Our Bodies Weren't Ready

Well FreekNation, a significant chapter in the history of Nintendo of America is coming to a close. In February president of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils Aimé, announced that he was retiring; soon to be replaced by Doug Bowser. Fitting name. 

Over the past 15 years Reggie has been as much of a Nintendo Character as Mario himself; an ambassador for the company that surprised and delighted us all with countless games and hardware releases over the years. His warm demeanor and true dedication to the Nintendo fanbase combined to create a persona that resembled the same whimsical, happy, and dedicated nature of Nintendo as a company. 

Since these are officially his last days as president, we decided to look back upon the past 15 years and pick out a few of the many, many times Reggie Fils Aimé and Nintendo blew our minds. 

Unveiling the Nintendo Switch on Jimmy Fallon

Say what you will about Jimmy Fallon and his over-enthusiastic persona, this is one of the times where his reactions were truly genuine. All made possible by Reggie showing up with the recently announced Nintendo Switch. Reggie had already won gamers over, but something like this in front of a main stream audience is was a whole different ball game. And he hit a home run.  

Robot Chicken x Nintendo

Nobody could have seen this coming.

Back in 2014, Nintendo was in their second year of skipping their E3 press conference in favor of their new format of live streaming a video that contains all of their announcements, and they totally delivered. Nintendo hired the creators of the cult animated series Robot Chicken to animate some fun segues between announcements during their presentation.

Within this Robot Chicken episode made to look like a presentation, we saw Reggie fighting off internet trolls using laser vision and a fire flower, regular Link yelling at Toon Link for stealing his spotlight, and Bowser owning up to his previous wrongdoings to Princess Peach. If the Fallon appearance was Reggie appealing to a wide audience, this was him doing something for the hardcore fans. 

The Unveil of the Original Nintendo DS

Nintendo is the undisputed king of handheld game systems. The Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance were all well-beloved systems with some truly classic games. Then in 2004, Reggie Fils-Aime hopped on stage to announce the Nintendo DS, Nintendo showed us that they could still change the game when it came to handhelds. 

Highlight of the unveil? Definitely when they revealed Metroid Prime being played in full 3d on the go. We may be spoiled with the Switch now, but back in 2004 being able to play 3d games on the go was barely even thought possible. 

When he literally invented his own meme

This moment in Reggie's career is what turned him from the titular president of Nintendo of America, into a full-on internet sensation with his own celebrity status. During a demonstration of Wii Fit, he muttered the infamous words, and his career has never been the same (in the best way possible). The internet created one of its funniest memes out of the lovable awkwardness of Reggie, and long after his departure from Nintendo, the meme will still remain. 

What was your favorite Reggie moment? Let us know in the comments! Also be sure to check out our recap of the craziness that was Pax East.