While we shared our 3DS launch event story with you here, and of course our review at the start of the week, we invited forum members to share their own personal launch stories with us. Below we have compiled directed quotes of just a few of them, which can be read in their entirety in its thread or in the 3DS thread.

Mokong X-C

8 on the dot doors opened, I walked up the counter, Staff know me and I had everything paid off already so it was just "Hi Franklin"...*type away on till, receipt prints* "Here ya go" and off I went, haha.

3DS GET!!!

Showed off the AR Games, everyone seems well impressed/surprised by that, especially with the A4 sized printout I have haha. And the wife has taken a great liking to Face Raiders.

S.C.G

I went to Game, bought my 3DS, went home, updated it, put it on charge annnnd...

...then I had to work an eight hour shift.

Hero-of-Time

Yesterday Mokong created a thread where you can show off the things you can do with the AR cards, your Mii and the camera. This whole idea is what sold me on the handheld and I suddenly became aware of how cool the 3DS is when in some creative hands.

I woke up this morning and packed up some 360 games and set off to the Metro Centre. I checked HMV but they didn't have any decent offers. I then checked GAME and they were the same. I had quite a bit of credit for GAME and so I just went with them. I traded my 360 games in and snapped up Pilotwings and Super Streetfighter IV. I then broke many a speed limit on my way home.

Strange Cookie

Just went for a walk in the city (on thursdaynight, shops close at 8 in the evening), and I was surprised with the amount of stores that broke the street date. I think you can get 3DS'es in about every store that sells games. Nintendo is not going to be happy. Gamers on the other hand. ;)

While I was out, bought Nintendogs + cats... you know... for, errrr, the missus? And I have to test it? Intensely?

Scoop

It hits midnight and we're all ready to go through, but wait... the line isn't moving. Oh wait, it is moving, just not where we're standing. Seems HMV thinks you start counting backwards and decided it would be okay to let everyone at the back of line start buying their stuff first. D'oh, guys, doing so well up until this point! You should have seen the look of confusion and slight panic on the face of the security guard.

What started out incredibly well thought out and awesome had degenerated into a poorly organised nightmare. Exactly the kind of organisational difficulty that arises when you abandon a perfectly logical number based queueing system, the importance of which was repeatedly assured by staff throughout the day.

KKOB

I can agree with this [above story] entirely. Wasn't until about 12:25 that we were allowed to get the cover signed, and then told to queue up. The processing of purchases was REALLY slow. Too many people wanted to trade in their old consoles and loads of games to get the 3DS for next to nothing. It took me about 10-15 mins to buy the console, after another 15 mins of queueing by the tills, after the mess up with the initial sales. The people on the tills had too much to do, and the security and most people around didn't have a fecking clue as to what was meant to happen at midnight.

Ike

My store opened an hour earlier so I arrived at about 8:30am to find it empty, apparently either no one showed up or very few people did. They told me they only had 7 preorders, so I wouldn't be surprised if I was the first since I ordered in July.

Anyway, ended up buying Pilotwings, SSFIV, Nintendogs and Monkey Ball. Got a bit carried away, wasn't sure if I was going to get Monkey Ball or not but I figured why not.

As you can see there was a mixed batch of successful and problematic launches but it seems the vast majority of people are happy with the 3DS in the forum. Feel free to share your stories and initial impressions of the console below or in our forums..