Photo for illustration: iStock
Heard of Katamari? If you’re looking for a fun way to idle away a few moments, Google has a hidden game that morphs your search results into a magic ball.
Inspired by the Japanese video game, Katamari, Google’s Easter Egg is an amusing pastime to fill those empty minutes.
Celebrating Katamari’s 20th anniversary, Google devised a homage to this cult-classic game.
Getting started is a piece of cake but consider yourself forewarned: it’s as addictive as it’s entertaining.
How to get started I hear you ask? Easy peasy! Open Google Search on your computer or smartphone and type ‘Katamari‘ in the Search bar.
See the knowledge pane on the right side of the screen? Notice the small, bouncing Katamari ball?
Simply click or tap this icon and let the games begin.
For the desktop version, navigate the ball using your arrow keys, and for the mobile version, swipe left or right.
Your objective is to clear your screen by rolling up the words and images with your katamari.
Sounds easy, right? Don’t be fooled!
As the ball gathers more items, it gains speed. This adds a surprisingly challenging twist to this otherwise straightforward game.
Google has a history of stashing fun Easter Eggs within its search platform.
In 2018, a Reddit user discovered an old-school text adventure game hidden within Google’s developer console.
The game could be accessed by searching for ‘text adventure‘ or ‘text game‘ and opening Google’s developer console using a specific command. This game has since been deactivated.
Another fun easter egg (which is still available to try out) is to type ‘Do a barrel roll‘ in the Google Search bar. Go on, do it!