To celebrate the opening of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Google recently released a retro 16-bit game called “Doodle Champion Island Games”, where players join cat avatar Lucky on her journey to explore a vibrant and fantastical in-game world, which is strongly reminiscent of early Game boy titles.
This free browser-based JRPG was developed in partnership with Tokyo-based animation studio, Studio 4°C, and features seven Olympic-inspired mini-games along with dozens of side quests and a colorful array of animal characters. Apart from marvelous underwater castles, lava hot springs and towering, snow-covered cliffs, also watch out for anime cutscenes and a myriad of references to Japanese folklore.
Want to Learn more? Here’s How to Play
Start the game by choosing between four teams: Red, Blue, Green and Yellow, each represented by a mythical creature: Ushi (a cow), Karasu (a crow), Inari (a fox), and Kappa (a turtle).
The ultimate goal is to challenge each of the legendary champions and collect all seven of the sacred scrolls. But there’s a lot more going on than that. You can also earn trophies by talking to the island’s inhabitants and uncover Easter eggs scattered throughout the map.
The mini-games are adapted from real-life sports, and are navigated by using the arrow keys and spacebar. There’s also a global competition going on between the four teams, so don’t forget to check out the leaderboard for real-time scores.
Here’s a list of all seven sports games:
- Table tennis
- Rugby
- Climbing
- Skateboarding
- Artistic swimming
- Archery
- Marathon
Doodle Champion Island Games is Google’s most fleshed out interactive doodle yet. Creators from Studio 4°C said that they want to convey that “joy can result from focus and hard work, which is not always recognized by others.” Plus, they’re also hoping for a sanshoku dango (three colored dumplings) trend 🙂
It’s unclear how long the Doodle Champion Island Games will remain live, though it’s expected to last throughout the Olympic Games (ends on Aug. 8th). So be sure to explore all the island has to offer before then!
Don’t know where to look? Just go to Google’s homepage and click on the doodle. Moreover, all of your gameplay is cached and saved, so you can close your window and hop back in at any moment.
Enjoying the fun? Click here for a deeper behind-the-scenes look at the interactive doodle.