Discriminating Nintendo prizes for Japan's discriminating tastes

Right, sorry Nintendo fans, it's time to get jealous: Nintendo of Japan has just announced this year's prizes for Platinum and Gold members of its Club Nintendo service, which lets players trade in points earned from buying Wii and DS games.

This year's Nintenderati will be able to choose from a gold-plated Mario Kart wheel, a life-sized puffy polyester Mario hat, and the slightly more subdued desk calendar set, none of which, the internet has decided (and we wholly agree) are quite as outright desirable as last year's classic reproduction Super Nintendo controller for the Wii, or (my personal favorite), the laser-etched personalized Wii-mote battery cover adorned with the grinning visage of your Mii.

There's still hope, though, earlier this year Nintendo of America announced that it would be bringing Club Nintendo to the States, and, unlike Europe's version -- which sees a paucity of prizes distributed to a handful of people while the rest have to vie for desktop pictures and icons -- will be, according to a recent interview with MTV, "weighted more toward physical goods."