People are speedrunning the Tokyo Olympics Google Doodle game
Now why isn't *this* on Stadia
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics kicked off last week, and, as with many worldly events, Google have made a lovely Doodle on their homescreen to celebrate. It's not just a pretty picture though, it's a full game complete with an adorable anime-style opening. Named the Google Doodle Champion Games, you play as a little cat who competes in lots of sports-themed minigames. Naturally, speedrunners are beasting through the Doodle, and one person has already managed to complete one minigame in just 11 seconds.
Table tennis, rugby, archery - there are loads of sports to try your hand at. But for the most impressive speeds, you'll want to take a look at the climbing game. In this one, Lucky has to speedily jump and clamber their way up a climbing wall. Runners "ExaminationMassive95", "stratpat1964", and "dishadow99" have beat this one in just 11 seconds (thanks, TheGamer), check out the run below.
I feel like you should absolutely not try launching yourself up a wall like this in your local gym. Especially not if the handholds are wiggling all over the place.
Google Doodle Champion Island has its own page on speedrun.com now too, with multiple Any% categories. It seems the fastest time so far is held by runner "Kurtkoopa", who's completed the entire game (which involves collecting scrolls from playing each of the seven minigames) in just 7 minutes and 40 seconds (with glitches).
This isn't the first Google Doodle to be speedrun either. There are loads of categories for past Google games on speedrun.com, including 2016's Halloween Magic Cat Academy (which involved killing ghosts as a witchy kitty) and 2019's Fourth Of July (a cute baseball game).
Head to the Google homepage if you fancy having a go at the new Olympics-themed Doodle yourself. Just click on the play button, and you can take control of Lucky The Ninja Cat with your keyboard's arrow keys and spacebar.
And in case you didn't know, you can check out (and play!) most of Google's previous Doodles at the archive right here.