The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters

Let me say this: I fancy myself a pretty good pac-man (or ms. pac-man) player. Missle Command, Centipede, Tetris. Nothing amazing, but I like to think I'm alright at those kind of early video games.

Wrong. Oh, so wrong.

King of Kong is a 2007 documentary about classic 80's video game players. While video games have continued to grow and develop and things like Madden Tournaments and Major League Gaming have introduced competitive gaming into our culture, these particular dorks have felt no reason to leave behind the earliest pizza parlor greats. And after watching this movie, I can see why.

The film is an exploration of these giants of gaming and the people who chronicle and officiate their games. There's bias, lies, sketchy videotape, tampered machines, and a 65+ year old buddhist running the whole thing.

The main story follows two men, Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe. Billy Mitchell was a child prodigy at these games; he was a teen in the late 80's, and excelled at the games even then. While Billy dominated all the games, his only standing world record was in Donkey Kong, which is considered the hardest of all of these games. Mitchell is a totally nuts egomaniac whose self confidence has propelled his successful hot sauce business and his gaming records and achievements (in 1999 he recorded the first perfect Pac-Man game, completing all 200 something levels and getting the maximum points on each one!) He is a revered, but reclusive, figure throughout the film. It's amazing to watch him politicize such a trivial occurrence.

Wiebe, by contrast, is a semi-OCD father and husband who bought a Donkey Kong machine for his garage. He kicks off the drama by breaking Mitchell's all-time record (870,000) and scoring over a million points for the first time ever. In the background of his million point game VHS tape, his kid is screaming about needing his butt wiped (yes, really) and then starts crying "STOP PLAYING DONKEY KONG! STOP PLAYING DONKEY KONG!" while his dad sets the record. I mean, you can't make this stuff up.

I don't want to spoil the whole story, but it gets pretty intense between the two. Watching Mitchell try to be this Machiavellian figure over such a small, petty bit of trivia is enthralling, and watching Wiebe push his family to their limit is equalling compelling.

Plus, you get to see these guys really kick ass at Donkey Kong, which is pretty cool. All in all this movie was balls out awesome.

-- final thought-- I couldn't believe that there wasn't some Japanese dude that could crush these 45 year old nerds. Maybe that's racist, but I suspect they simply don't keep track of these things in Japan.

Scores:

How do you score a documentary? Overall, 8/10 in comparison to other documentaries.