Eight years ago, on Halloween, people around the world helped a magical cat named Momo defeat ghosts and save a school from being destroyed by a ghost named Marshmallow. Four years later, that same cat explored the ocean and managed to hurtle Marshmallow into outer space. Now, Momo embarks on a third adventure, this time to fight ghosts in space.
This might be the last time we see the adventures of Momo, inspired by the artist’s real-life cat, and displayed on Google’s homepage. The Google Doodle team worked for four months on this project, releasing a new series of levels this Halloween including minion and boss fights.
“We envisioned this Halloween series as a trilogy where Momo starts off fighting ghosts on land, then dives into the sea, and finally flies into space,” Stephanie Gu, the lead engineer on the Doodle, tells Inverse. “While there’s always room for something more, we’re pretty happy with capping off this series with this finale.”
After a brief recap, players are plopped into the game where they must cast spells to defeat ghosts by drawing the symbols displayed over their heads before they can reach Momo and zap the cat’s health. Level after level, Momo flies further up the atmosphere and eventually into space. The ghosts and other enemies get progressively more difficult, too, but if you lose all five lives the game resets back on the level you failed on, saving your progress.
The game also comes with a dramatic soundtrack and creatively designed bosses. Momo gains special spells when you draw more advanced doodles, and the finale culminates in an epic cutscene. The whole experience kind of reminded me of playing Harry Potter on the Game Cube in the early 2000s.
“We wanted it to stand out a bit from the previous games and end it with an epic bang. That’s why we added a little twist where Momo and Marshmallow realize they have to combine their powers to defeat a greater evil,” Gu says. “Marshmallow enhances Momo’s spells to include a time-slow spell, allowing players to slow down ghost attacks, and together they save planet Earth!”
To make this game, the team brainstormed different potential bosses, using the atmosphere as a theme.
“For the spider boss on level 2, originally our animator Juliana Chen (who has a fear of spiders) was worried about how she’d animate it approaching Momo,” Gu says. “After starting, she somehow overcame her fear and made something that was vetoed as way too scary, which is how we compromised and ended up with a sawblade-style idle animation.”
The Google Doodle team tends to make about five to 10 interactive games a year, and most experiences are around two minutes in length. There are exceptions, though. In 2021, Google even released a JRPG to promote the Olympics.
Google would not share numbers of how many will be able to see the Doodle and how many users tend to log on to the homepage on any given day. The Doodle will be on Google’s site for 48 hours, starting on October 30.
