Google has an exciting new Doodle game up its sleeve, right in time for Halloween! The tech giant's playful take on holidays, historical events, and cultural milestones via its Search home screen Doodles is one we dearly cherish. The tech giant's 25th birthday saw the arrival of an interactive "Most Searched Playground" Doodle, while a 'Celebrating Popcorn' game recently made the rounds, especially because of its multiplayer nature. Now, with Halloween just around the corner, the tech giant is again treating us with a delight by bringing back a spooky classic.

Google first released its classic Magic Cat Academy Doodle for Halloween 2016, and revisited the concept with part two for Halloween 2020. The mini-game is back now for a third installment, right in time for Halloween 2024, marking a four-year release pattern.

Starting now, up until the end of day on October 31, visiting the Google Search homepage will present users with the option to join Momo the Cat on a journey through Earth's atmosphere. The Doodle is available to play on the web and mobile, though if you're like me and play PC games with a mouse and keyboard, you'll fare much better on the web version — such is the nature of the game.

The mini-game essentially puts you up against monsters in the atmosphere, including bedsheet ghosts, wicked bats, spiders that don't want to let you through, and more. Each monster appears on the screen with a symbol over their head. These include ^ - | @, and more. Your task is to quickly draw the symbols you see over your enemies' heads to eliminate them, or risk them hitting you and taking one of your five lives away.

That's easier than it sounds, especially in the last stage when the speed enemies approach you at increases significantly. I lost quite a few lives trying to grab screenshots for this article while doodling enemy symbols away. Give the mini-game a try, it should take you roughly 5–6 minutes to completely finish it. If you're bored and want to give Doodles from the past a shot, Google's website dedicated to Doodles lets you search through its vast catalog, and you can even find interesting ones that have previously appeared on your birthday.

A Spooky Space Adventure

The Magic Cat Academy minigame has returned for a third Halloween outing as the Google Doodle, serving up another opportunity to spend five minutes playing games instead of actually using the search engine for work and stuff. For those unfamiliar, we were first introduced to Momo the cat (actually a real-life feline owned by Juliana Chen, a Google Doodler) back in 2016, where players had to fend off ghosts by drawing lines and making other swiping gestures with our mouse (no, not that kind of mouse).

A webpage on the original doodle reads: “The original concept for the game involved a magic cat making a soup that was so good, it raised the dead. Connecting soup to Halloween proved too abstract, so the team shifted to the idea of a wizard school. This opened the door to a more robust world filled with interesting characters and paw-some themes.” The game spanned five levels in different areas of the school, each with their own “resident foe”.

But it didn’t end there, as in 2020 – that infamous year where we all had a bit more time on our hands – Momo went on a second outing in a “subaquatic shriek-quel” with an underwater theme, taking on enemies such as the immortal jellyfish, vampire squid and anglerfish. And now, in 2024, Momo is reaching new heights – literally – by taking her broomstick to up into the atmosphere.

A description of the third minigame in the series reads: “We’re celebrating Halloween with a brand-new instalment of Magic Cat Academy!

“In previous years, Doodle hero, Momo the cat, has defeated ghouls in school and survived a commotion in the ocean. This year, she’s embarking on an out of this world adventure, battling her arch nemesis, Marshmallow the ghost, across the layers of the atmosphere!”

The five layers are the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere, with the last level involving the big boss Marshmallow which we struggled to beat ourselves when doing “research” for this article. Hearts are also occasionally available if you need them, and you probably will as the ghosts move towards you at increasing speeds as you progress through the levels.

A Cat-tastic Halloween Treat

Google is celebrating Halloween with a cute new Google Doodle game, featuring the return of its magic-wielding black cat Momo. The third instalment in Google Doodle's Magic Cat Academy series, 2024's Halloween game has Momo once again waving a wand to banish malevolent ghosts. This ghostbusting feline first appeared in Google's 2016 Halloween Doodle, when she fought off spectres in a Harry Potter-esque school setting. She then returned in the 2020 Halloween Google Doodle, diving into the ocean to dispatch ghouls beneath the waves.

Now Momo is headed into the opposite direction, riding a broom to the upper atmosphere to wreck wraiths in the sky. As in the previous Magic Cat Academy Google Doodles, players must quickly draw the symbols floating above each ghosts' heads to banish them. While simple enough, it can get trickier when each enemy has a string of different signs — and when there's an entire horde coming at you at once.

