King of Kong

I watched a 2007 documentary movie last week that was pretty good. It is called King of Kong.

While the documentary is about a competition to set a record high score on the arcade game, Donkey Kong, the documentary is about much more. It is really about a newcomer trying to break into a clique, and about believing in yourself and persevering when people and the odds are against you, and especially when you have failed before.

I am not much of an arcade player and never had an interest in Donkey Kong so I had my doubts about the movie, but I really got into the movie and became invested in the competition between Steve and Billy. I also learned playing Donkey Kong is a lot harder than it looks.

A review I found:

"In the early 1980s, legendary Billy Mitchell set a record on the video arcade game, Donkey Kong, that stood for almost 25 years. This documentary follows the assault on the record by Steve Wiebe, an earnest teacher from Washington who took up the game while unemployed. The top scores are monitored by a cadre of players and fans associated with Walter Day, an Iowan who runs Twin Galaxies, a score keeper of electronic games.

If it weren't for the sincerity of it all - or maybe because of it - King of Kong could be conceived of as a mockumentary. But there's no joking with these guys, which sometimes makes it a lot of fun to watch the competition between Billy Mitchell, with his sycophants and idiosyncrasies of his self-spun empire/network, and Steve Weebie, with his average suburban housewife and kids going somewhat begrudgingly along for the ride. It's a saga though not just about them, but about the world of gaming, of the mind-set that pervades everyone from lawyers to 'Roy Awesome' to little old ladies competing at Qubert, and the nature of competition itself. Not since Rocky has one seen a tale of the underdog and the king played out in odds that should seem somewhat silly.

But what's so amazing is how we are plunged into this world. It's immediately recognizable to anyone who has played one of the "old-school" arcade games like Donkey Kong or Pacman/Mrs. Pacman or even Pong. We see how the players play the games not haphazardly by luck but with game plans and strategies.

As far as triumph-of-the-human-spirit stories go, King of Kong is hilarious entertainment, sometimes for all the strangest (the referee Walter Day's would-be musical career) and silliest reasons (what's so special about the Guinness book of records, Steve's daughter asks)."

As Roy Awesome says... "Don't get chumpatized!"