Last night, my fellow video game junkie/husband and I finally got to see The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Good stuff. It's a fascinating documentary about a man's quest for the title of world champion of Donkey Kong. I know most of you have played the game. And you know how hard that game is. It is absurd. Apparently, most games of Donkey Kong end in about 1 minute. At least, most of mine do. This dude can make a game last for about 2 and a half hours. Crazy.
One of the big highlights of the film, for us anyway, was seeing our favorite arcade, Funspot, pop up repeatedly. Funspot is near Lake Winnipesauke in New Hampshire and features all the classic video games you remember and some you probably don't. Any of Jeremy's family functions are just excuses to get closer to Funspot. (For us. I'm sure they think we're just there for the baby shower/wedding reception/80th birthday party.)
Sebastian's first trip to Funspot was in utero, when we went to my surprise baby shower in Laconia. His hearing had already developed, and I'm sure that the wokka-wokka-wokka of Pac-Man penetrated the whooshing of the womb sounds. This was quickly followed by another trip when he was a few months old. Get ready to lower your opinion of my parenting... He spent a couple of hours there in the sling staring at all the falling burgers and condiments of BurgerTime. Don't worry, I had the sense to feel guilty. But then I looked around and remembered. Hey! I'm in New Hampshire. Live free or die, baby! You don't want to know how many other babies were languishing in strollers and backpacks while their parents jammed more tokens into little slots. We have since been back several times. Sebastian has been begging for a while to return, but we haven't had the occasion. Maybe Jeremy's family finally figured out what our primary motivation really is...
Anywho, the movie is wonderful. You've got the Everyman trying to triumph over mulleted Evil. You've got some of the creepiest sycophants you can imagine. And you've got video games. What more do you really need from a film?
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Plus you've got an 80 year old Q*Bert fanatic trying for a world record. My number 2 film of the year.
"There's a Donkey Kong kill screen coming up if anyone is interested.....Possible Donkey Kong kill screen here in a sec, guys. If you're interested."
I can't wait to see that guy there this summer, now that he retired at age 30 and goes there every day, and ask him his pursuit of the kill screen is going. If he's close, I will be sure to get right up on him making small talk constantly, passive aggressively trying to ruin his game and point out the myriad of ways he might not get as far as he hopes to get. He was the real bad guy in the movie.
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