Google has a delightful new multiplayer doodle that lets you play a game of petank online. In case you haven’t heard of petanque—I hadn’t heard of it before writing this article—it’s a game that’s more like a type of bokeh ball.
Petank’s goal is to throw his ball (bouquet) as close to a small ball (cochnet) on the field of play in front of him. On your computer, you’ll “throw” the ball to catapult the ball forward by clicking on the vase and dragging it backward with your mouse; On the phone, you’ll toss the ball with your thumb (like throwing a Poké ball in) pokemon go) You get points for having more balls with Coconuts than your opponent, and who has the most points after winning three rounds. Google has a great tutorial on the game that will show you when you first start playing.
You can play face-to-face or in teams of two by sharing a link or by randomly matching against online opponents. Google even offers this as an option if you just want to practice, and I’d recommend spending a little time testing things out if you’re playing on your phone. I was consistently more accurate on my computer than on my phone—something wasn’t clicking at all with me when I was bouncing with my thumb instead of a mouse.
In case you haven’t seen it on Google by today, here’s a GIF of the doodle, which shows the adorable olives featured in the game.
Google launched its first multiplayer doodle to celebrate Halloween in 2018 and released its second doodle in 2019 to celebrate the Mexican card game lottery, And the company has made several other doodle games in the past that are still fun to revisit — including my personal favorite, pac man One from 2010.