I'm a little late to the game, but last night I finally saw King of Kong, the documentary about the battle over the world record high score in Donkey Kong. (If you've never heard of the movie, I'm not quite as behind as you might think, as this stirring drama all took place between about 2005 and 2007, and not--as you might have assumed given we're talking about Donkey Kong--in the Reagan era.)
What it's really about is the efforts of a nice guy named Steve Wiebe to beat (and then get recognized for beating) the record held by Billy Mitchell (whose high score stood for some 20 years or so). Wiebe is definitely the everyman in this drama--a regular guy and high school science teacher who took up the game during a bleak period of unemployment in an off-handed quest to beat Mitchell's score. Wiebe's problems begin when he tries to get recognition from the organization that passes for a regulating body in the world of near-antique video game scores, as it quickly becomes apparent that the group serves largely as a Billy Mitchell fan club.
If you've ever asked yourself what can be geekier than a World of Warcraft convention, the answer is clearly, "an old school arcade game competition." It will not surprise you to hear that there are very, very, very few women there. And yet, we hear at least 2 or 3 times about how Billy Mitchell is such a stud for having the Donkey Kong record that he can get virtually any woman he wants. This is one of a hundred moments in the film where you will shake your head slowly and wonder whether everyone they interview is on crack. (Point of clarification: Nowhere, at any point in history, has the line, "I have the highest score ever in Donkey Kong," been an effective way of getting women. Least of all when you look like Derek Smalls from Spinal Tap.)
By the end of the movie, you're sharing the bemusement and frustration of Steve Wiebe's friends and family at the insular club that surrounds the competition and the cult of Billy Mitchell that seems to have infected most of the participants. You're also praying that the guy who writes folk songs about video games will please, please not sing another one. Watching King of Kong is not a life-changing movie by any means, but it's definitely an interesting peek at the politics and drama of a subculture that most of us didn't even know existed.
RSS Feed
