By Yepoka Yeebo and Jim Scott
DNAinfo Staff
MANHATTAN — Manhattan's rule over Donkey Kong proved to be a short one.
Video game legend Billy Mitchell reclaimed the Donkey Kong world record earlier this month, just five months after Manhattan plastic surgeon Hank Chien took the crown with a score of 1,061,700 points in March.
Mitchell, who resides in Florida, snatched it back from Chien with a score of 1,062,800 points in the arcade classic, just 1,100 points more than Chein's mark. The record-breaking score was verified Saturday by the organization Twin Galaxies, which has been keeping track of gaming records since 1981.
Mitchell broke Chien's record in Ottumwa, Iowa, as the International Video Game Hall of Fame inducted it's first honorees in a four-day festival.
“I can’t think of a better time and place than at the eve of the IVGHOF to have this happen,” said Mitchell in a release from Twin Galaxies.
Mitchell, who was named Video Game Player of the Century at the Tokyo Game Show in 1999, was portrayed as the bad boy of gaming in the documentary "The King of Kong: A Fistfull of Quarters."
The movie chronicled the quest of gamer Steve Wiebe's effort to break the record held by Mitchell. Wiebe broke the mark only to have Mitchell take it back in 2007 before Chien stepped into the picture in March.
It was the documentary that prompted Chien to start playing Donkey Kong.
Chien, who turned 36 on Aug. 4, appears to have designs on reclaiming his video game crown.
"What I really want for my birthday is my Donkey Kong world record back," Chien wrote on his Facebook page last week. "Yup rumor has it Billy Mitchell has struck again."
