Abhi Sukhdial

The Google Doodle Everyone Will Play

The Google homepage is something that everyone has been on, not once or twice. Many times. But it’s one of those things we don’t pay much attention to. It’s pretty easy to ignore it. It’s just a homepage, but one of the things that makes it so special to me are the little games or slideshows they have. Every day, Google has a new page on the home screen that will lead you to something special, whether it’d be a tribute to a famous man or woman, or just something fun. Most of the time, I never paid attention to them, but today (July 23, 2021), I found a cool game on the homepage. Not a slideshow or a tribute like Google typically does, but an actual video game. It’s a very simple game that anyone can play, called Doodle Champion Island Games (DCIG). A calico cat named Lucky is trying to defeat the 7 champions across an island (we never get the name of it) and collect the scrolls. That’s it. It may seem boring, but it’s actually really cool. I’ll tell you why. First, I love the art style. It has a Pac-Man, 16-bit style of gameplay similar to the old 1980’s arcade games, with actual hand drawn animated cutscenes that look super cute! These are not the type of games I typically play, but this one is so colorful and nice to look at; it’s breathtaking. It’s not just looks though. The actual gameplay is very diverse. The 7 champions you have to defeat all have their own mini-games. I’ll list them: 1. You have to hit the arrows at the correct time in a rhythm game. 2. You have to play rugby while enemies try to catch you. To win, you must pass the ball to your teammates quickly before any of your opponents touch you! 3. You have to play table tennis with one of the champions and score a certain amount of points to win. 4. You have to use a bow and arrow to hit targets. However, the enemy champion will also try hitting the targets. Hit the most targets and collect the most points to win. 5. You have to land different trick shots on a skateboard, which will give you points. Complete the required amount of points to win. 6. You have to climb a mountain while rocks and other terrain are hitting you down. Head up to the top before the timer runs out to win! 7. You have to complete a marathon. Win first place to progress onward. These are the games in DCIG, and while they may sound easy, they’re actually quite hard! Each requires some different type of skill to defeat them, and it all depends on you. I beat the table tennis one with ease, but I’ve seen people struggle with it like crazy! That’s not the only thing though. There are also side quests to complete like helping certain animals find their lost possessions. All of this is a tribute to the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games (which are going on till August 8th), and I’m really impressed by the people who worked on this. They could have just made a slideshow talking about how the Summer Olympic Games got started, but they made an actual game that must have taken them hours! That’s crazy, and I applaud the team (a Japanese animation studio called Studio 4C) who worked on it. Not just because it’s fun, but because it actually shows how you can tell stories through video games. I’ve seen many people say that video games are “bad” and teach you nothing! I whole heartedly disagree. There are so many games out there that have intricate and interesting stories that can challenge you in multiple different ways, either by exercising your reflexes or critical thinking. DCIG proves this really well, and I’m glad people are finally realizing how video games are actually just as imaginative and exciting as books. Yes, games may not be educational—and I’m not saying to play video games 24 hours a day, but I feel they shouldn’t be completely ignored either. DCIG was a wonderful, unexpected find during my daily Google browsing. I expected something boring, but I got something great instead. It’s not long (I beat it in about 45 minutes), but it is still as fun as other games I’ve played that last hundreds of hours. For a Google game developed by a small team of people, this is insane! DCIG is a perfect tribute to the 2020/2021 Summer Olympic Games, and I can’t wait to see what the Studio 4C team will do next.

2001: A Space Odyssey, Reviewed by Abhi, 12

Let me set a couple of things straight. First off, if you are looking for an exciting sci-fi movie that keeps you really engaged every second, this is not for you. If you’re looking for movies with simple yet effective plots, this is not for you. 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the most brilliant yet confusing movies I’ve ever seen in my life. But no matter what age you are, I highly recommend watching this movie. 2001’s story is about the evolution of mankind. Men discover a black monolith, which lead to the first sign of new alien intelligence. The signal leads to Jupiter, so five men head to Jupiter along with their robot HAL to figure out what’s there. But certain strange things happen along the way. This film is notable for many reasons, but the most important reason will probably be the brilliant special effects. This film, although it may not seem like it, was made in 1968, before man even landed on the moon! This film gave the concept of A.I, space travel, alien intelligence. All the good children’s books, like The Giver, The City of Ember, and Ender’s Game exist because of this movie. Even my own book, Three Days Till EOC, was inspired by this movie. This film is strange. It can never be fully explained or understood. There are many long scenes with nobody talking and just seeing the vast wonders of space. The ending, even five decades after this film came out, is still something nobody has understood. Even though it’s rated G, 2001 is one of the most cryptic and most engaging movies, told with almost zero dialogue, which I thought could never be achieved. It constantly keeps you excited, but not like other films or books. See, most books and movies have really exciting action scenes with characters jumping off buildings, or characters running for their lives and a monster taking over the town (The Alex Rider series, Godzilla and Alien are all great examples). But 2001 is engaging, without any of those elements. No exciting music, no dialogue, no sounds, no exposition and background to explain what’s happening. It’s a strange movie you have to really think about to understand. This film is directed by Stanley Kubrick, and he has directed really awesome films, but all of them require some thinking to understand. He always has ridiculous ideas and puts them on film (check out his other classic, Dr. Strangelove). Most of his movies are great, but this one is easily his best. HAL is a robot, but he is a creepy and weird character, as we see him slowly malfunction into madness. The opening called “The Dawn of Man” perfectly resembles human society in an interesting way, showing apes fighting, working together and acting curious when a very strange object leaps before their eyes. Unlike movies told with lots of exposition through a character or opening title sequence (e.g., Star Wars), 2001 tells the story through hidden details and little, cryptic hints. During a really easy-to-miss scene, a bone is turned into a weapon, which cuts later in just a brief second, into a spaceship. These cuts look perfect, brilliant and amazing. 2001 is strange and criminally underrated. When I hear most people think of “sci-fi movies ahead of their time,” they say Star Wars or Alien, but they forget about the most important movie of them all. Without 2001, we wouldn’t have Star Wars, Ender’s Game, Ready Player One, blah blah blah I can go on and on! It’s a very self-aware film about mankind, society, and predicted the future far ahead of its time. 2001 is a thrill ride I recommend everyone in the Stone Soup community to watch at least once, because it is the true definition of a great sci-fi film.

