Downloading NES and SEGA emulators back in college nearly ruined my junior year, as I skipped my fair share of classes revisiting classics like River City Ransom (the smiles are free), Fester’s Quest (dude, impossible), and my beloved Shining Force and Shining Force II (greatest RPGs ever?). In retrospect, it’s a ridiculous reason to skip class or stay up late into the night, but these quests don’t complete themselves, do they?
Well, get ready for an epic time suck, as today’s Google Doodle is a 16-bit styled video game.
Fire up your Chrome browser, and you’ll be greeted by Doodle Champion Island Games, a pixelated JRPG where you get to play Lucky the Ninja Cat, a (c)athlete that’s arrived at a festival where she’ll compete in seven different sports like archery and climbing. There’s an island to explore, quests to get completed, characters to talk to, and apparently, even more sporting events to unlock.
Debuting just in time for the Tokyo Olympics, Google claims it’s the largest interactive Doodle they’ve ever made and an homage to Japanese folklore and myths. While Google spearheaded the project, all the art and design comes from the Japanese animation firm Studio 4°C.
The description of the game is as follows:
Welcome to the Doodle Champion Island Games! Over the coming weeks, join calico (c)athlete Lucky as she explores Doodle Champion Island: a world filled with seven sports mini-games, legendary opponents, dozens of daring side quests, and a few new (and old ;)) friends. Her ultimate goal? Defeat each sport Champion to collect all seven sacred scrolls—and complete extra hidden challenges across Champion Island in the purrr-ocess.
Anywho, there goes my day. Doodle Champion Island will remain up so long as the Olympics are on, so good luck saving your game beyond August 8th.
