A magic black cat called Momo is the Halloween star of Google's spooky doodle

Search engine users may take a bit longer than usual on Halloween with Google's latest Doodle marking the spooky day while giving web users an interactive game that can be addictive.

The Halloween doodle features Momo, a black cat who has magic powers and has to beat the clock to save her school from invading spirits.

The wand is controlled by swiping the cursor and Momo takes on the ghouls in her school. For every one wiped out, points are scored in the game that stretches across five levels.

All the levels are set in a school setting: the library, cafeteria, classroom, gym, and the building's rooftop.

As you move through the game, the ghosts appear on the screen with simple symbols and each level progresses, it gets harder to make the ghosts disappear.

Google said the original concept for the game involved a magic cat making soup that was so good, it could raise the dead. But the designers were unable to connect that to Halloween.

"The inspiration for this year's cat spell-casting game came from a real-life black cat named Momo that belongs to Doodler Juliana Chen.

"It seemed like a good opportunity for a cat hero," Google's doodle blog said.

The playable doodle has been getting positive reviews with polygon.com saying: of Google: "Wizard hats off to them, it's an enjoyable video game".

Meanwhile, Cnet.com issued a warning, saying: "This game is addicting. You may find yourself trapped in it for hours - time you could be spending today carving up defenceless pumpkins.