Watch out, Billy Mitchell. Steve Wiebe, the lovable everyman who was the hero of the documentary The King of Kong, has set a new world record in Donkey Kong Jr.
Steve Wiebe‘s attempt to reclaim the Donkey Kong world record at this year’s E3 convention live on cable TV is still a little over a month away, but it seems that the King of Kong star’s ready to take his title back. He’s clearly been practicing, except when Steve Weibe practices, he doesn’t just play a couple games every other night. He sets world records.
According to classic game scorekeeping organization Twin Galaxies, on April 14, Wiebe played a 1,139,800 point game in Donkey Kong Jr. to take the world record for highest score from former champ Ike Hall, who had broken the infamous Billy Mitchell‘s record in August of last year. The score was checked and verified by Twin Galaxies, which, as anyone who’s seen The King of Kong will know, means that it’s really, definitely, totally official.
“I’m not surprised he was able to beat it,” Hall told Twin Galaxies. “I’m definitely going to try and reclaim it, but it won’t be an easy hill to climb.”
Twin Galaxies founder and amateur songwriter Walter Day called the record a “profound performance,” whatever that means.
So look out, Billy Mitchell. Steve Wiebe is clearly not kidding around when it comes to setting world records in 2009. We’ll see if he can earn that ever-elusive Donkey Kong world record (Wiebe took the record at the end of the movie but lost it to Mitchell afterward) when he attempts to win it live on G4 during E3 2009.
