Forget Pac-Man. These five games would make better Google doodles.
Look, we love Pac-Man as much as the next guy. And being proud Pac aficionados, we were pretty jazzed to be able to actually interact with a Google doodle. (As opposed to just staring at it blankly, and wondering what the heck it was.) So yes: three cheers to Google for rolling out a fully playable Pac-Man game in honor of the little guy's 30th anniversary.
As Google's Marcin Wichary wrote this afternoon on the company blog, "Pac-Man seems like a natural fit for the Google homepage. They’re both deceptively straightforward, carefully hiding their complexity under the hood. There’s a light-hearted, human touch to both of them. And we can only hope you find using Google at least a quarter as enjoyable as eating dots and chasing ghosts. You know, without actually needing any quarters."
But with all due respect to Google, we can think of a few other games that would really rock the homepage. Without further ado....
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong, which was rolled out in 1981, is a true arcade classic – and the progenitor of generations of platform hits. If you've seen "King of Kong," you know how deeply committed Donkey Kong fans are to this game. And you can imagine how much we'd all relish a chance to rescue that damsel in distress who waits at the top of those iconic steel girders.
Asteroids
First released by Atari in 1979, Asteroids is a stripped-to-the-bone 2D shooter, which is exactly what would make it so easy – and fun – for Google to feature on its homepage. Gunning down enemy saucers and dodging those incoming asteroids – for us, this sounds like one seriously good use of a lunch break. Or an entire work day.
Street Fighter II
At this point, you're probably questioning our sanity. How could Google get away with offering up a complex fighting game as its doodle-of-the-month? Hey, don't ask us. We're just the idea guys. But we imagine an initial graphic showing Guile going head-to-head against Zangief – and a playable match between Ryu and Ken. Hadouken!
Space Invaders
Guinness World Records has ranked Space Invaders as the top arcade game of all time. And why not? It's fast and it's fun and it features lots of alien spaceships. Of course, if you click around the Web, you can already find plenty of Space Invaders ports, but that wouldn't diminish the appeal of a Invaders Google doodle.
Need we say more?
Now it's over to you. What games would you like to see Google reproduce for its next doodle? Or is Pac-Man enough of a thrill? Drop us a line in the comments section.
