After a decent weekend, I always like to end it off with a film on Sunday night, so I was reading this month’s issue of Empire magazine and I saw an interesting looking film reviewed in the DVD section going by the name of ‘The King of Kong’. It got 4 out of 5 stars so I read the review, and then went on to give the film a watch myself.


It’s sort of like ‘Rocky’ but involving Donkey Kong instead of boxing. It follows the story of Billy Mitchell, who sets a seemingly unbeatable world-record score on Donkey Kong in the 1980’s, only to get that score beaten 20 years later by a guy called Steve Wiebe. It’s all about Mitchell’s quest to regain his high-score.



I suppose the best thing about the film is how surreal it feels. I used to spend a fair share of time on Tekken 2 in the arcade, but being able to call a worldwide high-score as a crowning acheivement is a tad geeky. Fortunately, the film is approached with a tongue-in-cheek attitude for the most part, and we're able to laugh with the characters, rather than being forced to laugh at them or feel sorry for them. The film has all the scenes you'd readily expect from a sports film: public challenges, secret video tapes, financial backers and a suspenseful finale; making it all the more fun to enjoy.

It sounds an odd base to make a whole movie about, but I found it intriguing. The film is actually a documentary, and some of the interviews with Mitchell and Wiebe are overly-serious to the point of them being comical, especially when regarding the trivial nature of the matter at hand. At times it can just make the film feel overly hyperbolic, making the characters seem like caricatures of themselves, but I suppose it isn't a hard thing to do when the characters involved are so obsessed with an arcade game. But the unusual subject matter is something that hasn't been touched upon by a major film before, and it feels sufficiently different than watching a stock 'you can do it' sports movie.

Apparently, rights for a dramatic adaptation of the story have already been taken, but I doubt that film will be of any interest. I do seriously recommend ‘The King of Kong’ to anyone interested in video games. I’m sure at one point all another, most of us have all strived to get to the top of an X-Box Live leader board, but this film shows a seriously nerdy commitment to truly be the best in the world at something.


Steve Wiebe (front) playing Donkey Kong. Billy Mitchell (back) presented with his original high score certificate