Man vs. Snake: The Long and Twisted Tale of Nibbler

I am a huge fan of the classic 2007 documentary, King of Kong, that saw two arcade players vying for the all-time Donkey Kong high score. Last year I was visiting a bunch of friends at a retro gaming convention and while hanging out after the con, one of them suggested to throw on today’s entry, 2015’s Man vs. Snake: The Long and Twisted Tale of Nibbler (trailer) on in the background. I had no idea what it was and immediately focused all attention upon it once I realized it focused on the same premise of two old-school arcade players chasing down the top score for another 80’s arcade game, Nibbler. It is not from the same directorial crew of King of Kong, but is shot in a similar style and shares a few supporting cast interviewees from King of Kong such as videogame high-score gatekeeper Walter Day and the controversial Billy Mitchell.

Being a huge fan of King of Kong I was stunned Man vs. Snake went three years going off my radar. I listen to several videogame podcasts and keep up with the gaming press online and on social media seemingly daily and somehow this one slipped by me for three years. Upon getting minutes into the documentary I was doubly stunned that I had never once heard of or seen footage before of the 1982 arcade game, Nibbler this documentary is centering its high score chase on. The two creators of Nibbler, Joseph Ulowetz & John Jaugilas, are interviewed and explained how the game essentially came and went with middling sales and no real lasting power in the arcade scene at the time. If you are in my age range in your 30s you likely first experienced a variant of Nibbler more commonly known as Snake in the late 90s on either flash-based gaming websites, TI graphic calculators or simple black-and-green Nokia cell phones of that timeframe. I never recalled once seeing this in arcades and much-appreciated the history lesson. The two creators are only shown briefly in several excerpts, but they have an uncut 15 minute interview in the bonus material worth seeing because both of them go in-depth about how Nibbler came to be, crazy office stories and revealing the reason behind some of its gameplay secrets.

The two high score-chasers Man vs. Snake is centered around is Tim McVey (no, not the one you are thinking of) and Dwayne Richard. The documentary kicks off with exquisite animation sequences reminiscent of the style in Bob’s Burgers detailing how McVey originally posted the first official billion point game in Nibbler and procured the world record. Billy Mitchell is interviewed here elucidating the story because he is a real-life friend of Tim’s and witnessed him post that original record score. McVey was dethroned not too long later by an Italian, Enrico Zanetti, who is also interviewed and has his own unique tale on how his record stood for over 25 years. The animation featured in the opening and in a handful of other sporadic scenes throughout the film is incredibly impressive and is a worthy substitute for a lack of TV footage from that time.

Flash forward to the late 2000s and the doc does a great job at detailing the impetus for what drove Tim and Dwayne to start competing against each other to set a new world record. A standout scene is showing clips and recapping how Dwayne & Tim compete against each other at MAGfest one year and the highs and lows of that public event. Later the focus switches to Dwayne & Tim’s own personal livestream attempts to try and break the world record and the stress of being filmed throughout the whole ordeal. McVey is featured more prominently throughout along with his wife and the film reeled me in for the agony of defeat as Tim went through all kinds of failed attempts due to several different type of circumstances. Both McVey and Richard have their feel good moments, and like King of Kong their successes did not go without controversy. Walter Day is the ever-present authoritative figure throughout with his trademark referee shirt just like we remember him from King of Kong. For fans of that documentary, you may recall it shares a couple glimpses of Walter’s unique personal life, and just some forewarning that Man vs. Snake dives a little deeper into Day’s lifestyle in a couple of scenes and it goes places I did not expect.

Also worth noting is that the DVD has both a censored and uncensored version available. I watched the uncensored version and what stood out from that is a couple of interview subjects being unfiltered at times and a couple graphic blister scenes due to playing Nibbler nonstop for over a day. For other extra features there are a total of 50 minutes of bonus scenes and that is where you can find the aforementioned interview with the two creators of the game. Other recommended cutting room floor scenes are more in-depth recaps of a couple of McVey’s failed attempts that did not get highlighted in the feature and a interview with another arcade score-chaser, Rick Carter, on his memories of trying to dethrone the Nibbler world record. There is also an audio commentary with directors Andrew Seklir and Tim Kinzy which is worth checking out because they have nonstop insight and facts on tracking down interview subjects, acquiring archival footage and discovering which interviewees they have fond and/or disdainful memories of throughout the production process.

Man vs. Snake reminded a lot of why I loved King of Kong. I would rank it a notch or two under King of Kong because Man vs. Snake does not have the convenient hero/villain dynamic of Wiebe and Mitchell as McVey and Richard are both affable and positive figures to root for throughout. It also does not helps that King of Kong is based on one of the most popular arcade games of that era while Man vs. Snake focuses on one that I had no idea existed until I saw the film. Do not let that sway you from avoiding Man vs. Snake because it is still a vastly fascinating and entertaining documentary worth going out of your way to see.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

3
12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
The Accountant
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
The Avengers: Infinity War
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: Civil War
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Christmas Eve
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Countdown
Creed
Deck the Halls
Die Hard
Dredd
The Eliminators
The Equalizer
Dirty Work
Faster
Fast and Furious I-VIII
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Gravity
Guardians of the Galaxy
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Indiana Jones 1-4
Ink
The Interrogation
Interstellar
Jobs
Joy Ride 1-3
Major League
Man of Steel
Man on the Moon
Marine 3-6
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Mortal Kombat
National Treasure
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
The Replacements
Reservoir Dogs
Rocky I-VII
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
San Andreas
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Shoot em Up
Skyscraper
Small Town Santa
Steve Jobs
Source Code
Star Trek I-XIII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
UHF
Veronica Mars
Vision Quest
The War
Wild
Wonder Woman
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Apocalypse
X-Men: Days of Future Past