Sometimes is worth checking out other platforms than Netflix when you are planning to watch a movie. In my case it was the Steam service. It’s mainly known as a place to buy games, but it also has a video section. It is there I found Man vs Snake and because I’ve always have had a soft spot for games I decided to check it out.
For those who are old enough to remember the first Nokia phones there was one game which was very popular at the time: Snake. I have played it for many hours. In it there is a snake which keeps getting longer as he eats these dots until eventually he will bite his own tail if you don’t go in the right direction. This wasn’t the first version of the game though, as that was Nibbler. It’s one which is relatively unknown, but does have a small group of fans. It’s also a game which doesn’t have an ending, which will allow a good player to marathon it. It’s also a game which has a score that goes up to 999.999.999, rolls over to 0 and keeps counting, allowing you to get more than a billion points. Tim McVey was the first who managed to do so on January 17, 1984. It was world news during the arcade hype of the eighties. McVey was under the impression that he still owned the record, but didn’t know there was someone in Italy who already beaten it around the same time. When he got the record McVey stated that he would take back the record should someone ever beat it and that’s exactly what he wants to do in this documentary.
McVey, who is now in his forties and overweight decides he has to train to make the attempt. He doesn’t only need to get into the game again, but also condition himself to keep going as the record forces you to play almost 40 hours without an option to pause the game. If that isn’t enough he also faces an opponent who is also gunning for the same record.
The film has the same styling as The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (even Billy Mitchell and Walter Day from Twin Galaxies show up), but it isn’t as exciting and lacks a “villain” like Mitchell. Despite that it is still a fun documentary to watch. These are men with an obsession and the world of Twin Galaxies is fascinating as it feels they are very picky when it comes to allowing scores to appear in the record books. It is surprising to see they initially refuse to allow the score the Italian player had but later change their tune after something happens in America. You really get a sense (which I also had while watching King of Kong) that they aren’t as objective as they should.
The movie generally looks good and especially the animated bits stand out and are a joy to watch. If you are a fan of documentaries about videogames and liked King of Kong, than you might also enjoy Man vs Snake.
This looks really intriguing. Completely new one to me.
Over here it now appeared on Netflix, so you might be able to find it there as well..