Google's Olympic Doodle is a full-on anime sports game

Google has a new Doodle to celebrate the start of the Olympic Games in Japan, and it's one of the company's most elaborate Doodles yet.

The Doodle is a complete sports game, with a neat animation intro and several disciplines to choose from. Now, Google has released game Doodles before, but never as complex as this one — it has seven games (with more to come), side quests, bosses, an open, interactive map, numerous NPCs ready to chat with you, and a leaderboard.

In short, Google says this is its largest interactive Doodle yet. And you know what this means: Don't even start unless you're ready to lose at least half an hour exploring what the game has to offer.

The games, which include table tennis and skateboarding, are easy and fun, though some — like artistic swimming — can be quite challenging. And you can also do side quests, such as bringing a letter from a ghost dad to his son who lives in an underwater castle.

As for the animated intros, you can check them all out on their own on Google's dedicated Doodle YouTube channel. There, you will also find a "behind the scenes" video, which explains how this massive Doodle-slash-game-slash-experience got made.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games start today, and will take place until August 8, 2021, after being postponed from last year due to the Covid-19 pandemics. When you're done playing with Google's latest Doodle and eager to watch some sports, check out our guide on how to do that even without cable.