Billy Mitchell Retains King of Kong Title

There can be only one King of Kong. Colorful hot sauce mogul and old-school gaming legend Billy Mitchell was officially  given the world record for the original arcade version of Donkey Kong, with a score of 1,062,800 points. He then went on to take the Donkey Kong Jr. prize with a score of  1,270,900.

Never one to resist a flourish, in both games, Mitchell reportedly stopped playing and allowed his character to die after he beat the current high score, explaining it thusly: “Some say I’m being cocky. Some say I’m being lazy. I say, I’m being Billy Mitchell."  (Have you ever noticed how only AWESOME people refer to themselves in the third person? Stephen Johnson has.)

Of the DK victory, Mitchell said, “I remember a lot of celebration; hugs, kisses and a lot of hooting and hollering. Once that died down, stood there looking at Donkey Kong Jr. and thought ‘there’s one more thing I have to take care of’."

It's one thing to be good at a video game, but another to have developed mental and physical systems of being achieving amazingness. Billy Mitchell has done that. Sure, it's partly the hair, but there's more. Much more. Enjoy the video below, in which Mitchell shares some of the philosophical underpinnings of his pursuit of ultimate Awesome-osity.