Toys R Us did some kind of second wave of pre-orders this morning, in a surprise stealth reveal. Kotaku broke the news yesterday, but I did not read it until after my store had closed... so I could not call to verify.

I took a chance and drove out there around 8:30am. The scene was nothing like two weeks ago, as the PS3 / Wii / Elmo crowds fought each other for dominance. I spotted three other cars in the parking lot, but the intense rain was keeping everyone inside.

I considered going around and asking if everybody was here for the Wii - just to get some independant verification - but instead I tucked into some Elite Beat Agents. That game is kicking my ass, once I crossed the "Material Girl" level. And, my god, the rain. Several more cars drifted in over the next hour.

Just before 9:30am - a half-hour to go - somebody walked over to the storefront (probably just to check the store hours) and that broke the dam. Everybody jumped out of their dry cars and piled up in front of the door. Now, it was only, like, ten people... but still amusing. I was in the middle of wrapping up EBA's "YMCA" level, so I wasn't as fast as I would have liked... I was the seventh person in line.

The rain was coming on strong, so everybody huddled under the umbrellas of those smart enough to have them. This necessitated conversation.

I shared the umbrella of a mom who had been there since seven or so. She had heard about this pre-order round online. Ahead of me was a college-age couple... he had been making calls earlier in the week to find his best chances of getting a Wii on launch day. And TRU revealed to him - on Wednesday! - that they were probably giving out another 15 pre-orders on Sunday. I'm calling that a leak.

Unlike two weeks ago, nobody came out at 9:45ish to rescue us. Toys R Us had us all stand there in the drenching rain until 10:00am, where the door opened and an employee stood there with Wii tickets. The manager reminded her to ask if each person wanted one, since there might be people walking in cold who had no idea it was Sneaky Wii Day.

Once everybody had a ticket, we all did this hilarious slow zombie walk through the store, since we were all chilled to the bone. Most of us drifted into the games section, where, surprise #2, they had the launch day game pre-orders hanging on the wall.

I picked up Trauma Center and Zelda. Both suggest an in-stock date of the 21st, two days after the Wii drops on the 19th. I figure that's just TRU covering their collective ass. Nintendo isn't going to ship the Wii and then have people wait two days before the software hits. What, we're supposed to play Wii Sports for 48 hours? Like hell.

Also, they're running a deal where, if you buy three of the Wii's crappiest launch games, you'll save $30. If only I was into SpongeBob games.

Not so coincidentally, we had just been in Toys R Us Saturday morning to pick up Elite Beat Agents and work our way towards their free $10 gift card offer. (Clark got a toy microwave.) If I was a true blue launch day obnoxio-fanboy, I would have thought to pester them about their Wii shipment numbers and probably would have coaxed a pre-order-Sunday reveal from them. So, big thanks to Kotaku for keeping me in the know... my launch day Wii is entirely due to their fine, usually misspelled efforts.

To recap: relatively no stress, a solid gold grab at a Wii pre-order, and the line was almost all Moms with no gangs of eBay thugs in sight. Awesome.

I'll be back in one week to pick up my Wii as early as possible.

And by the way, Elite Beat Agents is pretty much the best DS game I've played in a long time.