Film:  The King of Kong:  A Fistful of Quarters (documentary)

Studio:  Picturehouse Entertainment

Director:  Seth Gordon

Principal Actors:  Walter Day, Billy Mitchell, Steve Wiebe, Brian Kuh, Steve Sanders (as themselves) 

Release Date:  August 2007

Film length:  79 minutes

Rating:  PG-13 

4 ˝ stars 

Reviewed By: Deborah Ground Buckner  

Anyone who could have paid off college loans with the quarters popped into arcade games is in for a treat with The King of Kong:  A Fistful of Quarters.  This documentary, though it looks, feels, and laughs like the mockumentaries This is Spinal Tap or A Mighty Wind, is the true story of the quest to achieve the world's highest score in the arcade game Donkey Kong. 

Donkey Kong was the Nintendo game that introduced Mario, the Italian plumber who has become the mascot of the company and the star of more games than you can shake a joystick at.  Mario must ascend a series of ladders and platforms while dodging barrels tossed by the great ape, all in a quest, of course, to rescue the princess.  As Billy Mitchell, a gamer who moves, acts, and talks like a rock star, says, “Video games were meant to be played at home, but when you want your name written in history, you have to pay the price.”  Mitchell established himself in 1982 as the Donkey Kong champion, boasting a score of 874,300 in a Life magazine competition. 

Warp to the next century.  Enter Steve Wiebe (pronounced Wee-Bee), a sweet, humble, lovable husband and father of two.  The day he and his wife signed papers to purchase a house, he lost his job. Wiebe needs to find a way to regain a feeling of control over his life.  He decides he will attempt to break the Donkey Kong record and begins playing on an arcade machine in his garage.  Twin Galaxies, headed by Walter Day, is the official record-keeper and arbiter of video game scores.  Wiebe sets up a video camera to record his game.  As he is in the midst of breaking the record, knowing he will be sending the tape for certification, his young son, Derek, screams, “Daddy, wipe my butt!” and “Stop playing Donkey Kong!”   It's all on tape—ready for the gaming referees to review in all its glory. 

Mitchell is a favorite of Twin Galaxies, so when the challenging tape arrives, it is given strict scrutiny.  One day, Wiebe's wife opens the door to two men who have arrived to examine the Donkey Kong machine.  It turns out parts were supplied by a man named Roy Schildt, arch-nemesis of Billy Mitchell.  Somehow, this works to taint Wiebe's score, but Twin Galaxies' Walter Day invites Wiebe to come for a public game and recording of an official score. 

Wiebe makes the trip and achieves a score of 985,600, “the highest Donkey Kong score recorded in public,” according to Day.  Throughout the final stages of the play, Brian Kuh, another gaming fanatic, goes about the arcade announcing to all that Wiebe is nearing a “kill screen.”  Not even my sixteen-year-old gaming son knew this term, but it refers to a programming glitch that brings about an abrupt end to a game, usually by crashing or freezing, when the programming for the game reaches its final stages.  Donkey Kong's kill screen allows the player to continue for a few seconds, then ends.   

But Wiebe's score is challenged by the submission of a videotape by Billy Mitchell, showing a score of 1,047,200.  Though not a public game, Mitchell's new score is upheld as the highest.  Wiebe is ready to accept this blow—until the Guinness Book of World Records contacts Twin Galaxies to obtain the official high score for inclusion in the book.  Suddenly, Wiebe is re-ignited to give it one more try.  Wiebe's young daughter observes she did not realize the importance of the Guinness book. “Some people sort of ruin their lives to be in there,” she says.   

Wiebe takes on the challenge like David to Goliath or Rocky Balboa to Apollo Creed and--           

Oops, “Game Over.”  To learn the conclusion, please insert another quarter or rush to the theater to see The King of Kong.