Following the journey of Steve Wiebe, this documentary captures the inner workings of what it takes to be a video game record holder. In the beginning, Wiebe is described by friends and family as “a tragic figure” who has never won anything in his life and who always seems to get the short stick, which becomes apparent with Wiebe’s recent layoff as a Boeing engineer.Although he holds down a job as a science teacher, Wiebe begins going to night school for a masters degree while playing an old arcade game, Donkey Kong, in his garage during his free time. After doing some research about the game on the internet, he is dead set on beating the record high score: 874,300. Fortunately, his wife is supportive of this goal, so Wiebe begins throwing his hours and days into the game.
Because he is highly skilled in engineering and math, he eventually works out the many patterns in the game and is able to reach a score of 1,006,600. At this point, the movie shows how happy Wiebe is to have finally won something as he celebrates with his wife and young son. But when news of this gets to Billy Mitchell, the former world record holder, the story really begins to get interesting.
In a world where Billy Mitchell is God with his own arch nemesis, and the group responsible for deciding who the world record holder is, Twin Galaxies, is a clique of its own, Wiebe becomes somewhat like a wrench thrown into the gears. How this changes everything the classic gaming community and Donkey Kong lovers have known becomes the plot of the documentary.
Like any good film, this one makes you root with all of your heart for Wiebe to get the title of world record holder, as well as make you hate with a passion all those who tear him down. Mitchell, in particular, becomes the classic villain, fighting viciously against Wiebe’s heroic journey to the top.In all fairness, the film was edited to bring out these character traits, as it fails to show the many times Mitchell greeted and talked with Wiebe. Instead, Mitchell appears in the film to be much like a mobster who sends his minions out to do his dirty work, all the while avoiding Wiebe like a disease.
However, the idea that Mitchell might be so cruel is not entirely unbelievable. He had set the high score for Donkey Kong in 1982 when he was only 17 years old, and no one had challenged it since then. After having been named one of the top 10 most influential video gamers of all time and the top gamer of the twentieth century, as well as having top scores in Donkey Kong and Centipede and a perfect score in Pac Man, Mitchell claims his scores are the greatest achievement of his life besides his own family.
With stakes this high (or low, depending on how you might feel about video games), it’s no wonder the conflict between Mitchell and Wiebe gets dirty, and this film does a great job of capturing and magnifying that drama. It's a world you may not have been familiar with before, but you'll be pulled into it almost as chaotically as Wiebe himself.
Overall, I give King of Kong: A fistful of quarters five stars for its originality and moving story. I would take off one star for its inaccurate portrayal of Mitchell, but I chose not to because I thoroughly enjoyed his character as the ultimate bad guy of gaming. Anyone who enjoys the classic good guy vs. bad guy story line will certainly enjoy this documentary.
