Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
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.
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
One of the two pilots aboard an airplane carrying fuel reported there was a fire on the airplane shortly before it crashed and burned outside Fairbanks, killing both people on board, a federal aviation official said Wednesday.
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
The Edmonton Police Service has released a number of surveillance videos related to a series of extortion cases in the city now dubbed 'Project Gaslight.'
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.