Netflix's Video Game Documentary Series High Score Premieres Later This Month

It's no secret that Netflix has become a haven for slickly-produced documentary films and series on all sorts of topics, from true crime to exotic animal ownership. Later this month, designers and artists behind some of the most successful video games of the '80s and '90s will get their turn, when the Netflix series High Score premieres on August 19.

A press release describes High Score's focus as the "golden age of video games," a descriptor that some enthusiasts might quibble with. Examined games include arcade classics like Space Invaders, Mortal Kombat, and Street Fighter 2, as well as home console hits like Sonic the Hedgehog, Final Fantasy, and Madden NFL.

While High Scores may prove to be the most high-profile video game documentary yet, it's far from the first. Indie Game: The Movie chronicled the struggles of high-profile indie developers like Super Meat Boy's Edmund McMillen and Fez's Phil Fish back in 2012. The most famous video game documentary might still be The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, which documented (and arguably dramatized) the feud between now-disgraced arcade champ Billy Mitchell and rival Steve Wiebe as they competed for the top score in arcade Donkey Kong.