Wordle game turns out to be one of the strangest gaming sensations of 2024. This game is completely free and everyone regardless of gaming experience can quickly train their brain every day by solving simple-looking word puzzles. Unsurprisingly, Wordle’s sudden success inspired many imitators. However, this is not bad.
Wordle’s goal is simple. Solve 5-letter words in 6 moves. The game throws dice to players to tell which letters in a word are in the wrong position and which are in the right position. This simple concept later inspired many other developers to create their own daily challenge games based on the idea of discovering some kind of hidden solution.
Framed
Framed
If you like the idea of Heardle but consider yourself more of a movie lover than a music fan then Framed might be the game for you.
Framing to accurately guess motion pictures only from still images. As usual, users are given 6 attempts, and each time they make a wrong guess, a different image is displayed, so hopefully, this will lead them on the right path. Like Hurdle, each guess in Framed is pass/fail, and the game also uses autocomplete, so there’s no chance for players to misspell names.
Anyone who wants to show off their encyclopedic movie knowledge or discover new movies will enjoy Framed.
Squirdle
The world has over 900 unique Pokémon species that come in many types, shapes, and sizes. Many players can easily identify a Pokemon by its silhouette, but how many players can identify a Pokemon using Wordle rules? Squirdle asks this question.
Squirdle (a combination of Wordle and Squirtle) allows players to identify Pokémon by generation, type, height, and weight. Each attempt helps and narrows the pool of possible answers (learning that the correct Pokemon is partially ground-type, heavier than flagellum, but smaller than golluk is more helpful than you might think). Because Squirdle has more variables than other Wordle clones, the game gives you 8 chances instead of the standard 6.
CrosswordIe
Wordle, players have to guess 5-letter words in 6 or fewer attempts, and the game notifies you when a letter is in a word but not in the right place, or both. Words and right place. But what if you play this game in reverse? crossword puzzle.
The “Answer” is at the bottom of the crossword puzzle and players must use those letters to form four other words. Every second row of the crossword puzzle consists of scattered green and yellow tiles that must be filled with “corresponding” letters (i.e. the letters in the yellow blocks must be in the “solution” but not in the correct position). Any letter is fair game for the gray squares, as long as the resulting combination of letters forms a word. But as an added problem, once you put a letter in the gray square, you can’t use it again. Despite its name, crossword puzzles are similar to Sudoku word games.
Waffle
Wordle offers players many chances to guess the correct word, but they all have to start with guesses. If the user doesn’t have a five-letter word vocabulary, they may not get very far. Wordle also sometimes “cheats” and doesn’t show if a character is repeated. Waffles eliminate these drawbacks.
Unlike Wordle, which forces players to guess what letters are in everyday words, Waffle instantly tells users which letters they need. From there, players need to mix properly. The letters are arranged in a 5×5 waffle grid, hence the name.
Like Wordle, Waffle shows which letters are in the right place and which ones aren’t via colors, but this game also challenges players to form six words in 15 tries. The result is a mix between Wordle and a classic crossword puzzle that focuses less on a player’s lexicon and more on their planning and critical thinking skills.
Heardle
In Wordle, players have to guess a random word. They don’t know if it’s a noun, verb, adjective, or preposition; their only hint is that it’s five letters long. While many Wordle-inspired clones follow a similar format, some experiment with that basic “guessing game” in rather unique ways.
Unlike other Wordle imitators, Heardle only asks the player to identify a song for the first few seconds. Gamers can only make 6 attempts, and each failed will result in more songs being played. All of Heardle’s guesses are pass/fail (the player either understands or doesn’t understand). However, the game has an autocomplete feature so users don’t have to remember the full song title. A single word or artist’s name is sufficient. If players can get over the challenge of identifying a song one second at a time, they’ll probably enjoy Heardle.
Absurdle
Wordle and most of its clones in this game are built around secret words, movies, Pokémon, or something else that players have to guess in just a few tries. However, one well-known copycat, Wordle, allows players to guess as many times as they like. The catch is that this game is evil.
At first glance, Absurdle plays like a normal Wordle, but in fact, Absurdle uses a tricky algorithm that reacts to the player. Since Absurdle is designed to remove all words with initials from the answer pool, your first few guesses will always be wrong. The only way to win is to play with the idea that each successive guess reduces the number of possible solutions in Absurddle. Eventually, the player corners the algorithm and ends up with a yellow or green square. From this point on, the game gets easier and starts to resemble normal Wordle, but many players give up before reaching this point. After all, it’s hard to win a game that keeps the gate moving.
