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If you open the Google homepage on your browser or mobile phone, you’re bound to come across different ways the company displays its logo. Sometimes, the word “Google” appears in illustrations, animations and even games.
Known as graffiti, these versions are often used to commemorate special celebrations, holidays, or honor important figures in history. Some of these doodles can be interactive experiences and games, which of course are time-consuming.
Some examples that can be cited are Pac-Man, Doctor Who and many others! Below you can see a list of the top 10 games that have appeared on Google Doodle!
1. Pac-Man 30 Years
On May 21, 2010, Google released a doodle celebrating the 30th birthday of Pac-Man, also known as Come-Come in Brazil. The game has the same graphics and soundtrack as the original, and can be played by up to two people, but the scenes are in the Google logo format.
2. Teach kids to code
To celebrate 50 years of coding for kids, Google, in partnership with MIT, released Doodle on December 4, 2017. With this, it is possible to use some programming logic concepts to make the rabbit collect all the carrots.
In the lower corner you can insert all the commands the rabbit has to do, and when you press “play” they will be “compiled” and the character will do everything it has been programmed to do.
3. Halloween
On October 31, 2016, Google released a Doodle called Magic Cat Academy, where you control Momo, a black cat who decides to save his magic school after a ghost stole his magic book. In order to defeat the ghosts, it is necessary to draw the icons above them exactly on the screen.
In 2020, this doodle wins a sequel, and Momo must face the ghost again, only on the bottom of the sea.
4. Valentine’s Day
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, June 12, 2017, Google released a Doodle that includes a game about a pangolin receiving a letter from a lover. On his way out to meet her, he remembers that he didn’t buy a present, so he decides to find one.
Through platforming levels with many hidden scenes, you must help the pangolin collect as many nuts, notes and many items as possible to make the perfect gift for your companions.
5. Garden Gnome
Garden gnomes are extremely important in Germany. To celebrate the country’s Garden Day, on June 10, 2018, Google unveiled an exclusive doodle honoring these 13th-century figurines.
This game is a bit like Angry Birds: you have to push different types of garden gnomes of different weights and shapes with the catapult, throwing them as far as possible.
6. Shadow Art
On February 5, 2019, to celebrate the arrival of the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Pig, Google released a doodle using artificial intelligence. Using the webcam, you have to hand shape the 12 animals that make up the lunar cycle. Thus, the platform is able to identify and verify shadow shapes.
7. 155 Pony Express
On April 14, 2015, Google released a Doodle to celebrate the 155th anniversary of The Pony Express, a company founded in 1860 to deliver mail on horseback across the United States.
In the game, you have to control a deliveryman who must overcome various obstacles, collect all 100 cards and deliver them to their final destination.
8. 2012 Olympic Games
To celebrate the start of the 2012 Olympics, Google released a special series of doodles featuring games based on specific sports, such as football, canoeing, steeplechase and basketball. The latter was quite successful, requiring players to hit as many baskets as possible in a 24-second interval.
9. Doctor Who 50 Years
On November 23, 2013, pop culture phenomenon Doctor Who turned 50 and won a special Doodle for it. Traveling through time, the Doctor is an alien with a somewhat strange power: whenever he is on the verge of death, he manages to regenerate into a new body.
The character has had 11 incarnations this year, and the game allows users to choose among them in an attempt to retrieve the letters of the word “Google” stolen by the Daleks. If you are wiped out by one of them, another avatar of the Doctor will take your place.
10. 40 Years Rubik’s Cube
Created in Hungary in 1974 by architecture professor Erno Rubik, the Rubik’s Cube has become a global phenomenon. To celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2014, Google released a Doodle that allows users to solve puzzles digitally.
