14 DAY TRIAL // Google has done some pretty amazing doodles over the years adorning its homepage with beautiful graphics to mark important events or occasions. From the first doodle, designed by Sergey Brin and Larry Page themselves, to the gorgeous graphics Google has been getting us used to lately, things have progressed. But, whatever came before it, nothing will prepare you for the latest Google doodle, if you can call it that anymore.
It marks the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man, a game few haven’t heard of. Nothing remarkable up to here, it did the same for Tetris last year. What is remarkable is that you can actually play Pac-Man inside the Google logo. Let’s repeat that to let it sink in, the Google doodle is an actual, working Pac-Man game! There’s just one word to describe that: awesome!
Google Pac-Man plays like you’d expect, use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move around, gobble up the pac-dots and stay away from those pesky ghosts. Unless, of course, our hero can get to one of the four power pellets that turn it into a ghost-eating super Pac-Man. It’s Pac-Man, everyone knows what it’s about. You can play through all 256 levels, with even the original bugs faithfully recreated.
But there’s more, you’ll notice that the ‘I’m feeling lucky’ button has been replaced by Insert Coin. This new button does exactly that, it inserts a new coin into the ‘machine.’ Press it twice and you can even play cooperatively with both Mr. and Ms. Pac-Man. Google has never, in its 12-year history, replaced the ‘I’m feeling lucky’ button with anything else.
For those who haven’t exactly been keeping up with the fascinating field of Google doodles, this is unprecedented. The most ambitious move so far was the falling apple animation it did for Sir Issac Newton’s birthday. To make sure that people have a chance to enjoy the game, and maybe reach the last level, Google is running the Pac-Man doodle for two days straight.
