Today’s Olympics-themed Google Doodle is an adorable JRPG-inspired game

I'm obsessed.

Georgia Dixon
Jul 24, 2021
Icon Time To Read1 min read

It's almost like Google didn't want anyone to do any work today, because today's Google Doodle just so happens to be a ridiculously addictive Tokyo 2020 Olympics-themed JRPG. Like, a full-on 16-bit JRPG, right there while you search for "Dan Murphy's opening hours".

Dubbed the Doodle Champion Island Games, you play as a cute ninja cat named Lucky, competing in the games for their team. There are four teams to choose from: The blue team, represented by a cow (ushi); The red team, represented by a crow (karasu); The yellow team, represented by a fox (inari); And the green team, represented by a kappa (a Japanese turtle-esque water spirit).

You'll compete across a series of minigames, including table tennis, archery and climbing, battling against a "Legendary Champion" from Japanese history folklore.

Much like the actual Olympic Games, the leaderboard will be updated in real-time with every win for each team, and at the end, one team will be crowned the winner - so choose wisely.

To create the anime-inspired intro and cutscenes, Google teamed up with Japanese animation company Studio 4°C, led by former Studio Ghibli line producer Eiko Tanaka.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to live out my Olympic table tennis dreams in a 16-bit search engine game.

Georgia Dixon
Written by
Georgia Dixon has 10 years of experience writing about all things tech, entertainment and lifestyle. She spends most of her time as Managing Editor of SafeWise Australia and also has bylines on 7NEWS, Stuff.co.nz, in TechLife magazine and more. In 2023 she won Best News Writer at the Consensus IT Awards, and in 2024 she was a finalist for Best News Journalist at the Samsung IT Journalism Awards (The Lizzies). In her spare time, you'll find her playing games and daydreaming about good food, wine, and dogs.