Vincent Anderson, Staff Writer

My launch day plans went more smoothly than some of my coworkers, but I still had my share of troubles.

I woke up at the ridiculously early time of 8:30 (hey, it was a Sunday after all). After a short shower and a hearty breakfast, I quickly headed over to my local Best Buy. It's a two or three minute drive at most, traffic permitting.

Well, I knew that all of the systems were already going to be gone by the time I got there (shortly after they opened), so I just strolled in to take a look to see if they had any accessories left, since I had some spare Best Buy Bucks to use. Sadly, they didn't have anything I wanted, and I would only find out later that this would be the trend for the day.

Leaving Best Buy, I headed across the street to what I thought would be my last destination: Circuit City. They were to be open at a slightly more sane time of ten o'clock. So, being the punctual person that I am, I arrived there approximately fifteen minutes before they opened. With our city being relatively small, and with Circuit City not being the most known place to go for video games, I figured that fifteen minutes would have been plenty of time. Boy, was I ever wrong. All twenty systems were already accounted for when I arrived.

Feeling denied and rejected, I started turning around to head back toward my car when two young gentlemen stopped me. One of these guys apparently saw me at Best Buy and assumed that I was there looking for a system. After giving me a brief summary of what had gone down there (tickets had been handed out), he proceeded to tell me that I might have some luck over at the Toys 'R' Us just down the street. I thanked the young man, hopped into my car, and raced down there as fast as I could.

I had no idea when Toys 'R' Us opened, but at that point I didn't really care. So, seeing a line of about twelve or thirteen people, I plopped myself into it. While waiting, I overheard comments from some of the other people standing in line. The only relevant thing I heard was that this particular Toys 'R' Us wasn't going to be open for almost another hour. Hearing this, I went back to my car and quickly got out the portable DVD player I had purchased just a few days prior, along with some of the DVDs of TV series I owned. The hour seemed to flow quickly, as more and more people lined up behind me.

Before I knew it, someone who appeared to be at least an assistant manager came out and told us that she was going to be handing out tickets. I easily got one of those few tickets, as there seemed to have been maybe thirty overall. After they opened the doors we all quickly filed inside. Nobody ran, mainly because of the fact that the tickets guaranteed us at least a system, but also because the same person who handed out the tickets told us not to at least a half dozen times. She gave us a variety of reasons not to, with one of them being because there was a baby in a carriage near the front of the line.

We actually had to head the long way, because this store's video game section was on the opposite side of where we were all standing. Most everyone just followed each other in the same order we were in outside. As we got into the gaming section, most of the people just continued walking straight to the registers, and as they did they could just pick up whatever accessories they wanted. In hindsight, I really should have snatched up some of them, but at that point I just wanted to get my system and get out of there.

Some other people had to get out of line to pick out the games they wanted because they were on the store shelves just as they would have been on a normal day. Standing behind an older couple, I helped them decide exactly what they needed. They were deciding whether to just get an extra remote, or if they also needed a second Nunchuk as well. Well, with me standing there looking like a "gaming person" (or so they called me), I told them that if this was for two people that they should definitely get a second Nunchuk.

After another five minutes or so, I finally got to one of the registers. Seeing that I didn't have any games, the clerk there made sure that I was okay with that. Seemingly not content with my answer, he then decided to harp on their warranty for the system. After explaining that I've never had a problem with any Nintendo product and several "No"s, he finally gave in and rang up the system. Happy to finally have it, I shuffled my out of there and nearly sprinted to my car.

After that I went back over to Circuit City to see if they had anything left. I wanted to use a coupon I had found online, and plus Circuit City's Wii accessories were automatically $5 off. Not only did they not have any accessories, but any games worth having were already gone. Thankfully I had pre-ordered Twilight Princess with my local EB and had waited to get it the night before.

So, in the end I ended up spending approximately three hours or so in my search to get a Wii. I pity those who waited longer than I did and came up empty handed, but I was relieved when I finally got my shiny new toy home.