding information concerning Club Nintendo Members who reached either Gold or Platinum status. I had reached Platinum status shortly after the service launched by registering my entire catalog of first-party Nintendo games and spent my coins only on a set of Mario-themed Hanafuda cards, which I still have no idea how to use.

I was very excited to see what Nintendo would be offering their most loyal customers as rewards for purchasing hundreds, if not thousands of dollars worth of first-party games. I don’t know for sure what I was expecting, but I was anticipating something fairly awesome to show off for being such a hardcore geek.

Then I was disappointed.

Platinum members can either redeem a digital download of Doc Louis’s Punch Out!! or a novelty one-size-fits-all Mario hat. Gold members, the people who didn’t quite achieve Platinum status, were rewarded with a Nintendo-themed 2010 calender, which is actually way cooler than either of the things offered to Platinum Members for their insane devotion.

So far Club Nintendo America has been, as predicted by many, a disappointment. Hopefully things will turn around this period now that most people have spent all of their coins and have already registered their full collections. Here’s to hoping!

Club Nintendo members must log in to their Club Nintendo account and redeem their gifts by August 11, 2009.