The one thing that can almost always be said about a world record, however, is that someone, someday will beat it. Many believed his score would never be toppled as it has remained in place for roughly four years.

Legendary gamers Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe traded high scores over the past several years until Chien beat them both - then broke his record again. A year later, he had earned a spot in the top 12 and this past Thursday, he eclipsed former record holder Hank Chien's score by 3,200 points. Some great players like Mike Kasper, Andrew Barrow, and Ben Falls have tried their hand at the game and have failed to reach 1.4 million. Only six people in the history of the game have gotten this score. The determined Lakeman wasted no time as he got his first kill screen just before Kong Off 2 in 2012. Dude, your 1.4 million score is HUGE Big, big, big congrats on that score. According to Donkey Kong Blog, he got started two and a half year ago as a bar bet between himself and a friend: get into the Donkey Kong top 20 or at the very least, get to the kill screen. Lakeman is a relative newcomer to the world of competitive gaming. Despite the fact that the game was released more than 30 years ago, there's still a significant following - even more so after the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. In the world of competitive gaming, laying claim to the top score in any game is a significant achievement but doing so in Donkey Kong is different. That's the final score that Robbie Lakeman was able to achieve during a recent late-night session of Donkey Kong that sent the enthusiast community into a tailspin. It took nearly three hours and 20 minutes to accomplish the feat.1,141,800. Update: Below is video of Copeland's assault on the record. Good enough, but not lucky enough.'ĭonkey Kong, launched in 1981, is probably the most coveted arcade game world record, certainly since it was= made famous in the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, chronicling the rivalry of two others who had held the record (the pair, Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell, are now 18th and 19th on the all-time list, respectively.)Ī New York doctor, Hank Chien, took the record in 2010 and again in 2011, before Copeland and Lakeman's rivalry saw the mark change hands multiple times over the past four years. Lakeman, responding to Copeland, said 'I'm not lucky enough. This also may mean the end of the Donkey Kong world record hunt across the board. 'I don't believe I can put up a game any higher than this.' Copeland had set 1.2 million as his ultimate goal in Donkey Kong, and said he'd retire from competition if he could reach that. 'This will be my last record score,' Copeland wrote on Facebook. In the end, the organization ruled that Mitchell would no longer hold the record as the first player to hit one million points in Donkey Kong and expunged him from their competitive leaderboards.

He took his first life all the way from the first level all the way to the end, cashing in the extra lives to obliterate all comers.

Copeland did not lose a single Mario in the game. It's how he took the title, though that's so staggering. (The game's score, pictured above, rolls over at 1 million). The mark is 28,200 better than Robbie Lakeman's previous arcade record, set April 11, and is 11,200 better than Dean Saglio's MAME record set Oct. Wes Copeland retook arcade gaming's most coveted high score with what may be the most perfect game of Donkey Kong ever played.Ĭopeland, who reclaimed the mark in January only to lose it again in April, set a new all-time, all-platforms (MAME and arcade cabinet) mark for Donkey Kong with a jaw-dropping 1,218,000 on May 5.

Donkeykong high score