Everyone young and old has at least heard of the popular retro video game Donkey Kong, whether it's because of their parents playing the original version as a child, seeing the characters on a T-shirt or playing the countless spinoffs on any of Nintendo's systems. Director Seth Gordon used this universal familiarity with Donkey Kong and his camera crew to his advantage when he created 2007's ""The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters,"" featured at the Memorial Union's Mini-Indie Film Festival over the weekend.
In the documentary, we are first introduced to Billy Mitchell, the champion of Donkey Kong and fellow retro game Centipede since the 1980s. He is nothing like your stereotypical video game geek-—he has his own line of hot sauce in Florida and keeps himself groomed. He is one of the unofficial celebrities of Twin Galaxies, an organization that keeps track of high scores from retro arcade games. Challenger Steve Wiebe is also someone that many viewers can relate to, especially with the recently dwindling economy. He turned to the arcade game Donkey Kong Jr. to find something to do after recently getting laid off from Boeing Airlines. Wiebe soon became a celebrity of sorts for Twin Galaxies when he beat Mitchell's high score of 874,300 in Donkey Kong and confirmed his exceptional level of playing. However, this high score possibly resulted from a faulty arcade system he used when he challenged Mitchell's record. Instead of playing Donkey Kong live himself, Mitchell sends in a possibly faulty tape of himself achieving an all-time high score of over a million points. After seeing that tape, Wiebe
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to attempt to record a high score for Guinness World Records and to hopefully face Mitchell head-to-head, but he doesn't show.
The King of Kong is not like your normal documentary, probably because most documentaries don't profile video game competitions that are quoted in the film as being as energetic and mind-boggling as athletic competitions. While only die-hard Donkey Kong fans or older people will understand some jokes in the documentary, it also has its fair share of general hilarity. For example, throughout the documentary, Mitchell trains an 80-year-old who's hoping to reclaim her world record on fellow retro arcade game Q-Bert. Also, while Wiebe is taping his game that he's hoping to send to Twin Galaxies for the official high score, his then-five year old son, Derek, pleas for him to stop playing so he can help him use the bathroom.
Whether you find literal bathroom humor funny or not, however, its familiar topic, interesting plot and general hilarity make The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters a documentary not to miss.
