Ladies and Gentleman, We Present the Worst Pre-Order Bonus in Video Game History

I hate pre-order bonuses. I hate that they push customers towards an under researched purchase, and I hate when retailers get exclusive goods that can't be found anywhere else.

This pre-order bonus, though? It's so bad that I love it.

Pre-order Sonic Lost World for the Wii U from Amazon, and the Internet-based retailer will send you a code for 25 extra lives. Here's a bit of how they sell it:

Never have to worry again when taking those risky leaps and jumps with this bumper pack of extra lives.

Wowsers.

Based on the sheer absurdity of the pre-order bonus itself, this thing is making its way all around the Internet. I personally caught wind of it in Reddit's r/gaming subreddit. Submitted by a Redditor named Quenz, the title for the link was pitch perfect: "You know your franchise is dead when…"

There are bad pre-order bonuses, and then there are really bad pre-order bonuses. This one? Somehow worse than both categories put together.

I'm just about speechless. Sonic Lost World will drop for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS on October 29th. If you're terrible at video games, pre-order it from Amazon. Those 25 levels might be all that saves you from yourself.

See at Amazon