Hanukkah. It's all because of Hanukkah. As an Irishman (and a rather non-religious one at that), the festival of lights has usually been relatively minor to me. This year however, it led to a rather interesting encounter with one President and COO of Nintendo of America.

On the second night of Hanukkah, my good friend Dan invited several of our friends over to his home for a night of latkes, gelt and competitive dreideling. Upon my arrival, his mother insisted that he show me a holiday card. I was greeted with the vacant smiles of an Animal Crossing avatar.



This never seems any less creepy. It's all in those dull, soulless eyes.

I laughed and asked where I could get one. Dan urged me on, telling me to open it. Inside I found well wishes and the signature of one "Reggie." Puzzled I looked up and asked, "Is this from Reggie Fils-Aime?" Dan responded with a nod and began laughing at my gaping mouth. "He and my dad were frat brothers," Dan said. This prompted one very big question; "Why the hell was your dad in a frat?"

The night continued on with the card as nothing more than a notable oddity, a fun anecdote to tell to all the Nintendomaniacs I knew. I continued to relish my first winter break as a Freshman at Syracuse. I celebrated Christmas, my 19th birthday and rang in the New Year by reconnecting with my ex Sarah (the relationship with whom was ironically kick-started by Super Mario Galaxy). I was ready to forget the card until Friday, January 2nd. I had spent the day lounging about, going to see "Milk" with some friends and having dinner with my lady friend's family. I was ready to accept the day as being great but rather unremarkable. As we left the restaurant, however, I got a text from my friend Sean. "Come to Dan's, grab some pizza and meet Reggie."

Sarah found the whole thing rather comical and decided to come along for the ride. I arrived at Dan's house , traversed through a snowy front lawn and entered the house, totally unsure of why this was all so cool. I said my hellos to Dan's parents then rounded a corner to find a dozen of my friends mulling around some boxes of pizza. After making my our hellos, Sarah and I looked around the corner and saw a small dinner party taking place, looked to the end of the table and saw him.



He's bigger looking in person, as improbable as that is.

I retreated back into the kitchen and look at Sean. We shared a look that basically said "Holy crap, this man is Nintendo incarnate." Dan's mother corralled us into the dining room and had us introduce ourselves one at a time, shaking his hand. Shaking his hand, I merely said, "Warren Greatsinger, nice to meet you." He chuckled a bit and said "Greatsinger? I assume you like Rock Band then?" The group laughed and settled into a nice rapport; he would ask us if we had a Wii, Wii Fit and a DS. When I replied that I had a 360 and a Wii, he insisted that I just use the Wii since the 360 will Red Ring anyway.

As the night went on, the party moved downstairs to play some N64. My group put in Goldeneye and played some Deathmatch for about an hour until the parents came down. Reggie walked up and commented on how tough it is to look at it now, but that he also loved Rare's games. He even went as far as to chastise us all for not choosing to play as Oddjob. As we were playing, I mentioned offhand to Sean how I had seen a Virtual Boy on eBay for some exorbitant amount of money. Reggie perked up and asked us if any of us had a Virtual Boy. When he was met with a sea of "nos," he began to talk about his love for the system, headaches and all.

As the night wore down, Mr. Fils-Aime asked where we all went to college. Upon my mention of Syracuse, he mentioned how it was a "damn good school," which sent Sean into a bit of a jealous rage. Making our goodbyes, he again was polite and shook our hands goodbye as we headed home. As Sarah and I made our way back to my house, I was struck by how much of a gamer he really was. I had always had the image of him as a corporate raider, the kind of guy who didn't care where he worked as long as he could maximize profits and do well for himself. After meeting him and seeing him bested in Wii Tennis by Dan's fourteen year old sister, however, I realized that he was a man who balanced his job with his passion for gaming. I also realized that his fists were half the size of Connecticut, which made me hesitant to ask him about whether there would be any good games besides Mad World on Wii this year.