It’s a say day indeed for Nintendo fans all around the world: the man, the myth, and the legend, Reggie Fils-Aime (former) President of Nintendo of America begins his retirement as of today. Doug Bowser will be taking over Reggie’s spot as the new president starting today, April 15.
It’s not that we don’t have faith in Doug Bowser(with a name like that, what could go wrong), but we’re just gonna miss the Reggie-nator a whole lot. He’s such a big part of Nintendo’s history and he even ended up getting himself meme-ified by the gaming community due to some wacky moments.
In commemoration of his retirement, let’s run through some of our favorite moments such as “My body is ready” and the “Kicking ass and making games” speech.
My Body Is Reggie
During the reveal of Nintendo’s Wii Fit and the accompanying balance board, this is the famous moment that Reggie fans are probably most familiar with.
Bill Trinen of Nintendo Treehouse and Shigeru Miyamoto ask Reggie to take a step onto the Balance Board, asking him to do a body check. When he steps on the board, he says “My Body is Ready,” which will go down in history as one of the best video game-related meme.
Whenever Nintendo fans get hyped up over a new game announcement, you’ll more than likely spot several fans spouting “My Body is Ready” or even the more comical choice – “My Body is Reggie.”
He’s About Kicking Ass and Making Games
During E3 in 2004, Reggie went on stage, representing Nintendo, and uttered a statement that today, sounds very un-Nintendo. “My name is Reggie. I’m about kicking ass; I’m about taking names, and we’re (Nintendo) about making games.”
This was Reggie’s shining moment in Nintendo history. Being the first time that Reggie introduced himself to the world, I guess he had to bust in the door if he wanted to make an impression, and oh man did it work.
That quote and Reggie’s rad personality would go on to make him a celebrity in the eyes of gamers everywhere; when it came to Nintendo’s presence in the west, you can’t help but think of Reggie Fils-Aime.
Reggie Fils-A-Mech
In order to steal pre-E3 information, a fellow fan of Nintendo invents a mech version of Reggie Fils-Aime to get inside Nintendo HQ. He calls his invention, Reggie Fils-A-Mech, a life-size android version of Nintendo’s President made to look exactly like the real guy.
Several caveats though: the android can only last for up to five minutes on battery and if it happens to get wet at all, it will explode. But he has super strength and can also shoot laser death rays from his eyeballs.
Reggie playing this robot version of himself is very entertaining, especially when android Reggie gets pulled into a very important meeting, where he cancels a meeting with Barack Obama to host a Smash Bros. tournament during E3 instead.
Muppet Reggie and Co.
For E3 2015, puppet versions of Satoru Iwata, Reggie Fils-Aime, and Shigeru Miyamoto were made to open up Nintendo’s digital event that year. The three of them all look like they were taken out of the Muppets were surprisingly very detailed, looking exactly like their human counterparts.
Iwata finds Reggie in a gym, working out his puppet body, getting it ready for the big showcase. The holy trinity then walks down a hallway together with triumphant music playing loudly in the background. The three of them then slowly begin to turn into Star Fox characters, teasing the announcement that a new Star Fox game would be coming to the Nintendo Wii U in the form of Star Fox Zero.
Reggie Quits Nintendo
Thinking of ideas for Nintendo’s E3 presence during a round-table discussion, Reggie comes up with the brilliant idea of bringing back the Nintendo World Championship after being away for about 20 years.
Reggie, wanting to participate in said games, is denied by his co-workers simply because he is the president of Nintendo so obviously he can’t compete in the championship.
So Reggie ends up “quitting ” Nintendo as president and instead, hires a young boy named Tanner to act as his successor.
This then turns into an amazing workout montage with Reggie using GameCube’s as weights and Wii Sports boxing to test his strength and skills.
The video cuts to Tanner in the brainstorming room over at Nintendo pitching the team an idea for a game that “lets you do anything.” You have to watch the rest of the video to see what happens after that.
These are just some of our favorite Reggie Fils-Aime moments from over the years; do you guys have any other memories of Reggie that you would like to share with us? Let us know in the comments below and also, thank Reggie for everything that he’s done for us and for Nintendo.
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