Thanks to FBi radio I won a free double pass to see King of Kong at the Dendy Newtown so I took Sir and we had free Coopers (green label) and settled down for what I envisioned to be nerd central.
For those of you who haven't heard about it, King of Kong is a documentary set around the two contenders for the Donkey Kong world record (highest score). Billy Mitchell (pictured above, receiving an award for Pacman) has been the champion since 1982, his teenage years. Steve Wiebe is relatively new to the competitive side of the game but manages to beat Billy's longstanding record. Rivalry – and hilarity – ensues.
The doco plays things nicely. Billy is portrayed as the arrogant twat, while Steve is just a high school science teacher cum good. Along the way there are some great quotes from the main 'characters', which although sincere, need a healthy dose of irony from the audience to allow the best jokes to slip through. A selection:
Walter Day (video game referee): "I wanted the glory, I wanted the fame. I wanted the pretty girls to come up and say, 'Hi, I see that you're good at Centipede'."
Jillian Wiebe (Steve's daughter): "Work is for people who can't play video games."
Billy Mitchell: "No matter what I say, it draws controversy. It's sort of like the abortion issue."
Mr Awesome (Steve's 'patron' and gamer striving to have his Missile Command record recognised): "Everything would've fell right into place, but he forgot about one thing, about me convincing Steve Wiebe not to be a chump, talking him out of chumpatizing himself."
Brian Kuh (Billy's 'protege', wandering around Funspot as Steve approaches the end of a Donkey Kong game): "If anybody wants to see, there's a Donkey Kong kill screen coming up."
Jillian Wiebe: "I never knew that the Guinness World Record Book was so important."
Steve Wiebe: "I guess a lot of people read that book."
Jillian Wiebe: "Some people sort of ruin their lives to be in there."
Ah, the wisdom of children. In the doco, Jillian looks about eight years old and I swear that she's far more mature than most of the gamers introduced.
Anyway, it's a well-made doco, I recommend that you watch it, if not for the petty squabbling over pixels, then certainly the gamers' dubious aggrandisation.
* I also wanted to add that of course I know that the correct Aussie way to spell 'ass', as in one's bottom, is ARSE but clearly I would have missed the punful title.
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