While the nation remains at home - Google Doodle is one way to play a range of games online to help pass the time.
Today’s game (April 28) allows players to take part in cricket.
The game – which first appeared in 2017 – is basic stuff; you essentially click your mouse to take a swing of your bat, while the rest of the team does everything else for you.
But Google has given us some genuinely entertaining ‘games’ in the past. Sure, they might not match up to the blockbuster scale you might see on consoles, but they’re great at whiling away a few minutes of boredom.
Heck, older playable Doodles are even making a comeback in the midst of coronavirus. Google’s own archive allows you to go back and relive any Doodle from history, and as people’s tedium reaches new levels, they’re digging out the ‘classics’.
Here’s just a few of the best to get you doing something during lockdown:
Pac-Man 30th anniversary (May 21, 2010)
Google’s first ever playable Doodle commemorated the 30th birthday of one of gaming's most iconic characters, brightening up the day for office workers across the world.
Robert Moog’s 78th birthday (May 23, 2012)
Not a game as such, but this Doodle did allow you to ‘play’ music in browser, in a fitting tribute to Robert Moog, the inventor of the Moog Synthesizer.
Google gave users the chance to celebrate his 78th birthday by recording and saving songs on an animated replica of his famous creation.
Doctor Who 50th anniversary (November 23, 2013)
To mark the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, Google created a simple but striking game Doodle featuring all 11 Doctors (up to that point) and, of course, Daleks.
100th Anniversary of the Crossword Puzzle (December 21, 2013)
To commemorate 100 years of crossword puzzles, Google concocted their own with the help of Merl Reagle (one of the best and most well-known crossword constructors) full of clues that also shed light on the history of the puzzle form.
Rubik’s Cube (May 19, 2014)
Rubik’s Cubes are a great fidget toy, but if you’ve not got one handy by your desk, this Doodle from 2014 offers all the fun of the iconic puzzle, albeit without the ability to peel off and rearrange the coloured stickers for a cheat win.
Oskar Fischinger's 117th birthday (June 17, 2017)
To honour the musician and animator Oskar Fischinger, Google released an interactive, full-screen design which allowed users to create and share their own pieces of music.
44th anniversary of Hip-Hop (August 11, 2017)
Celebrating the birth and history of the genre, this Doodle featured custom are by famed graffiti artist Cey Adams, interactive turntables on which users can mix samples from legendary tracks and a serving of Hip Hop history.
50 years of Kids Coding (December 4, 2017)
Celebrating 50 years of coding languages for kids, this interactive Doodle allowed you help a furry friend across six levels in a quest to gather its favourite food by snapping together coding blocks based on the Scratch programming language for kids.
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