Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Think you have what it takes to compete in a global sporting event? Head on over to Google and join the ranks of people playing their latest doodle, a 16-bit game inspired by Japanese culture and the Olympic Games.
Google’s homepage doodle is an interactive 16-bit game, “Doodle Champion Island Games,” where players, in the form of a calico cat named Lucky, play their way through seven sporting events and dozens of side quests to collect seven sacred scrolls.
The doodle, made with Tokyo’s STUDIO 4°C, takes players through sports like table tennis, skateboarding, archery and rugby. Players will collect points for one of four teams, blue, green, red or yellow, each with their own mascot rooted in Japanese culture. The teams will battle to take the lead on a real-time, global scoreboard.
Clicking on the doodle will launch the game with delightfully nostalgic theme music. If 90s video games bring on a flood of happy memories, clicking the doodle will bring you back to the best days of your life, which is what the developers planned.
“When people play this doodle, I hope they feel nostalgic for video games from the past, and have fun playing sports, exploring the world, and learning,” Nate Swineheart, a Google developer said in a behind-the-scenes video shared on Google’s YouTube.
As Lucky the calico, players will navigate her through Champion Island’s sporting events that take place every four years and feature the world’s best athletes, similar to real life events happening in Tokyo.
The game is meant to be a fun throwback to the 16-bit games popular with many Millennials and Gen-Xers, while also celebrating Japanese culture and folklore.
As Lucky, players will enter Champion Island and battle it out over table tennis to get through the red gates. Players navigate predominantly using the arrow keys and spacebar. It’s easy enough for anyone to enjoy, and remains interesting throughout as Lucky outruns tree spirits in a beach marathon and competes against mountain-climbing owls.
In a behind-the-scenes video, the game designers said they included researched Japanese folklore from regions across the country to help build characters that would appeal to all ages. Characters in the game include animals, imaginary figures and those of folk legends.
The designers opted to make Lucky a woman to go against the grain in Japanese culture where women in folklore are often scary characters. They wanted women to feel included in the game. They opted for her to be a calico cat because calicos are well known in Japan and a lot of calico cats are female, Tomoko Ogiwara, a producer and animator with STUDIO 4°C who worked on the game, said in the video.
The game designers referred to folklore to find characters that complemented the various sports in the game. When adapting archery for the game, they looked for a character in Japanese stories that used a bow and arrow and used Nasu no Yoichi, a samurai known for his bow and arrow, Takahiro Tanaka, creative director with STUDIO 4°C, said in the video.
They hope that people playing the game will have people wanting to learn more about the characters shown through the game and its animations, that it will compel people to research and learn more about Japanese culture and folklore.
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
RCMP say human remains found in a rural area in central Saskatchewan may have been there for a decade or more.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.