The 2024 Magic Cat Academy Google Doodle will be available on the Google homepage for 48 hours, just long enough to keep you entertained while waiting for trick or treaters to come knocking. If you're still left wanting more after that, you'll also be able to find this year's Halloween Google Doodle in the Google Doodle library — as well as all the Google Doodle ghosts from Halloweens past.

A Final Farewell?

“We envisioned this Halloween series as a trilogy.” 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!”

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.

Google Doodle: A Spooky Treat for Halloween

Google has thrilled its fans this Halloween by restoring its popular Magic Cat Academy game, which comes complete with a new interstellar level. The game was first introduced in 2016 as a treat and starred Momo, a wizard cat inspired by a real pet, who defended against mischievous ghosts which played tricks on her.

This year, the developers have introduced a new twist to the game: Momo is on a cosmic journey while fighting her ghostly rival, Marshmallow, through the various atmospheric layers around Earth.

Momo’s magical journey in Magic Cat Academy has changed with the years. She has been courageous in various eerie settings. She first fought ghoulish forces within her school as she used her spell-casting skills to protect classmates from phantoms that roamed the hallways. She then dived deep into the ocean in another adventure to encounter water-spectral creatures, all to take on new aquatic phantoms. In this way, every time something new is added, challenges keep coming and so does a more creative ghostly encounter, making imaginations for players worldwide. The experience is thrilling on every year.

This year’s installment of Magic Cat Academy by Momo amps up excitement as she blasts into space in a mission to encounter that infamous Marshmallow, carrying her through a fight-to-the-finish experience encountering Marshmallow and other specters battling spell-casting battles from layer to layer within the atmosphere of Earth.

Graphic animation brings to life Momo’s latest adventure as seen in gameplay; Halloween themes make players want to get into action and something excitingly different for everyone. While playing the game, its designers haven’t changed the available cast spells design – this will always be a casting of magical powers through drawing various forms in the screens of the characters.

Still, this shouldn’t seem that simple with an entertaining and challenging fun filled with dodging ghostly enemies and with an equally strong spell-casting game. The best magic to make sure the adventures for this year will always remind people of Halloween festival, but with some newer magic for gameplay excitement.

It is the successful creation of Doodle makers- illustrators, engineers and sound designers in Google’s doodle team. Celine You, Olivia When, Juliana Chen, Helene Leroux, and Alyssa Winans designed the visual elements of this video game to give Momo’s space adventure that lively and spooky vibe. Technical: The game’s engineering side was managed by Stephanie Gu, Jonathan Shneier, and Jasper Louie to get the right pace going with the gameplay. The music and sounds, created by Silas Hite, who made quirky yet dark music and fitting sounds that complement the atmosphere of Halloween and magical traveling, accompanied the game.

This interactive Google Doodle is not accessible from all countries. While many fans in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, Thailand and Japan can see it. India among other countries were unable to see Momo, but they can watch the journey of Momo online by logging onto the internet and visiting the website created for the Google Doodle of Magic Cat Academy and enjoy the latest edition open to the world.

A Magical Treat for Halloween

Trick-or-treating, horror movie marathons, and costume parties might be some of the traditions that come to mind when you think about this spooky day this year. New game Magic Cat Academy, however, provides a nice digital escape from the mundane. Google’s Halloween Doodle invites all players across the globe to take some time off the ordinary routine and join Momo in a fantastic Halloween-themed journey while she battles her ghostly nemesis. The Magic Cat Academy update is the perfect mix of fright and fun to accompany fans during the holiday season: creative visuals, captivating gameplay, and spooky sound design.

Taking Momo to the Stars: A Google Doodle Trilogy

Google has introduced the third part of the Magic Cat Academy series, where Momo the black cat fights ghosts in the sky. This is a sequel to the popular Halloween Doodle games of 2016 and 2020. Google has released the Google Doodle game for Halloween 2024, which again features a cute magical black cat fighting ghosts, UNN reports citing Mashable.

In the third installment of Google Doodle's Magic Cat Academy series, a Halloween 2024 game, Momo, a black cat with magic, waves his wand again to banish evil ghosts. This ghost hunting cat first appeared in the 2016 Google Halloween Doodle, fighting ghosts in a Harry Potter-themed school setting. Then he returned in the Google Halloween Doodle 2020, diving into the ocean to slay ghouls under the waves. Now Momo is heading in the opposite direction, flying a broomstick into the upper atmosphere to destroy ghosts in the sky, the publication notes.