Warcraft-Playing Bodybuilding Fan Barely Misses Donkey Kong World Record

Vincent Lemay came in just 2,700 points shy of Hank Chien’s world record score for Donkey Kong, adding his name to the team of rivals for what has become arcade video gaming’s Holy Grail of high scores.

On Friday, Lemay, 21, of Quebec, recorded a verified performance of 1,135,900, according to Patrick Scott Patterson, an authority on arcade gaming records, high scores and marathons going back several years. That’s just agonizingly short of the 1,138,600 posted by Hank Chien, the plastic surgeon who has broken, reclaimed, and repeatedly re-set the record on Donkey Kong since 2010, inspired by 2008’s notorious and award-winning documentary The King of Kong which chronicled the rivalry of Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe.

https://lastchance.cc/a-new-world-record-in-donkey-kong-1-127-700-points-5937266%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E

“My goal with this game is 1.2 million points,” Lemay told Patterson. “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.”

Lemay’s feat was tipped to us by Patterson, who noted in his report that Lemay told him “I’m a 21-year-old French Canadian who enjoys bodybuilding… 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.”

Lemay isn’t the only challenger to the Chien-Mitchell-Wiebe triumvirate. Patterson notes that Jeff Willms, also of Canada, recently scored 1.1 million on Donkey Kong, good for third place all-time.

Former ‘Warcraft’ player almost breaks ‘Donkey Kong’ arcade world record [Arcade Game Examiner]