First free Wiimote sleeves, now free DS stylii
(Credit: Nintendo)
Last week, you might have read about Nintendo giving away free Wiimote sleeves. Well, that's not the only swag you can get from Big N in exchange for a serial number. Proud owners of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass can order their own free, feather-shaped stylus. Just register your game at Nintendo.com, fill out a short survey, and you'll get a shiny new stylus in 4 to 6 weeks. It's neither the most useful stylus (it probably won't fit in the DS Lite's stylus slot), nor is it the most Zelda-centric (is a tiny plastic Master Sword too much to ask?), but it's a neat little free toy you can get for two minutes' worth of clicking and typing.
Offering a free stylus with a completely stylus-controlled game like Phantom Hourglass is a good move, but Nintendo has missed a rather important detail: you need Phantom Hourglass so you can enter its serial number and register it. After that, it takes 4 to 6 weeks to get the stylus. Unless you have the patience of a saint, you're just not going to go that long without playing the Zelda game you just purchased. Your game will probably have been long-beaten by the time you finally get the stylus. Still, it's a free stylus!
The feather isn't Nintendo's only registration promotion. If you register Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day, you can get a DS Lite gift box of seven colored stylii. They're standard DS Lite stylii, though; no fancy shapes or engravings or whatnot. Still, it's seven free stylii!
