I sat down to write a review of The King of Kong: A Pocketful of Quarters this morning, but was sidetracked by reading these clarifications by Twin Galaxies.
The movie portrays Steve Wiebe as an underdog outsider in the world of competitive gaming, and Billy Mitchell as something akin to royalty. But after reading Walter Day’s clarifications linked above, it seems as though the filmmakers didn’t tell the whole story, and that’s a shame.
It’s a shame mostly because the movie is so good. (Choose for yourself whether to see the film first before reading on.)
All they really needed to do was let us know that Steve Wiebe was actually competing against his OWN Donkey Kong record throughout most of the movie, and not Michell’s from back in the 80’s. Instead, Twin Galaxies gets painted as a cult of Billy, not willing to let Steve and his scores in. The facade even comes complete with undercover operatives sneaking cellphone calls to Mitchell as he drives around ducking Wiebe. (Although they did present a videotape of Mitchell’s million point game why Wiebe was across the arcade working on his own score.)
Despite the conflicting views of the events, the movie is still well worth seeing. I just wish that things were made clearer.
By the way, the current (as of the date of this posting) top Donkey Kong scores are:
Edit: The story lives on, with a new interview with Billy Mitchell and the makers of the film at the AV Club.