As you probably know, Nintendo is offering a free game if you buy Mario Kart 8 for Wii U and register it with Club Nintendo between May 30, 2014 and July 31, 2014. You can receive a free download code for one of the following Wii U games:
New Super Mario Bros.™ U
Pikmin™ 3
The Legend of Zelda™: The Wind Waker HD
Wii Party™ U
Now as an avid player, collector, and cheapskate, this offer is very appealing to me. But I am having a difficult time deciding what to choose as my free game, so I thought I would open it up for discussion here. Firstly, I already own two of the four on offer. I already have both New Super Mario Bros. U and Wii Party U. I could argue the merits of getting digital versions of these games to supplement or supplant my physical copies, but I'm not really interested in doing that. That narrows the choice to Pikmin 3, or Wind Waker HD.
Now this post could devolve into a bit of a lengthy manifesto, so for the tl;dr crowd, I've bolded the main points for easy summary.
One of the main reasons that it is difficult to choose is that I am sure that I would have ended up with physical copies of both games eventually. I am essentially deciding which game I will 'own' digitally and which game I will own physically. I am not reflexively opposed to owning digital version of games. I have given it much thought and contemplation and I find that digital games don't bother me to a certain degree, even with Nintendo's behind the times, system-locked policy. I already own lots of digital games. But these have always either been the smaller PSN or XBLA type games, and/or games that are only ever released digitally (or were released physically later, after I bought it); I have never* bought a full disc released console game digitally. When there is a choice, I prefer physical copies. A small part of that preference is the collectable object mentality, a smaller part of that preference is future protecting my purchase, but the largest part of that preference is simply data storage. I don't have to data manage a physical disc. I know how I am and my collections grow so large that I have to face deleting games from the hard drive to download new ones. I hate that process and physical media is still an advantage in this regard.
*almost never. Price is king and sometimes a game is so cheap that I can't resist. A low price makes it worth the trade off to me.
I like the Pikmin games, but I am behind on playing them. That's one of the reasons I haven't bought Pikmin 3 yet. I want it, but it is a lower priority compared to other games. From what I've read I think that I will like Pikmin 3 the most, but I was really looking forward to having the game on my shelf, if I found a good deal.
As for Wind Waker, I already own the original release. Generally, I don't like repurchasing the same game more than once. This is a tenet of my collection that I don't always adhere to, but with all of the ports and re-releases, I had to draw the line somewhere. I will just keep and play my original version...but I do have all of the other Zelda games including all of the previous re-releases. Should I get Wind Waker as a freebie? This will 'complete' this collection, but I won't have the box to show with the other Zelda games. But since I would get it for free, I didn't 'buy' the same game for a second time.
Of course I could still buy the physical version of whichever I pick at a later time, but like I said, my cheap ass ways probably wouldn't let that happen.
Between the two, I am more prepared to spend money to buy Pikmin 3. I am less willing to spend money, or as much money, on Wind Waker HD. That might seem to push me to get Wind Waker HD for free, and buy Pikmin 3. But actually it represents more of a financial savings for me to get Pikmin 3 for free, and buy Wind Waker HD for a cheap price later.
Well, what do you think? Am I missing something obvious? What game are you getting for free? How does this mess up your physical vs. digital debate?
