Nintendo 3DS is here! Yes, just over a year since Nintendo's glasses-free handheld was announced, the console launched in the UK at midnight across the country last night.
1,200 stores were open at midnight but the big event was at HMV's flagship store in London's Oxford Street where hundreds of fans queued up to be among the first in the country to get their hands on a 3DS.
It was a view shared by Australian Tahnee Blackman. She had only been queuing for a few hours when we met up with her. "It's really great," she said. "I like the atmosphere." She was going to buy Nintendogs + Cats but also couldn't wait for Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time 3D.
Vaneet Mehta had been there for five hours. "We've had a great time," he said. Having already played 3DS at the Nintendo tour, he said "The AR Cards are outstanding, Face Raiders is quite fun but I'm really looking forward to Kid Icarus although I'm going to get Street Fighter and Nintendogs + Cats."
Then, the crowd were let into HMV where they saw Super Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono battling on stage against members of the public. Finally, midnight struck and fans were finally able to get their hands on their very own 3DS console.
We spoke to Mustapha Salim, another veteran of the Wii launch, after he had bought his console. "It feels amazing. I can't wait to get my hands on it. I'm going to play all night."
Earlier in the evening, the likes of Hadouken, girl band Parade and Plan B played at the Nintendo £DS launch party in Billingsgate, London.
Did you go to any of the Nintendo 3DS events across the country last night? Share yout stories below. What are your first impressions of Nintendo 3DS?
Want to know what games you should buy with your Nintendo 3DS? Here are our Nintendo 3DS reviews.
Mine hasn't arrived through the post yet, pure gutted :'(
I went to the launch it was really exciting as it was my first and after the first hour waiting in line I could see why I had never done it before. To say i was tired is an understatement. However as things progressed inside my energy perked back up again in anticipation of getting a 3DS. I would like to say that buying one was the highlight of my evening but it really wasn't. Meeting Yoshinori Ono the producer of Super Street Fighter IV and having him sign my copy of the game was for me a great moment. Not only is SSFIV a great game but I'm one of the lucky ones to have a truly special edition.
Me too... I've been waiting for months, and these last few hours of non-3DSness are the hardest...
It's finaly here! At last!! I shall go and purchase mine in the afternoon.
I was lucky enough (never thought it) to get mine yesterday.
I wouldn't have been able to get to a midnight opening anyway, looks like a great experience if you could go to one.
Had never seen it it the flesh 'til I opened the box. It's truly amazing that it works, tech has come such along way. I was amazed when I first played Mario 64 all those years ago. And Donkey Kong Country, no one else could get a look like that on SNES. Sprite 3D to CGI 3D to Optical 3D.
Looking forward to the new Professor Layton and seeing what they do with 3D and all the other features of the 3DS.
The gamestation I went to was rather quite (around 20 or so) so It wasn't really that exciting. Apart from getting the 3DS!!!! Its so good, but the best bit is we know It's gonna get even better roll on the rest of 2011
Didn't go to an event.... Although, I'm now suffering as a consequence. Postman just gave me splinter cell, street fighter and ridge racer, currently tracking my 3ds in a delivery van.
Worst tease ever so wanna play street fighter... need to get my mits on my shiny new console.... now watching out the front window eagerly awaiting arrival lol
I went to my local Game store and not many people were there (about 14/15 people) and they held a raffle and the prize was 6 3DS games & an accessory pack. I wanted to be the first person to get the 3DS from the shop and my ticket number was called out (6) and I won
The games I won were:
Ridge Racer 3D
Asphalt 3D
Rayman 3D
Super Monkey Ball 3D
Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars
The Sims 3
Plus I got my 3DS before everyone else
Here is a pic of the whole lot
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll199/Tails001/P1010213.jpg
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll199/Tails001/P1010214.jpg
I went to tesco to get the game pretty early in the morning, little did I knwo they'd all been pre-ordered out. However, one of the awesome members of staff said they have a few hundred coming anyway and game me one. The games weren't delivered yet so I've been playing with Mii Maker and Augmented Reality, I'm going to get them later for the 3DS and a game deal. Plan to get SSFIV. I'm somehow pulling this off in school too.....
@Sandshrew1992- you jamyy ba..... Seriously congrats!
! Anyway, they did open a little early so by 7:45am i had my 3ds. 
I went to my local game this morning and i was the first in the queue, quickly followed by two other guys. Just before the shop opened a guy cut infront of me and i said "excuse me mate there's a queue," to which he replied "i've got a prearranged meeting" and then one of the guys who worked at Game met him
Since i had other stuff to do in town, i went to Morrisons cafe and set up my 3ds (really easy) but i did get some funny looks! Just as i was leaving, i heard two members of staff talking, and one said to the other "take down the 3ds boxes as we only had enough for pre-orders." I've just performed my first system update and have been messing around with it so far. Have to say though i'm not fussed on the stretched ds games, and the native resolution is too small, so my lite will still be in service for a while yet! Still love it though
Looks like it would've been great to go,shame London's 3-4hours away.
