Many of us are spending considerably more time at home than we were just a few months ago, and that means looking for ways to pass the endless time we suddenly all have on our hands. If you’ve got a soft spot for puzzles and low-level gaming, Google’s coming through with a handful of legacy Google Doodle games to help keep you occupied.
Over the course of the next two weeks, Google will roll out one of its legacy doodle games per day. For the first in its throwback series, Google brought back an archived Doodle from 2017 with the interactive game “Coding for Carrots,” which celebrated 50 years of kids coding. According to Champika Fernando, an MIT collaborator on the project, this was Google’s “first coding Doodle ever.” Next up, Google’s bringing back a legacy Doodle celebrating the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy that lets users play cricket as an actual, pocket-sized cricket character.
These are not, to be clear, especially difficult games. But they are incredibly cute, and I’ve found that they’re kind of like the New York Times mini crossword, in that they offer a nice distraction from the world during those 5- to 10-minute breaks between calls, or just when you need to step away from work for a moment.
I’ll admit I had some high hopes that Google would re-up some of its more popular Google games, like the first-ever playable Doodle that celebrated the 30th Anniversary of Pac-Man from 2010, or even the very good Rubik’s Cube Doodle from 2014. But because Google archives its Doodles, you can still play these! Plus, there’s plenty coming down the pipeline over the next couple of weeks, so keep an eye on the Doodles homepage to access the featured game of the day.