The Extraordinary Colors of Auden Dare by Zillah Bethell, Reviewed by Abhi Sukhdial

The Extraordinary Colors of Auden Dare (TECAD) is one of the best books I’ve read in quite a long time. Unlike books like Wonder, it doesn’t just depict the life of a disabled kid who’s initially bullied but then later becomes accepted by society. Instead, it tells an action-packed love story (although it is one between a boy and his robot!) in only 300 pages without ever feeling like any part of it is unnecessary. The book creatively incorporates many different genres, and that makes it very unique. TECAD tells the story of Auden Dare, a boy who is color-blind. He lives during a time when people (including his dad) are fighting over water, the precious liquid we’ve used for so long. When he is forced to move with his mom to a house called Unicorn Cottage (the place where his uncle used to live before his recent death), he, as you may have guessed, is not too happy. At the cottage though, he soon discovers a lot of secrets about his uncle’s past. (Remember the uncle! He is going to be very important later on). Auden visits Trinity College, where his uncle used to work, and notices that his uncle’s room is completely unorganized and messy, making him question if his uncle really did die from a “small heart attack”. At his new school, Auden meets a girl named Vivi, who becomes his best friend in just a few weeks. They soon hang out with each other and have sleepovers! But what they also discover together is that both of them know Auden’s uncle, and used to play with him. It seems Auden has some company! Auden tells Vivi about a file he discovered in his uncle’s office called “Project Rainbow” (PR). After searching and scavenging, trying to find out what PR is, they soon discover something mind-boggling—a robot hidden underground named Paragon, who has no memory of himself. Auden and Vivi both know their uncle made it, but why? As their experiences with the robot grow and grow, they themselves go through many emotions, including feelings of surprise, anger, love, and hatred during the simple process of learning just who this robot is. The reason TECAD is so exciting is that the book is always leaving you hanging at every part, making you want to read it nonstop. Who is this robot? What is Project Rainbow? What is happening to Auden’s dad in the Water Wars? All these little pieces of suspense lead up to one of the best finales in a book I’ve ever read, with so many twists and turns that you think it’s an Agatha Christie book! Another reason I like the book is because Auden is a unique character. Unlike other books about kids with disabilities, this one doesn’t focus on his color-blind vision. Instead of focusing on it as a problem, and then showing later how the problem doesn’t matter, and that he is unique and special (yes, Wonder I’m talking to you!), it focuses on the disability as a perspective on the world. Auden always feels the whole world is black for him, not literally, but also metaphorically. The book tells of looking at the world differently. This not only makes the book more exciting but also much more emotional. Why did I find it emotional? Because I’m a kid with no disabilities. So instead of focusing on a disability I can’t relate to, the book focuses on a perspective everyone can relate to. When we feel there’s no hope in this world. When we think everything is lost. This idea of showing how having a disability shapes the way one sees or perceives the world is in my opinion much more creative than just talking about the disability. The friendship between Auden, Vivi, and the robot is also fantastic. Sure, there’s some cheesy dialogue and embarrassing scenes, but it’s suitable for the most part. Mainly because Auden never likes the robot at first. It takes him almost the whole book to truly love the robot. That’s what a good relationship is in my opinion. One where it doesn’t start off well at first, but then later turns out to be one of the most surprising and emotional relationships of all time! TECAD is one of my favorite books not only because the writing is descriptive, and the dialogue is pitch-perfect, but also because the very idea behind the story makes for an emotional, suspenseful, surprising novel that is exciting from start to finish. It’s a book I recommend everyone should read, especially during this quarantine. The Extraordinary Colors of Auden Dare by Zillah Bethell. Feiwel & Friends, 2018. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!