There is now a new world record set for the highest score on Donkey Kong, thanks to a recent playthrough by gamer Wes Copeland to take back his record from Robbie Lakeman, who beat Copeland's previous record back in September.
At last year's Donkey Kong Online Open event, Copeland broke a previous record with a score of 1,170,500, marking the first time that a player had scored more than 1,100,000 points on the game. However, only six hours later, Lakeman topped that, with a score of 1,172,100.
On Jan. 4, Copeland streamed a gameplay session that saw him reclaim his title as the world record holder with a score of 1,190,000.
For his efforts, Copeland received $2,000. He states that he feels that he's done, at least until his record gets challenged again.
"I kinda feel like I've done everything I need to now." said Copeland. "I just hope Robbie at least lets me sleep on it.
This time, though, the world record will probably stand, at least for some time: Lakeman attempted to take the record back, but failed, and plans on putting Donkey Kong down to focus on other things.
"I'm not gonna play anymore, at least for a while," said Copeland to the Donkey Kong blog. "I can finally focus on things that should really matter to me at this point... Wes, definitely enjoy it, you'll have it for a while. I had the record longer than I thought I would ... I just turned 29, I'm working on getting my life more in order. This was an outlet for a while, but I've gotten where I want to be with it. The torch has now been passed."
The quest for the highest score on Donkey Kong became known worldwide after the 2007 documentary film, The King of Kong. The movie focused on the competition between two former record holders, Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell.
However, players have emerged since then, such as Copeland and Lakeman, who knocked Wiebe and Mitchell off the list of top players. These upstarts use a new tactic with gameplay that involves manipulating barrel patterns early in the game, which results in higher scores.
Copeland's score will be hard to beat, but the final goal is to achieve a perfect score of 1,200,000, what many believe is the highest score available in the game. If anyone ever hits that, the game is officially over, and that player will remain at the top of the world record list forever.
