The King of Kong [Review]

Saturday, March 8th, 2008

Billy Mitchell is a big time douche.

Brian Kuh is an even bigger douche because he’s Billy Mitchell’s willing homosexual sex-slave.

Those stories and more on….The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters!

I like movies. I like video games. I like documentaries. All 3 combined = The King of Kong, a look at classic arcade video gaming competition, specifically the battle over the world scoring record for Donkey Kong in which you’re introduced to guys like Mitchell, Kuh, and Steve Wiebe, the good guy of this story.

I knew who Billy Mitchell was before watching this movie. I also knew about Twin Galaxies, the gaming scorekeeper for classic games. This documentary is about Mitchell, the record holder for Donkey Kong, but more so, Mitchell the character. It’s also about Steve Wiebe, who has to battle and Mitchell the (ego) symbol more than he actually battles the man in his quest to gain the record.

It’s a very good movie, and while I can never be sure if a documentary is slanted right, Mitchell sure comes out of it looking like a jackass, Kuh is just a buffoon, and Wiebe is just a normal guy you want to root for.

I don’t know why I have to even diss him in this post, but you just have to hope that Kuh has a moment where he remembers he’s human (“I think therefore I am”?) and doesn’t have to be a boob. Watch the movie and you will surely agree with me.

I gave it a 8/10 on IMDB, and I highly recommend it if stories about video games interest you at all.

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Street Fighter IV?

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

[gamevideo 15560 nolink]

Yes! It’s alive! After all those fun sessions of Street Fighter 3 with John Tam, Midland, Kyle, and Mike back at the old work place, learning how to parry, learning how to cry after losing, and probably 10 years after people started waiting for it, now there is a Street Fighter 4. I don’t even know why, seriously. Although, maybe it’s tied to the rumors of another Street Fighter movie (live-action), even though this itself was tied in to that movie (two rumors tied together).

At this point, does anyone care? Yes, I do care. But do millions of people care enough to buy this game? If this is coming to arcades again, who’s going to play it? Arcades have been dying both in the US and Japan over the last decade, so much so that Dave and Busters is the premier arcade in most areas. It’s not like the old days- Andy, William, Wing, and the whole gang would to go Mama Mia’s in Monterey Plaza to play Street Fighter 2 in 1992 on weekdays, Andy stealing money even from family to go play, or later in 1993 or maybe even up to 1994, we’d go to Keystone in Almaden Plaza for those bulk coin purchase deals to “save money.” Yet by 1996, those arcades were all done for, and now in Hanoi, I hope to stop by Vincom on a non-weekend day so I can finally go finish that Sega shooting game with Jimmy.

The home consoles are great, online networks like XBox Live will add fantastic multiplayer, but will 12 year olds care about Street Fighter the way I did when I was 12? Can this be another revolution in games? (I doubt it.)

Anyway, yes, I want to see more. Bring on all the Shoryukens (“All you can!”) and Hadoukens.

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