We are aware the minibox suggests we went to the Oxford Street launch, which was the original plan, but we got a last minute invite to the other launch event so the below report is from that.

Nintendo celebrated the launch of the 3DS with various events across the whole country. Over the weekend we will share some of our forum member's launch stories but as we attended the launch party in London we'll provide details all about that night.

The event took place in the grand Old Billingsgate building just by the Thames river. Around the main room there were hundreds of demo pods with all the launch titles available to play. At the start of the evening music was provided by the 'Nintendisco' but later on a number of musical guests performed for the crowd.

I won't go into detail about the games themselves, as they have have recently been covered by our reviews or by our 3DS coverage back in January, but the event itself was a great deal of fun. While many attendees had probably played the console briefly while it was toured around the country it was great to have such a wide range of games available.

The evening also featured a number of other attractions. At the start of the evening gamers could battle it out on Super Street Fighter IV 3D for a chance to win goodies. During this Ryu and Ken, or should we say martial artists dressed up as them, were available for a photo shoot. They also engaged in a fight to entertain the crowd, although unfortunately we didn't get the chance to see who won.

The main event, outside of the gaming of course, was the various musicians that Nintendo had hired for the event. Comedian Russell Kane hosted the night and provided introductions to each of the bands. The three bands that performed (Parade, Hadouken and Plan B) provided a strange diversity of music. Aside from Hadouken, presumably chosen for the Street Fighter reference, the other choices were unexpected and the fact it went from a girl band to a new rave band and concluded with a rapper was an unusual flow but at least it appealed to a wide range of people.

The musical guests finished around 11 p.m. so for the next hour people were left to play more games, drink more alcohol or queue up to purchase a 3DS. Mario and Luigi also wandered around and were open for photographs. While waiting for midnight to strike we came across Jonathan Ross, who was kind enough to chat and pose for photographs with fans. We hear there were also many more celebrities upstairs in the VIP area but unfortunately we couldn't get in, and not for lack of trying!

Just before midnight struck the televisions in the room switched to the HMV launch event and we were once again joined by Russell Kane. We watched as the first person in the queue picked up his 3DS and you could tell that he suddenly realised a lot of people were watching him. Our link to the HMV event was short lived but unfortunately a few attendees inform us there were some issues there with queuing. Although we hear that everyone in the queue was kept entertained and in high spirits with the help of goodies.

While the event went on until 2 a.m., with music provided by DJ Yoda, we left shortly after midnight due to commitments on Friday but we had a great night and it was an honour to be a part of Nintendo's launch of the 3DS. The excitement in the room was palatable and if the crowd was indicative of the general public we expect Nintendo to have a very successful launch on their hands.

Our forum members can post their launch stories in the thread we created or alternatively you can share them in the comments section below. We will compile some into a feature over the weekend so please state if you do not want yours repeated.