The King of Kong

The orginal Donkey Kong is a hard game. And I don't mean just hard, but rather friggin' impossible. It's so damn tough, in fact, that I refuse to play it. I'd rather widdle away the hours leveling up my second character in Lord of the Rings Online or rocking out in numerous different ways with Rock Band.

I love my video games but I sure do not like getting the crap kicked out of me by barrels that I can't seem to ever jump.

Steve Weibe doesn't mind though.

Who is Steve Weibe? He's the lovable schmuck who is the center piece of The King of Kong: A Fistfull of Quarters, the documentary about one man's quest for vindication. Weibe, you see, set the all time score for Donkey Kong (over one million points) but his score was disallowed thanks to some shady shenanigans from the folks over at Twin Galaxies (the official record keepers of video game scores).

Twim Galaxies, you see, are completely in love with Billy Mitchell, the previous record holder on Donkey Kong. Because of this, they enacted a rule that disallowed the videotaped score and made Weibe play live to set his record, complete with referee watching and everything.

Suffice it to say, The King of Kong is a gripping documentary about one man's quest to enact sweet revenge on the association that did not allow him to keep his high score and damn it if it's not one of the best movies of the year. Weibe is the perfect hero and Mitchell is the perfect villian. There are twists, there are turns and there are some interesting events that will make you question to validity of some people's high score claims.

It all boils down to a fun documentary that you should take the time out to see. Even if you think a documentary about a guy trying to set a high score on a video game that is almost 30 years old is lame, just give it a chance. You might be pleasantly surprised. I know I was.

For the record - I still hate Donkey Kong.