With Mitchell back on top, who are the Donkey Kong contenders?

As announced at last week's International Video Game Hall of Fame event Big Bang in Ottumwa, IA, the Donkey Kong World Record once again belongs to Billy Mitchell. 

The famed Florida gamer, who first held the record in 1982, racked up 1,062,800 points in front of two Twin Galaxies officials playing live at Boomers Grand Prix arcade.  Once past the previous record held by New York's Dr. Hank Chien, Mitchell stopped play intentionally.

Today, we look at some of the top contenders to climb the ladder and possibly claim (or re-claim) the Donkey Kong title from the multi-time DK champ.

-- Dr. Hank Chien -- The New York plastic surgeon made international headlines in March for surging past the pack and taking the Donkey Kong World Record away from Mitchell with 1,061,700 points.  Chien had been on pace for far larger scores many times before that, and played his record setting game a little more safely to ensure his climb to the top.  Chien is already hard at work to regain the record, quite possibly in a live setting himself, and is already the front-runner to challenge according to discussion on many websites.

-- Steve Wiebe -- Another multi-time champion on Donkey Kong and Mitchell's movie rival, the general public still supports Wiebe as the sentimental favorite.   The weekend after news of Chien's record, Wiebe went to a live event in California and broke the 1 million point mark three times out of five attempts, a feat that Chien informed this columnist he couldn't do himself.  Will the news of Billy being back on top once again spark Wiebe to push up just enough to once again crack the top of the chart?

-- Dean Saglio -- This gamer is not generally known in the mainstream public, but Saglio actually  has the highest recorded Donkey Kong score in history.  His 1,136,400 points came however on the MAME emulator, which is not tracked in the same kind of category nor held in the same regard with the general public as the original machine.  Control issues and lack of access to a true machine have held Saglio in check, but one must wonder if he could be the next champ if he could apply his emulation knowledge of the game to arcade game controls and timing.

-- Tim Sczerby -- Many people don't realize, thanks to the King of Kong film, that Sczerby was the man who actually defeated Mitchell's 1982 score, racking up 879,200 points in 2000 to take the title.  Even though the score was verified, recognized, and announced by Twin Galaxies, the movie producers chose to leave out that information for whatever reasons.  Word on the street is that Sczerby has unofficially broken the 1 million point mark as well in attempts to claim his rightful recognition as a Donkey Kong champion, but also that he remains upset about not being mentioned in the film and continues to blame others for his exclusion instead of the movie producers.  Can this one-time Donkey Kong champion force the mainstream to finally know him as such, or is the chip on his shoulder too much to bear in this quest?

-- Ben Falls and Ike Hall -- At a gaming event in 2009, both Ben Falls and Ike Hall broke the 900,000 point mark on back-to-back days, ranking them both in the top five Donkey Kong scores ever.  No stranger to Kong titles, Falls currently holds the World Record on D2K: Jumpman Returns and Ike Hall is a former Donkey Kong Junior record holder, having took that title from Mitchell in August of 2008 as the first officially recorded million point game on an original Junior boardset.  One must wonder if either of these gamers might step up to challenge the champ.

-- Chris Enright -- Another quiet contender, Enright was busy on Donkey Kong in 2009, and sits in eighth place all-time on Donkey Kong with am 862,700 point kill screen score from last November.  Little has been heard from Enright since this accomplishment, making this writer wonder if he walked away from the game at this point or if he is working on the big prize.

-- Eric Howard -- Another recent entry into the short list of gamers who have made it to the Donkey Kong kill screen, Howard is hungry.  Games on pace to crack the 1 million point mark have thus far come up short, but the knowledge is there.  Nobody should be surprised if we hear Howard's name more by the end of 2010.

-- Others -- Scott Kessler and Stephen Boyer are also listed in the all-time top ten on Donkey Kong but neither has been active on the title for quite some time.  A gamer named Clayton Brookins cracked the 700,000 point mark last year but has been quiet since.  Brian Kuh has the knowledge to push past his officially listed 697,500 point game but doesn't appear to be pursuing the title at the present time.  Others across a variety of websites are also making runs toward the top public knowledge but thus far are not within striking distance at this time.

Subscribe to this column today if you wish to keep track of any further news and developments following this recent news, as the quest to claim the Donkey Kong thrones continues.