My 3ds was dispatched 5p.m yesterday from amazon, was not expecting it today but it arrived at 8a.m exellent
went 2 gamestation to pick up the other two 3ds's,bit miffed there games cost 39.99,lucky i have a few hundred loaded on a ca
rd
Just read a story on cvg, amazon have messed up some orders by not dispatching in time which is a shame!
ONM! There are a shocking amount of pictures of Parade on Stage there! Was you lot having a little manly camera session?
Mine was dispatched yesturday by amazon, still not here yet ... feeling like it will be here tomorrow now
Unfortunately I wish I had gone to the HMV midnight launch because the 3DS Launch Party that I *luckily* won tickets for was pretty terrible.
They had a maybe around 70 3DS pods to play on, and about 40 of those had Pilot Wings on. The rest was a mix of Street Fighter, Asphalt, Nintendogs, Rayman, Sims and non playable demos or videos showing Sky 3D.
To makes things worse the VIP section upstairs had Zelda on offer for the celebs to play, who never looked like they used the 3DS pods.
I am not sure Nintendo was particularly happy when Hadoken! got the crowd to start a full on mosh, and the extra celebrities informed how much of a great night they were having drinking the FREE alcohol and waiting to pick up their FREE "Nintendo 3D thing".
The event went from being extremely busy to empty pretty quick. It was meant to finish at 2am, which I didn't stay around for.
Who knows, it might have got better!
I was at the HMV Oxford street launch and somehow managed to escape my pic ending up on here eventhough I am in the crowd somewhere in those pictures hidden by some tall people lol
Was great to meet people there (few of who are on here) including Vaneet who was cool and got loads of interviews due to his mario and luigi hats
Great time and hope to see the people I met at another launch event sometime
They don'tlook very tired, considering they've been there all night. Thats the wonder of Caffeine, I guess...
My mum told me she ordered a 3ds "for the family" off amazon and that it would probably arrive on wednesday. I come home today and she asked me what hmv sells. I told her they sold games,cds and dvds, and then she asked what else do they sell. Intrigued, I suddenly noticed a hmv bag and looked inside to find a cosmos black 3ds. And my brothers are at a friend's house....
Luckily I had the day off yesterday, and at 8am I receive an email from The Hut to notify me that in the morning my 3ds would have been delivered. Which happened about 2 hours later. I have been playing all day with Face Raiders and the AR cards, all great stuff! I didn't buy any game as none of the launch ones appealed to me, apart from PES or Ridge Racer, but with no online,... meh! Overall a great console, I think, but what makes a great console even greater are the games, and so far I'm not impressed. Let's hope future games will fix that, eh?
I had the best time of my life simply because I WON A NINTENDO 3DS!
I went to the GAME midnight launch in Eldon Square, Newcastle, and as we were all queuing up, the staff were handing out raffle tickets for a chance to win the 3DS you preordered. At midnight, when they had announced my number, I was completely shocked! I was like the tenth in the line and they moved me up to be the first one served and out the shop! I absolutely love my aqua blue 3DS!
Street fighter and ridge racer 3d are amazing and I am so happy I bought them. I would recommend people to buy them
Kudos to Chris for the amazing picture of myself and Colette with Wossy!
Was a fantastic evening, for a fantastic new console ^_^ mines charging. Cant wait to play Nintendogs and Street Fighter
I met Chris and he interviewed me and my missus, then told me to buy a black console, which I did, and am very happy! Cheers dude!
Arrived at Gamestation at about half 10 and waited untill they opened. Went in, second in que and then realised that I had forgotten the disposit slip I needed to actually buy the 3DS. Ran home and still managed to make it back in time to buy it. Go Super Street Fighter and now plan to buy Samurai warrior chronicles tomorrow =D
I can't get mine until christmas....
Some great photos there, mine arrived today and is now on it's dock right next to me. The 3DS is fantastic, nuff said.
Soooo glad I preordered.
It's amazing. Can't get enough of the Augmented reality stuff.
Now I actually need to get a game...
I attended a 3DS midnight launch evet at the Game store in Chiswick.
When I enter the store at 30 minutes to midnight there was just a small crowd of tech geeks and hooligans which was not my publc to have fun with.
I find the evet most disappointing because I could not find people at my curent standard of congenial characteristics of whom I could make friends with.
