freebies posts(Subscribe to this feed)

It's that time again, everybody: time to sheepishly visit Burger King every day and buy a Kids' Meal for Nintendo freebies, all while trying to shut out thoughts of how disappointed your father would be to see you like this. Shame, shame.

The fast food chain is giving away a bunch of different toys based on the Wii and its games, and all it wants in return is cash and a willingness to clog up your own arteries. We like the "Chain Chomp Launcher" the best, though the "Float and Go Boo" and "Light-Up Luma" are also nice. Plus, we can always keep telling ourselves we'll sell all this on eBay in the future for a small fortune. Yes, that'll do: it's an investment in our future. Pictures and details of all ten follow the break.

Last month, Nintendo revealed that Club Nintendo, Japan and Europe's ace consumer rewards program, would launch in North America. Weeks of silence followed, but now Cammie Dunaway has started talking up the service. Here are five crucial facts she divulged to MTV Multiplayer:

• Club Nintendo in North America is still on schedule to launch before the end of 2008.
• It will be more like the Japanese program than the European, in that there will be more physical products than digital.
• As is the case in Europe, you gain points (known as gold coins in North America) by purchasing a product and entering a code on the Club Nintendo site, and can reap further points by completing surveys on the product you bought. In Europe, it's worth mentioning that these are hardly time-consuming: just five or six questions with tickboxes.
• Unlike in Europe, you can gain points for indicating an interest in purchasing before buying. Noice!
• Some items from the Japanese service will make it to North America (Yay! And also: please include this).

If you'll excuse us, we're now going to randomly hit our keyboard in a fit of wild, unabated excitement. YAKJFDAIWOQBHKJGFEDRYUVBEIUQ

[Update: A clarification: the service will be coming to North America as a whole! Apologies for the geographical confusion!]

Hands up -- do we have any UK-based teachers in the audience today? If so, you may wish to turn your head towards the Handheld Learning Conference, due to take place in London between October 13th and 15th. Apparently, organizers of the event will be dishing out free DS Lites and a copy of Brain Training to every attendee.

The point of this? According to conference founder Graham Brown-Martin, it's not a gimmick, but a chance for delegates to "experience an environment that would typically not be allowed in a classroom," while the conference itself is all about "exploring the convergence between consumer electronics, entertainment software, educational technology and learning" and HAY GUISE TOTALLY FREE DSES.

On a serious note, it's actually really satisfying to see any gaming device viewed as potentially helpful to the chil'n. Maybe in a few years Dr. Kawashima will teach all of the world's kids. His blunt manner would be a winner at parent teacher conferences, and he'd never do what we now know as a "Mr. Brown" and run off with Mrs. Carruthers.

Just look at that. Isn't it glorious? What you're seeing above, folks, is a Wii-compatible SNES pad. Let's say that again, shall we? A Wii-compatible SNES pad. Don't get too worked up though, because unless you're a member of Club Nintendo in Japan, these are off-limits (not that using a SNES pad for your VC games is impossible, but still, this is the real deal).

Yep, it's another reason we really should move to Japan. Hit the link below, and you'll see two more: a 2-disc Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack and a Mario desk calendar. All of which are horribly, tortuously unobtainable. Sob.

[Thanks Daniel!]

As we all know, there's a ridiculous number of very good reasons to own a DS. But here's another anyway, for those who reside in Canada: right now, for every 20 DS Lites sold at a Canadian branch of Wal-Mart in the next week (November 3 - 10), Nintendo has agreed to donate one Lite to your local Children's Miracle Network Hospital.

A most considerate gesture, Ninty, and if any of our Canadian readers were wavering over whether or not to pick up a DS, here's your perfect excuse.

It seems that the recent rumors about real world rewards for virtual world Xbox Live Achievements are true. Microsoft has just announced a cross-marketing promotion with Old Spice deodorant to give some freebies to American Xbox Live users who add at least 1,500 Achievement points to their gamerscore between Feb. 12 and April 12.

Players have to be at least 13 years old and register at Xbox.com/rewards after Feb. 12. Prizes are divided in to three tiers, depending on the participant's "annual gamerscore" (which we can only assume is the number of points you've gained in the last year):

• Level 1 (Gamers who have an annual gamerscore between 0-4,999 at time of entry): Game Picture, Dashboard theme, Contra for Xbox LIVE Arcade
• Level 2 (5,000-9,999 annual gamerscore): Level 1 Package, 100 Microsoft Points and a contest T-shirt
• Level 3 (10,000+ annual gamerscore): Level 1 Package, 200 Microsoft Points, contest T-shirt and Fusion Frenzy 2.

All told Microsoft will be giving away $500,000 in prizes to gamers who would probably be earning these Achievements for free anyway. Sure, T-shirts and a few hundred MS points aren't anything to write home about, but Fusion Frenzy 2 is a $50 game that can be had for nothing but some diligent gaming. We applaud Microsoft for showing a bit of tangible recognition to some of its most loyal customers. Sony, Nintendo, the freebie ball is in your court.