I just got back from Oakridge. Anyone expecting anything special should be braced for a bit of a let-down.
It was at in the EB in Oakridge. First off, EB was packed uncomfortably full. But it wasn't because of the DS. It just seemed to just be regular weekend shopping, probably people getting ready for Christmas.
A large number of people in the line seemed to be getting the new Crystal XBox, which comes bundled with that "amazing" new game, Fable. I heard at least three seperate people in line talking about how great Fable is (people who didn't yet have XBoxes), two of whom mentioned that "it's supposed to never be the same game twice, ever, so it has infinite replay value".
One mom was buying a Crystal XBox for her 10-year old son. She asked the clerk "So, the XBox is the best system available, right?" The clerk said "Well actually, if you step back and look at it, the GameCube is a better system. It's about as powerful as the XBox, but it's much cheaper, and it's the only way you can play Nintendo's own great games, like Mario and Zelda." To which the kid piped up "No, I don't want Mario games! Mario sucks!" So the mom bought the XBox. I seriously worry about the future sometimes.
Anyways, back to the DS.
They took the GameCube display unit that was set up in one corner of the store, unplugged it, and pushed it all the way into the corner. Then they took a stack of PS2 display boxes out of the store window, and draped a black and red "Nintendo" cloth over them (heh heh). They set up a small, portable flat-screen TV on the PS2 boxes, and hooked a Platinum GameCube up to it, which was running Pikmin 2. They had one Nintendo DS unit, with Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt inside it, locked in with one of those metal brackets, and anchored to the floor. There were two cute girls wearing red DS-themed Nintendo "Staff" t-shirts there, ready to answer any questions anyone might have. Also, most of the store window got filled up with a lot of large MP2:Echoes and red-themed Nintendo DS point-of-sale advertisement displays.
It was basically just your typical Nintendo display unit, but this time with some human females hanging around, and a DS.
The DS had no real "lineup" to play it. I watched a guy play MP Hunters for a while, and didn't feel inclined try it for myself. The two girls spent most of their time playing Pikmin 2, and offering to let other people play, none of whom really wanted to play, and were content to just watch cute girls play Pikmin. Also, the girls were giving out temporary tattoos. I'll scan mine later, so you'll know what they look like.
IMO, it was nice. Nintendo should do this sort of thing much more often. However, I don't think it'll have any significant impact on anything, and Nintendo shouldn't use these sort of events as an excuse for skipping major trade shows like TGS/Spaceworld, or anything like that.