Anyhow, I did manage to purchase a rather neat cosmos black 3DS at the end.
I got mine this morning, and I haven't put t down since! (despite the fact my only 3-D game is Rayman, but I think you were too harsh on it. 78% from me.) Although, I must say, Pokemon looks AWFUL!!! I love the series, but it's all blurred, and... Well, nasty. Aside from this, it's actually an amazing gadget! The 3-D is fantastic, the AR cards are really cool, Face-Raiders is fun as hell and I'm loving the analogue stick. It really is worth it.
Advice to everyone...if you want to get interviewed at a Nintendo event...dress up. I'm Vaneet, and I thought it would be fun to dress up. And I got interviewed by everyone!! XD
Grrr... still waiting for mine... Damn DPD!!!
Delivery Status: awaiting reciet of Parcel.
what does that even mean?!
Got mine after school on luanch day, it's incredible! The AR cards have blown my mind, and Pilotwings is a great laugh. I just hit 200 Km/H on the hang glider!
I went to the launch party at Old Billingsgate...My drink got spiked, the staff refused to help, it was only because another person that got invited helped & called for an ambulance. I was also told by the paramedics that they would have got to me 30 minutes earlier but the venue denied them access to get to me because I was still in the venue at the time. They only got to me at all because the same public member that called the ambulance helped me outside... I don't blame Nintendo but I do think the security staff and venue staff should have been interested in the safety and security of everyone there, not just a few coked up 'celebrities' that didn't even know what the console was called - yes, Lee Ryan of Blue, I'm looking at you.
I preordered my 3ds on amazon with express delivery, AND IT STILL HASN'T ARIVED YET. It now seems that I'm gonna have to wait till monday to play on it
My copy of pilot wings came this morning though, which is just like a big kick in the balls, cos' I have the game sitting here next to me. BUT I CAN'T PLAY IT!!! Very dissapointed...
Dude that totally sucks to hear that D: hope you are ok. Thats crazy people there would even do that kind of thing.
I'll be ok thanks to the member of the public that helped me and the emergency staff at St Barts Hospital, thankyou for your sympathy... Maybe I was a touch naive but I just didn't expect it from something organised by a company as big as Nintendo... I guess there's people who have no morals everywhere!
The 3ds does look like a epic consol .. But..
Even if I did a price match at gamestation for asdas current price (£187) traded in all my unwanted games used all my trade points and regular money of points I bet I still couldn't afford it e.e
Great if u have the money.. Which I don't..
Went to preview event today and was utterly speechless! Pilotwings and ridge racer dissapointed (i enjoyed asphalt a lot more) but rabbids, AR, faceraiders, super street fighter and splinter cell were amazing! Sims was horrible (didnt understand the controls AT ALL!) So yes will be getting this for my birthday probably, as GAME are doing an aqua blue (my fave, suprised by the HMV thing in the mag) with asphalt for £205! and hopefully willd rop by July! Thanks nintendo, and the new, upcoming AR cards have got me really excited!
I preordered mine from argos and got it on launch day
Its even better that i expected it to be, a true hardware masterpiece! I also bought ridge racer and rayman for it (i don't care what you say about rayman ONM, rayman is a classic!) I've played ridge racer on it so far and the 3D effect in that game is incredible! 
AR cards are impressive aswell, and the addition of the circle pad is great as it is very comfortable to use 
I look forward to a very enjoyable time in gaming with the 3DS! 
I forgot to mention that very soon i feel that nintendo should announce a metroid for the 3DS
I can't think of anything better than a metroid in the gmaeplay style of the prime games, i love other m's very intuitive gameplay but the 3D effect would work much better in the first-person perspective 
Just to experience the beutifully designed worlds of metroid and the creatures in 3D would be one of the best on the 3DS! Just think of the epic boss battles we've come to know and love from metroid games popping out of the screen because of 3D! That would be awesome!!! 
Nintendo, make it happen!!!
I won the raffle at my local GAME midnight launch, so I got my 3DS for free!
Or if I use the term I coined myself: FreeDS.
i bought my 3ds on friday night and when i preordered at game i was told that i could trade my ds lite in on launch day for £50 then when i got there they told me i could only get £30 for it it turned out this had happened to alot of my friends aswell. i didnt have enough money and was really annoyed at game i bought it at game station instead and my mam and dad had to pay the rest. i had spent over£1000 poud in the last 3 years in game and im really annoyed by the service they gave worst of all we complained on the facebook page and what did they do? they deleted the comment. i dont blame nintendo ut im just warning anyone who intends to trade in their ds lite fo it. i bought stuff from game all my life now im buying stuff at game station
game and gamestation are the same company
actualy they arent they are completely diferent companies. no means to be sarcastic by the way