Last month, former President of Nintendo America Reggie Fils-Aime held a Q&A at Cornell University, where he answered questions about his experiences at Nintendo, and talked about a bunch of other interesting topics.

Transcripts and summaries of the interview from those present at the event have since surfaced online, with some of the major topics Reggie spoke about being his relationship with Satoru Iwata, his thoughts on E3 and Nintendo Directs, as well as his favorite character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Check out some key highlights below:

• Reggie’s parents were Haitian immigrants who came to the United States in the 1950s and had backgrounds in complete opposites of Haitian politics.
• Iwata’s passing made him painfully realize how short life is and he thinks you should live your life to the fullest every day
• At one point in his career, Reggie saw that GameCube was not working too well and that was what really made him join Nintendo.
• Reggie thinks it was in 2000 when Nintendo decided not to focus on graphics.
• Believes Animal Crossing is good for kids to learn about mortgages.
• Thinks that updates are a great way to keep people hooked on a game longer.
• He is working on a new book that is in the proposal phase after his first proposal was rejected. This book focuses on his principles and part of his life.
• Reggie understands that video game delays are sometimes necessary, as Shigeru Miyamoto has already shared.
• Reggie is not absolutely anti-union , especially since his father was also in a union for about 30 years.
• Share that in the Wii U era there were mass cuts and layoffs on Nintendo.
• He and Iwata got along very well because they were promoted in the company at the same time, and he notes that Iwata is the mastermind behind Wii’s success.
• Reggie also shares that he loves E3 and his favorite moments were from E3 2004, with the expression of kicking butts and the presentation of DS, as well as E3 2006, with the presentation of Wii.
• Reggie loves the memes that are made of him and is aware of the hype generated by Nintendo Directs.
• Reggie thinks that a great story is not necessary to have a great game, as in the Legend of Zelda franchise , which, according to him, does not have a very complex story.
• Super Mario World is his favorite Mario game and is followed by Super Mario Odyssey.
• He believes Nintendo of America has grown enough that Doug Bowser could take the reins and so he decided to withdraw and focus on his next project.
• Share that hacks and ROMs are the main reason for the existence of Super Mario Maker, whose managers are Takashi Tezuka and Shigeru Miyamoto. He also acknowledges that Nintendo is “aggressively protective” of their IPs.
• He believes that Japanese and Western culture in Nintendo fit together very well and that their IPs have multimedia potential. He cites The Witcher as a good example of how an IP can cross many different types of media.
• He points to the first Super Mario Bros. movie as an example of how things can go very wrong and how they’ve had to wait about 30 years to give the Mario movie another shot.
• Reggie is very bad at playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and shares that the character he usually plays with is Zelda because she floats and recovers easily. He points out that it is difficult for him to follow the characters on stage and that he usually falls into pits.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.