Building up to the game’s October 3rd launch, Nintendo has announced four different methods for 3DS owners to get their hands on a free playable demo of Super Smash Bros. offering a sampler package of local wireless multiplayer, five characters (Link, Mario, Mega Man, Pikachu and Villager), and a single map (Battlefield). Let’s count them down:

1. Club Nintendo members who have achieved Platinum status and are subscribers of the newsletter will receive an email containing four demo download codes starting today. The codes provide unlimited play time, but must be redeemed by September 19th.

2. Friends of Club Nintendo Platinum members can get on their hands and knees and beg for one of the three extra demo codes their lucky pal received.

3. All 3DS owners will be able to download the same demo from the Nintendo eShop beginning Friday, September 19th. The only difference is that this demo will have a play count limit of 30 (opening the application from the home menu will count as one use).

4. Participating retailers will offer kiosk demo stations starting on Thursday, September 18th.

Of course, it seems that a fifth way to get the demo has come about that Nintendo probably didn’t anticipate. Apparently, according to a report on Kotaku, some greedy jerks are auctioning off their extra Club Nintendo codes, and some stupidly impatient people are actually willing to buy them for close to the retail price of the full game. This Smash Bros. hype is getting way out of hand. I would never pay even a dime for a playable demo, let alone one that will be available free to all in a week. It’s crazy, I tell ya. Just crazy.

Registering games on Club Nintendo is a fun reward system for picking out some cool collectibles just by being a loyal Nintendo customer, but if you aren’t one for cluttering your home with a lot of fairly useless bobbles and trinkets there isn’t a whole lot of value in the program. Nintendo and Atlus have joined forces to change that with a “first-of-its-kind” promo deal once again uniting the Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem franchises in an epic gaming alliance.

In the U.S. and Canada, gamers who buy Nintendo 3DS RPGs Shin Megami Tensei IV, available July 16th in a first-print limited edition, and Fire Emblem: Awakening, released earlier this year to rave reviews, and register both titles with their Club Nintendo account (and complete the usual survey) by August 31st will receive a credit of $30 to put toward future purchases on the Nintendo eShop. Other games. DLC. Whatever.

Pretty sweet deal, huh? And I imagine this is only the first of many cross-franchise promotions to come as Nintendo and Atlus continue working together on the Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem crossover RPG for Wii U. Hopefully we’ll be hearing more details about that game soon.