In a competition to see who can be the best Donkey Kong player, who can get the highest score over their competitors, the stakes are high. In Donkey Kong the competition can’t be much higher. With Kong Off II quickly approaching in November, one of the competitors hasn’t just been competing against others, but against himself.
On May 18, Hank Chien broke his own Donkey Kong record, setting a world record of 1,110,100. A little more than two months later, Chien beat his own score as verified by Arcade Referee Stephen Boyer, putting up a score of 1,127,700 on July 25.
“Hank Chien is proving he is King of the Mountain on the arcade version of Donkey Kong. He is constantly pushing the bar higher and higher,” Boyer said. “Hank knows there is still room for improvement and he still has the burning desire to be better on this game and I expect his scores to continue to grow over the next couple of years.”
Chien, star of Dr. Kong, seems to have the game down to surgical perfection. The question remains: what will be the ultimate world record for Donkey Kong?