This Google Doodle from Studio 4°C is worth playing even if you don’t care about the Olympics
Every once in a while, there’s a new Google Doodle worth chatting up on our humble video game blog, and today’s, theOlympics-inspiredDoodle Champion Island Gamesfrom Studio 4°C,definitely fits the bill. It’s a JRPG romp, complete with an overworld, side-quests, and seven surprisingly fun mini-games to clear in whatever order you see fit.
There’s artistic swimming, archery, climbing, table tennis, rugby, a marathon, and skateboarding, and I honestly enjoyed them all. I only intended to dip my toes in — enough to share a few thoughts with this article — but I ended up doing, well, everything. The Doodle is playable on PC and mobile with keyboard, gamepad, and touch controls.
At the start, you’ll pick a team to represent (I went red), and then you’re free to explore.
My favorite part? (Aside from the lovingly crafted animated sequences that hype up and cap off each game.) When you finishDoodle Champion Island Games, the overworld gets a small but effective stylistic change, just like some of the classics RPGs it’s inspired by.
All told, I spent about half an hour; you can save a bit of time by rolling your way across the map. The only activity I struggled with was the marathon, which requires fast reflexes and some luck. When I finally did pull out the win, it was a split-second victory. Fun stuff.
Like other Google Doodles, you don’t actually have toshow up todayto play it — it’ll be archived. Google also shared abehind-the-scenes lookat the game’s production.
One last tip: if you click the compass icon (in the top-left corner), there’s options including customizable controls, a leaderboard, and the ability to fast-travel to the different activities should you want to replay them. You can start a fresh save file here, too.
