The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

I guess we all have a need to be good at something and maybe even better at it than everyone we know. It' s nice to get a little recognition & kudos for whatever skill that is by our peers, even though these accomplishments might not exactly make the world a better place.

With that, a movie about two grown men battling for supremacy in a 1980s video game is surprisingly compelling. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters was a movie I only discovered after Steve gave me a solid recommendation for it. I guess my adoration for video games certainly helped, but this documentary moves along quite well as it interviews different individuals about their quest to have their name inscribed in the Guinness Book of World Records for acheiving a top score in Pac-Man. There are so many unintentional laughs as they compare the challenge to an Olympic Event or preparing for the finals of the Stanley Cup. All those guys we stereotype as nerds and 40 year-old virgins: well, they're here in plentiful supply.

The "good guy" is Steve Wiebe, a family man who submitted a videotape of his new world-record score for Donkey Kong but it was deemed ineligible. Current record-holder Billy Mitchell, a relic of the 80s with his mullet hairstyle, a narcissist who has no right to be one, says a true champion should be established live and in the public eye. Wiebe obliges, travelling the U.S.A. to try to establish his new live record. But Mitchell never shows up, never plays heads up against him, instead submits a videotape of his newly recorded high score that for some reason is accepted as legitimate. Is there a conspiracy? Is the video game industry's points watchdog Twin Galaxies "protecting" Mitchell? It certainly does seem so. In the end, you root for Wiebe, more so because out of all these real characters, he's probably the only one who's somewhat normal in this film.

Definitely check this title out next time you're up for a DVD rental...or for some, an internet library check-out. I had the urge to play Donkey Kong after it was done; that's definitely a good sign!