Review of The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007) by Christian G — 24 Sep 2010

The subtitle for this movie is â??A Fistful of Quartersâ?? but they shouldâ??ve left it at â??King of Kong.â?? Anyway, what follows is a bunch of folks competing in old-school games. Kong, Pac-man .

. . the classics. I suppose ten years ago this mightâ??ve seemed like a big deal, but gaming contests are a rather big deal now (Well, bigger anyway). Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Smash Bros., etc. You name it, thereâ??s a contest out there for it.

But I digress. Back to King of Kong. We follow Steve, whoâ??s out to top this other guy Billyâ??s score. He does so (SPOILER!) only for Billy to go back and top him again. This back and forth continues for the duration of the documentary.

Itâ??s somewhat fascinating to see how involved these grown men are in video games but it does get a tad stale. Iâ??m a gamer myself, but there comes a time when you have to drop the entertainment and live a little.

I realize thatâ??s hypocritical for me to say because apparently these guys feel the same way about games as I do movies. As far as this doc goes, itâ??s entertaining, but doesnâ??t really say or show anything about gamers that we donâ??t already know.