As a student of the sciences for the past 5 years, I've spent a good chunk of my life listening to people introduce speakers. I haven't heard any as perfect as this one, though I don't think any scientists have had such mass appeal to children. See if this doesn't sum up your own memories of Shiggy.

http://ds.ign.com/articles/923/923239p1.html

Reggie Fils-Aime, President & COO, Nintendo of America:
You know, the job assigned to someone to introduce a guest of honor is pretty simple: reflect on what that person has done for our industry; reflect on what that person has done for a particular company. But today I wanted to do something different and instead talk about what Mr. Miyamoto has meant to me, personally.

Like everyone else in this room, I was first introduced to Mr. Miyamoto through his work. My very first game console was the Super NES. The very first game I ever played was Super Mario World [audience applause]. I got so into Super Mario World that I thought there would never be anything like that particular game. It was the first game I ever finished. I played every single stage and ended the game with 99 lives -- so, yes, I found all the cheat codes, too. But believing that there would never be a videogame that would touch me like that really was a fallacy, because then came Zelda: A Link to the Past [more applause].

Now, let me just say that at the time I was playing this game I had a young family and two young sons. I had a good job building my career at Pizza Hut [audience laughter]. But let me tell you, in retrospect, that game was like another child; that game was like a second job. My routine was pretty simple: everyday after the family had gone to bed, I would play Zelda. I would play Zelda until one, two, three o'clock in the evening every night. On weekends, even longer than that. As you can expect, finally that one day came. I was at the final boss battle, playing against Ganondorf. Any of you out there who have played this game know that stage, right? The sword; the twirling bats; the flying firebirds; not trying to fall into the pit. It was probably three or four o'clock in the evening, on a Thursday night or Friday morning. Let me just say that the following day at work was not the best day of my career. But all I could think about was getting back home and finishing off this game.

This is where the dramatic conflict comes in. Because at the same time I was playing this game, my oldest son, David, who was six at the time, was also playing Zelda. We had an agreement: he had his own file; he could play the game to his heart's content. I also knew that he cheated at times, right? He would play my file when things got a little too tough.

So I know exactly what happened. On that Thursday, he got home and saw that I was at the final stage. All of that excitement got the best of him. He must have played continuously for the next four hours. And I knew it because as soon as I got in the door I heard this yelling and cheering: he had beaten the game. He had deprived me of beating that game. I was so pissed [laughter]. But he loved it and he's an avid gamer today.

So, now, fast forward the clock 12 years from that time and I'm now in Kyoto, about to meet Mr. Miyamoto for the very first time. I was nervous -- extremely nervous. But I felt I just had to tell him this story. So, literally, I took him through this whole story. And if you've seen Mr. Miyamoto he has that little smile on his face. And then it hit me: he's probably heard this same story thousands of times. And if every gamer had the opportunity to talk to Mr. Miyamoto he would here it millions of times. That's the impact he's made on this industry. That's the impact that he's made on so many of our consumers that we call gamers. There is no one like him. So please join me in welcoming and honoring Mr. Shigeru Miyamoto.