for those of you who didnt get to go, i'd like to share what my experience was like.
the first thing i noticed when i walked in the door was the a big screen with an animated mario on it, with the World Store's second level as his background. The employees there encouraged everyone to ask him a question and many did, the responses were priceless.
here are just a few of my favorite quotes from mario himself:
"yeah...love and eating bad meatballs is about the same feeling. just dont tell your princess "i love you like a dirty meatball" or you'll get a big bowl of pasta over your head.
(when asked if mario was friends with sonic) "chronic?!? waht'd you say?"
"what part of brooklyn am i from? i'm from my mama's house of course"
(mario over hears an announcement about a nintendogs trivia contest) "so have you guys played nintendogs?" (when asked if mario has a dog) "yeah, i have yoshi!"
(mario rapped at one point)
(when asked about the Mario Bros. Movie) "did any of you see the movie? what'd you think of it?" (crowd response was mostly positive, mario paused) "yeah alot of people thought it was HORRIBLE though...john lequasamo (sp?) was a nice guy though. the goombas and koopas having small heads was funny too"
(when asked about his relationship with peach) "ah the princess is very special to me, she makes my heart go 'badaboom badabam badabing"
(special surpise guest wario) "hey can you guys tell me the color of my shoes? i cant see them over my big fat stomach"
so much fun

also there were photo ops with Link, straight outta the twilight princess world too. (i got a pic with him!) and when he was resting, zelda trivia with TP tshirts as the prize.
when you werent joinging in those festivities you could play tons of games, smash being the most popular of course. also there were free giveaways by "professors" if you trained your brain at the DS roundtable.
also worth noting, alot of the nintendo world employees were walking around with their straight from japan DSL's, atleast two of them i noticed were Navy colored, and one was Teal (oh and the girl walking around with it was pretty cute too!).
all in all it was a great event and well worth the long wiat in line. the excitement in the air was something very special, and it was great to be surrounded by so many loyal fans while the press conferance was beings hown live. many loud cheers when certain franchises were shown, the biggest of which was for Super Mario Galaxy.
Nintendo really knows how to throw a party and this was the next best thign if you couldnt make it out to LA like many of us couldnt. I know of atelast one other PGC forum member who went, and heres hoping that many more of you could make it to events like these in the future and show people what community is really about.