Japan's Club Nintendo service has long been the envy of games worldwide, and is regarded as one of the coolest consumer reward services on the net. Gamers receive a special code inside their purchases that can then be attached to their account on the official website, earning them a certain number of stars. These stars could then be cashed in for prizes, both digital and physical. Club Nintendo members are the ones that get all the amazing shwag, from white Gamecube controllers (for use on Wii with Smash Bros.) to limited edition clothing and more.

Well, we have some great news. Jason Hill, over at The Age's Screen Play blog, says he received a code in his review copy of Mario Kart Wii that specifically mentioned it was for Australian and New Zealand players only, and directed him to the Club Nintendo website. That website doesn't show anything Australian-based right now, but we can only assume that come Thursday, when the game hits stores, the site will be up and running. We'll be getting our greasy, greasy fingers on the game later this week, so we'll keep you up to date on the program (and the game too). Stay tuned.

UPDATE: After quick bit of experimentation with URLs, I discovered that this address seems to be the portal for Australian users. It doesn't load up anything at the moment, but keep an eye on it over the next few days.

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I don't doubt this is their reponse so heavy importing by hardcore users. Offer them free stuff, make it less attractive.

When they cut their prices by half and don't take six months to release a game, I'll stop importing.

In the meantime, I don't care about free useless clutter.