Worldle
Most Wordle clones ask the player to guess a secret word based on intangible information. In the meantime, Worldle relies on real knowledge of real places and what they look like.
Like other Wordle imitations, Worldle gives the player 6 guesses to correctly identify the correct answer. The point here is that we are trying to define a specific country. The game gives the silhouette of a random country in the world and asks the player to enter a guess for that country. If the player is wrong, the game literally moves in the right direction.
Yes, Worldle will slowly tell you how far away the correct country is from guessing and in which direction. The only significant downside is that Worldle differs from Wordle by one character, making it nearly impossible to find via Google. Players looking for the game can enjoy it, and players who can’t find it can have the experience.
The Box Office Game
If you’re the kind of movie fan that thinks they have an encyclopedic knowledge of box office history, The Box Office Game is your best chance to show off your skills this side of movie trivia night.
The Box Office Game asks you to name the top five highest-grossing movies from a random week in cinematic history. You’re able to reveal certain hints (such as the movie’s tagline, director, or actors), but each hint you request will lower your total overall score. If nothing else, this game is a fascinating way to explore box office history and see which movies that once topped the charts have since been forgotten.
Squabble
If Wordle is just a little too calm for you, then you have to try Squabble: a competitive version of the popular word game that has proven to be a humbling experience for many.
Squabble is an offshoot of Worlde’s Battle Royale genre where you basically compete against 99 other players to see who will be the last Wordle (Wordler?) player. Wordle skills can make you feel pretty good, but you’ll soon find yourself outcast before you can make a reasonable guess. While the game occasionally struggles with balance issues, it’s generally a pretty fun time.
Dungleon
Most games like Wordle are based on the idea of finding something that already exists. It can be a word, movie title, song, or national anthem, but what you’re trying to discover is usually an established concept. Dungeon plays this objective in an interesting way.
In Dungeon, players don’t have to guess the right word, instead, they place pixel tokens in the correct order. These images include basic fantasy elements such as treasure chests, wizards, skeletons, and knights, and in the Wordle tradition, Dangleon highlights which tokens are in the right and wrong places. As usual, players have six attempts, but Dungeon gives users the option to roll the dice and either delete images that don’t belong or highlight images that don’t belong. In an internet full of Wordle imitators, Dangleon’s unique approach to the basics of Wordle concepts helps Wordle stand out.
Quordle
Is there anything more difficult than a game where you have to find a 5-letter word in just 6 attempts? A game with four times more secret words and a few guesses.
Quordle is as simple as Wordle, but with a tricky twist. Players have to make 9 guesses to solve 4 5-letter words. Because every word is different, a letter in the correct position in one word may be in the wrong position in another. Or in other words, maybe not at all. Solving a word in Quordle removes the word from the board, but the game still forces players to rationalize their guesses much better than in vanilla Wordle.
Nerdle
The Number of Masters makes the world go round. So it makes sense that there are Wordle clones designed to test your math skills.
Nerdle sounds like a Wordle-like game that asks players to identify sci-fi objects and spaceships, but it actually asks players to write simple equations. Each equation consists of eight characters (including numbers and basic mathematical symbols such as “+” and “=”). Like other Wordle-inspired games, Nerdle tells the player which characters are in the solution but in the wrong place, and which ones are in the right place, but it doesn’t stick to the exact order. If the decision is “10 + 20 = 30”, the game will also accept “20 + 10 = 30”. However, Nerdle is a stickler for the standard order of operations, so always multiply and divide before you add and subtract!
Passwordle
Passwordle challenges you to crack a 12-digit password in just 6 attempts. If that sounds almost unbelievably difficult… well, that’s the point.
Passwordle was developed by a security expert who was seemingly interested in showcasing the value of a truly tough password. It’s technically possible to crack the game’s daily codes, but you really do have to buy into the pleasure of the guessing process in order to get the most out of this fascinating thought experiment.
Speedle
As the name suggests, Speedle is basically a speedrun version of Wordle that is perfect for those who tend to solve regular Wordle games a bit too fast and want to really test their limits.
Speedle benefits from a variety of custom parameters that allow you to essentially create the hardest version of Wordle you can imagine. It lacks the casual charm of the base game, but it’s one of the better “unlimited” Wordle variants out there.
