The man himself

There are plenty of vintage video games out there which tempt modern-day players to accomplish a record-breaking score, but Nintendo's Donkey Kong seems to get more attention than most - thanks largely to the amazing 2008 documentary film King of Kong, which charted the titanic battle between Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe to grab the world record.

Since the film was released, a new king has been crowned: Dr. Hank Chien. Chien has been top of the pile for quite some time now, but his dominance clearly isn't assured - as the arrival of a new name on the Donkey Kong circuit proves.

French Canadian Vincent Lemay - who was something of a World of Warcraft lover before turning his attention to stopping massive apes - posted a score of 1,135,900, which is just 2,700 points short of Chien's own personal best. It puts Lemay in second place in the world rankings, just behind Chien and in front of former champs Mitchell and Wiebe.

Lemay has since spoken exclusively to Patrick Scott Patterson, and explained how he got involved with the game:

I obviously didn't grow up in the arcade environment. One day, I asked my father what he used to play and he answered with Donkey Kong.

Donkey Kong has been such a pain for me in the past years. As everyone, I have a love/hate feeling with that game. Most of the time, I hate this game, but once in a while, I get a love feeling from that game, and that's all I need to keep trying to push my high score higher! But despite coming short of the record, I am extremely happy of my score.

Lemay clearly isn't lacking in confidence, and says that he hopes to not only smash Chien's record, but also achieve a score which will stand the test of time:

My goal with this game is 1.2 million points. Hank told me if the record is above 1.17 million he won't try to beat it, though I'm sure he would sooner or later. No one has achieved it yet.

Could we see a new King of Kong crowned in the near future?

[source patrickscottpatterson.com]