Steve Wiebe Makes Another Run At ‘Donkey Kong’ Champ Billy Mitchell, Comes Close

Steve WiebeIf you haven’t seen last year’s documentary “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” (or read Stephen Totilo’s series of stories from last year), turn off the computer and track down a copy (it’s on DVD) right now. You’re missing out.

For folks already keenly aware of the ongoing score battle between “Donkey Kong” rivals Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell, and rooting for the game’s “good guy,” I have some bad news.

Twin Galaxies, the organization that keeps record of video game high scores, monitored a match between the two in Las Vegas last week. Despite Wiebe’s multiple attempts to topple Mitchell’s oh-so-close high score, he couldn’t.

Wiebe wasn’t under the scrutiny of a documentary lens this time, but it was still, you know, Vegas. “Possibly the biggest challenges Steve had to overcome were the loud nightclub music, the chaotic environment and the late hours,” said Twin Galaxies’ referee Walter Day on the Guinness World Records website.

Read more…

Greg Kinnear On Playing A Role In Possible Remake Of ‘Donkey Kong’ Documentary ‘King of Kong’

Greg KinnearIt’s time to write again about the highly acclaimed “Donkey Kong” rivalry documentary “King of Kong,” my favorite topic of the year.

The occasion? MTV Movies editor/reporter/nice-man Josh Horowitz was hanging out with actor Greg Kinnear for some non-gaming-reason and asked him about the “King of Kong” filmmakers’ desire to have Kinnear play a lead role in a dramatic remake of the documentary.

Had he heard that they think he’d play a great Steve Wiebe, the soft-spoken up-start schoolteacher who makes a run at the “Donkey Kong” world record held by arcade hero (but “King of Kong” villain) Billy Mitchell?

Kinnear told Josh: “No, but I saw that documentary. I loved it. I thought it was a very cool documentary. If they make that into a movie…I wouldn’t want to play Kong. So that guy [Wiebe] would be better.”

I trust Josh will follow through and badger Johnny Depp next about playing Mitchell. Don’t let me down, Josh!

The Billy Mitchell Halloween Costumes — TWO Of Them

If you take my support of an MTV intern named Billie to post about her plans for a “Halo” Halloween costume…

…stir that up with my year-long coverage of the Steve Wiebe - Billy MitchellDonkey Kong” documentary “King of Kong” and associated shenanigans…

…put it on a stove-top for 10 minutes at medium heat…

…you will find, ready for serving, this post: Billy Mitchell Halloween Costumes.

The only thing that would have made this better is if Eli Roth came through with a photo. Why him? Because he told MTV Movies reporter Larry Carroll back in May that he was planning to dress as Billy for Halloween. Well, Eli?

Read on to see the costumes.
Read more…

Filed At MTV News: My Fourth “King of Kong” Article, With Hopes Of An “Arkanoid” Future

King of Kong PosterOnce. Twice. Three Times. Now Four. I just love writing about the “King of Kong” documentary and the rivalry it chronicles between “Donkey Kong” masters Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe.

The film finally comes out this weekend.

On Friday, to celebrate the occasion, I wrote my fourth article about it. This one has me catching up with the filmmakers and finding out who they want to cast in the dramatization of the doc (Johnny Depp and Greg Kinnear, ideally). The filmmakers also tease me with the amazing possibilities of a “King of Kong” all about “Arkanoid.“From my article:

…they admit there’s a great “Arkanoid” story for them to tackle someday. The top two players in that classic arcade game include a man who’s in prison and a Minor League Baseball reporter who claims to have caught more foul balls than anyone else in the world — and wrote a book about it. “It makes sense that a person who understands how to break all those bricks [in ‘Arkanoid’] is thinking about angles,” [”KoK” director Seth] Gordon said.

So hit the link above to read article #4. And then there’s my earlier articles on the film…

(SPOILER NOTE: I strongly recommending seeing the film before reading these stories. I’ve tried to keep spoilers to a minimum but it’s not too hard to figure out who comes out on top in the movie once you start reading my stories)

My other coverage includes a two-parter about the controversy surrounding what’s in the film and whether the documentary; the second part includes Billy Mitchell’s first interview about the film. My third piece is more recent, and covers a major “DK” high-score event that happened after the documentary’s conclusion.

Filed At MTV News: New “Donkey Kong” World Record… Set At Mortgage Brokers Convention?

Billy MitchellWhen Billy Mitchell calls, I answer.

Not only is the man a quote machine: “I’m not Steve Spurrier. I’m Billy Mitchell. I don’t need to run up the score. I just want to put one in the win column. I want to make it competitive. I didn’t want to make it too tough.”

Not only is he embroiled in a years-long rivalry with gamer Steve Wiebe to claim the world record in “Donkey Kong“: Read all about it in exclusive interviews I did here and here.

But Billy Mitchell stories always have great details. Read my story about his new high score over at MTVNews.com to discover the amazing lengths Mitchell went to make this achievement free of any assumptions of foul play. Your keywords will be: “polygraph,” “security guard” and “Willy Wonka.”

Oh, and he’s offering $10,000 if you can beat his score in Las Vegas this weekend. Cash.

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