Ruben_Dominguez's Blog

Did you grow up playing arcade games? You know Galaga, Defender, Asteroids, Pac Man and of course Donkey Kong? Well then you probably know about a little documentary called The King of Kong. If you don't know about this movie, find out about it right away and for Pete's sake see it!

It tells the story of an average guy from Seattle named Steve Weibe. All Steve ever wanted to do was be the best that he could be at something. First he tried sports and almost got there if it wasn't for the fact that his pitching arm gave out right before the most important baseball game of his high school career. Then he tried music, and was even involved in the grunge movement but his band just never got that record deal they were chasing. During the film you see him play amazing piano and even a great drum solo on a toy set that his son has in his room so obviously the guy has some talent.

Steve eventually gets his hands on a Donkey Kong machine and sets it up in his garage.  He discovers that the highest score ever recorded is somewhere in the mid 800 thousands. Weibe manages to beat the score and so starts his journey into an insane world.

The official record keeper of high scores is Twin Galaxies which we find out in the movie is a kind of Guiness Book of World Records for video games.  Weibe notices that the record holder is a guy by the name of Billy Mitchell who is a semi-mythic figure in the arcade world.  To make a long story short, Mitchell is the dark lord in this story and Steve the hero out to wipe his foul stench from the realm.