Pokémon freaks attack London

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Pokémon fans crammed into Hamleys in central London this afternoon where Nintendo held a special Pokémon event to mark the launch of Pokémon Diamond/Pearl tomorrow.

Events unfolded at the Game store inside Hamleys on Regents Street, where Pika-lovers queued to get their hands on one of the 200 copies of the game Nintendo made available at 6pm - six hours before the official launch.

Pop Rock band McFly also turned up, drawing in crowds of 14-year-old girls pretending to be Pokémon fans, and even purchasing a copy of the game, just so they could get a signature out of the four young lads.

Pokémon Diamond/Pearl is the fifth entry into the main Pokémon RPG adventure series on Nintendo's handheld consoles, which all started with Pokémon Red/Blue on the original Game Boy back in 1999 (1996 in Japan).

Numerous new features have been added but the top-down Pokémon-catching gameplay remains faithful to the originals even after all these years. So will Pokémon fans get bored of it any time soon? "No way," one avid fan told CVG. "I've played them all and can't wait to catch all the new Pokémon and explore the new world in this new game."

You can read a review of the inevitable chart-topper here.

Mike Jackson