'King of Kong' captures world of competitive arcade gaming
By Taryn Lentes, Staff Writer
October 27, 2007 | noon
The first game in the famous Super Mario series, Donkey Kong, pits the little Italian plumber against the vicious and seemingly invincible ape, Donkey Kong, in an epic battle. This duel is fought on a digital construction site and won by climbing ladders and avoiding barrels and fireballs that are hurled at Mario.
Many who grew up during this simpler time have never truly let go of the thrill they felt when this classic game was king, and that is where this documentary comes in.
Unbeknownst to the majority of the population, an underground world of classic arcade gamers has been operating for years. They reminisce about the good old days, pat each other on the back and every once in a while they try to break their own records.
The god-like figure to these disciples is Bill Mitchell, a man who has the distinction of not only holding the world record for Donkey Kong, but also managed to complete a perfect game of Pac Man. For those who may be wondering, a perfect game entails not merely beating the game, but eating every dot without ever dying.
Such impressive feats remain unchallenged until Steve Wiebe, a recently laid-off “average Joe,” decides to take up Donkey Kong as a method of relaxation and control. He sends in a tape of himself beating Mitchell’s legendary score and unwittingly starts a war that will undoubtedly go down in the history of geekdom.
Watching the story unfold between the likable and downtrodden Wiebe and the egotistical and worshiped Mitchell, the viewer quickly realizes that the film is becoming less about the geeky world it inhabits and more about the struggle between the arcade world’s version of David and Goliath. Watching Wiebe struggle through first indifference then scorn by the community he so desperately wants to be a part of makes it hard not to root for him in the showdown the audience anticipates.
Meanwhile, Mitchell’s casual declarations of his superiority coupled with his refusal to meet Wiebe and prove it are enough to place him squarely in the spot of villain, with the rest of the gaming community falling into place as his henchmen. Just like that, a movie about arcade games becomes a story about the difference between the speech we are told about the American Dream and the kind of down-and-dirty battles it takes to actually get anywhere in our society.
Despite the fact that the film centers on a geeky pursuit, the rights to remake this documentary into a scripted movie have already been snatched up. Hard as it is to believe that anyone would want to watch a movie about arcade gaming, it seems even more far-fetched to believe people would want to see two.
However, watching Steve Wiebe attempting to battle both Donkey Kong and the entire system of competitive arcade gaming offers a classic underdog story, with which any sports fan is already familiar, set against the humorous backdrop of the ultimate group of geeks. It is a combination worth watching, and will leave the audience longing for a time when things were simple, and their only goals were to defeat Donkey Kong, rescue the princess and maybe win some respect along the way.
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King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Critic’s Rating: B+
Running Time: 79 mins.
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for a brief sexual reference
Movie Genre: Documentary