Former Nintendo staffers look back on how Reggie's infamous "What's wrong with you?" 3DS line came to be
It may be wrong, but it feels so right
During Reggie’s tenure at Nintendo, he spouted off a handful of lines during Nintendo Directs and other presentations that managed to become evergreen for Nintendo fans. Of course, the biggest one is his “kicking ass, taking names” debut, but not far behind is his stern question to non-3DS owners.
Back in the very first U.S. Nintendo Direct, Reggie was talking about the merits and value of the 3DS. During that segment, Reggie uttered a question to all the gamers out there who didn’t purchase a 3DS yet. He simply asked those people, “what’s wrong with you?” If you don’t remember the moment or want to relive it, you can see it at the top of this post.
In the most recent episode of the Kit and Krysta Podcast, former Nintendo staffers Krysta Yang and Kit Ellis shared some insight on how that infamous question came to be. You might think the line was a bit brash, but apparently behind the scenes Nintendo felt the strong message was an important one to make.
“I do remember there was a discussion about that line, and Reggie was in the room when that discussion was happening. Golin was the agency, they did a lot of scriptwriting in the very beginning when we were experimenting with Nintendo Directs. That line was in there. It was written by the person that writes all of Reggie’s presentations and knows Reggie really well, knows Reggie’s voice really well.
I remember there was a discussion about that line, and that exact same conversation about like, ‘Is this too mean? Is this insulting?’ Ultimately the decision was like, ‘No, we need to be like a little shock and awe’ kind of thing. And Reggie’s no stranger to the shock and awe – he had the famous of course taking names line that’s a little bit hardcore for Nintendo’s standards, so it didn’t feel out of character for him to be sort of saying something like that. Not in a super mean way, but just kind of in a tough love kind of way. That was how they convinced themselves into it I think, but I remember there was a discussion about that line.”
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