GamesCard GameToday’s Google Doodle is an alarmingly compelling card game about defeating mankind’s oldest enemy: The MoonWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

GamesCard GameToday’s Google Doodle is an alarmingly compelling card game about defeating mankind’s oldest enemy: The MoonWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Google)

Artwork for the Google Doodle themed around the lunar phases, showing a winking moon.

A wise man once said:The Moon is disgusting. He forgot to mention that it was alsostupid. Strategically inept. A trifle to conquer on the battlefield.

This is the lesson I’ve learnt from today’s Google Doodle, anyway. I would not ordinarily write about the Google Doodle, being as it is only a Doodle on Google. But today’s Google Doodle is more than a Doodle, it’s a game you can play on Google, dude (el).

If you head over to Google (that’sgoogle.com, if you need the URL) you’ll find a neat little strategy/card game that someone in Mountain View presumably cooked up in thefree 20% of their work day. It’s themed around the lunar phases, and sees you face off against a persistently chirpy half-moon in a quest to amass points.

How do you earn points, you ask? Each turn you and your enemy moon select between three cards (you each get a new card every turn). Each card represents a phase of the Moon: crescent, half, full, whatever they call it when there’s no moon, and so on. Your task is to slap your cards down on the board in a way that either matches a card next to it, creates afull moonwith the card next to it (so, a crescent moon next to a three-quarter moon would count), or that establishes a lunar cycle.

That last one is more complicated, and it’s also the most lucrative option. Essentially, if you can lay down a track of cards that represents a complete part of a lunar cycle (for instance, a crescent, then a half, then a three-quarter moon), you get points for each card. The longer your complete lunar cycle, the more points.

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