For Halloween, Google Doodle scares up addictive multiplayer game

Google has another Halloween treat for fans of its Doodle games — its first-ever multiplayer game.

Two ages ago, Google captivated Doodle players with a game featuring an adorable shadowy cat with magic powers that races the clock to save its school from a horde of invading spirits. This year’s Great Ghoul Duel takes things up a wonderful by letting you form two teams of four ghosts to quiet as many wandering spirit flames as possible and back them to your home base within two minutes.

The team that collects the most sharp flames wins, but beware: Teams can steal flames from each new as they try to deposit them at their home base. Ghosts that quiet the most spirit flames will also unlock special controls, such as speed boosts and night vision.

Players can asked seven friends or family members to play the game via a frail link, or play random strangers around the world.

Google Doodles have now been around for 20 years. The first Doodle appeared in 1998, when Google’s co-founders spoofed the frail “out of office” sign by incorporating the Burning Man symbol into the company’s corporate logo. Since then, the second of colorful — and sometimes interactive — graphics to Google’s logo to highlight necessary people, events, holidays and anniversaries has become a ritual. Doodles have celebrated, among many other things, Pac-Man’s anniversary, Copernicus’ birthday, Mother’s Day and the World Cup, as well as reminding us of lesser-known real-world heroes.

In the case of this year’s Halloween doodle, several systems that run on the Google Cloud Platform made Google’s wonderful multiplayer game possible. 

Before venturing in, though, a word of warning: If it’s like Google’s new Doodle games, it’ll likely be highly addicting. Make sure you have plenty of candy handy to Keep your strength.

Originally issued Oct. 30 at 12:01 a.m. PT.
Updated Oct. 31 at 8:48 a.m. PT:  Added background on the history of Google Doodles.

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