If you’re like many puzzle fanatics, completing the newest Wordle is likely part of your daily routine. But with just six tries to guess the right word, it doesn’t take too long before the game is over. Thankfully, if you’re left wishing for more brain-bending activities, you’ll be thrilled to learn just how many of the best Wordle spinoff games are out there waiting for you.
Getting your mind working on a daily basis can have a significant positive impact on your cognitive abilities for years to come. In fact, a recent University of California, Irvine-led study found that people in their 70s can multitask cognitively just as well as younger adults their 20s with the help of online brain-training exercises. For the study, researchers looked at data collected from the task-switching game “Ebb and Flow,” which forces the brain to shift between cognitive processes as it deciphers shapes and movements.
Newspapers may be a dying breed, but tucked inside your local paper may be the key to a younger, healthier brain. That’s because a new study finds that doing a crossword puzzle regularly may help lead to better brain health later in life — so much so that older crossword puzzle loyalists show brain functionality similar to someone at least 10 years their junior. With the many word games out there online, you don’t need a newspaper to stay sharp.
Whether you play one puzzle a day or several, it’s never a bad idea to add a little extra brain work into your routine. With Wordle taking the internet by storm, it’s no surprise that people are eager to find several similar games to add to their repertoire. But of course, the internet is a vast place, and it can be difficult to find just the thing you’re looking for. To help find your next puzzle obsession, we searched 10 expert websites for reviews of the best Wordle spinoffs. These games are the most frequently recommended expert picks, but as always, be sure to let us know in the comments if you have a favorite that we missed!
The List: Best Wordle Spinoffs, According to Experts
1. Worldle
As the name suggests, this game puts your geography knowledge to the test. See if you can correctly identify the country in six guesses using the limited information the game provides. “Worldle is the daily game for geography buffs,” explains Evening Standard. “Each day, players are presented with an outline of a country or a territory, and they’ll get six guesses as to the mystery location.”
“When you enter a country’s name, the game will give you clues for how close or far off your guess was. It shows how many kilometers away the country you entered is from the correct answer,” explains WordFinder. “The game also shows the general direction one would need to travel to reach the country when viewed on a map or globe.”
On top of some good clean fun, it’s a game that’ll help you brush up on your knowledge (even after you guess the correct answer!) …after playing, there’s an option to view the nation on Google Earth — and a chance to prep for the next day,” says NY Post.
2. Heardle
If you pride yourself on knowing every song that comes on the radio, Heardle gives you the opportunity to show your skills. With just a few seconds of music, your task is to correctly identify the song playing in as few guesses as possible. “One for the music buffs. Instead of guessing a word, you have to guess a song based on the intro,” explains The Herald. “You can get up to six snippets of music, with each extra snippet revealed you forfeit one of your six guesses.”
“If the player guesses wrong or wants to skip a guess, they get to listen to another second (and up to six seconds–and up to six guesses) until they get it right,” says Evening Standard. “There’s also a Harry Styles Heardle with the same rules as above, but the song will always be by Harry Styles.”
Owned by streaming giant Spotify, the game pulls top songs from the past decade, so most players will have a chance of guessing correctly. NationalWorld adds, “the music-based guessing game invites players to guess the track from a pool of the most streamed songs in the last 10 years, using only brief snippets from the intro.”
3. Lewdle
For those with a less than formal sense of humor, Lewdle is the ideal word game. In fact, the puzzle exclusively accepts less than polite vocabulary. “A game like this will have you dipping into your mind’s gutter,” says NY Post. “Only answers like ‘d- -ks,’ ‘t- -ty’ and ‘q- -ef,’ will be accepted. Perhaps Lewdle is not the best study guide for kids to enhance their vocabulary — or maybe it is.”
“Lewdle is about clean but dirty fun, and crucially, Lewdle won’t go into slurs. The developers want the game to be dirty without actually being offensive to anyone,” adds Evening Standard. “According to Lewdle’s content advisory, they say: ‘Lewdle is a game about rude words. If you’re likely to be offended by the use of profanity, vulgarity or obscenity, go play Wordle instead!'”
“The words range from mild — like poopy — to words that would make a sailor blush,” claims CNET. “Like Wordle, you get six tries to guess a five-letter word; gray, yellow and green blocks are used in the same way; and there’s only one puzzle per day. Go forth and let the bad words flow!”
4. Absurdle
This game is every bit as complicated as Wordle is straightforward. If you’re looking for a brain-bending challenge, this is the game for you. “To experience the absolute hardest Wordle game, you need to turn to Absurdle,” says WordFinder. “Absurdle gives you an endless number of chances to solve the puzzle, but there’s a major catch: The answers can change depending on the words you try.”
“Absurdle doesn’t pick a word at the beginning of the game for the player to guess. Instead it uses the player’s guesses to narrow its list of words down in an effort to make the game go as long as possible,” says CNET. “The final word might not even include a yellow letter from one of your earlier guesses either. You can guess as many times as you want, which is helpful, and the best score you can get is four guesses.”
It may take you a round or two to pick up on the rules, but once you do, it’s a clever way to stretch your guessing abilities. As The Herald puts it, “it sounds complicated, but it’s not, and you get unlimited guesses, so the challenge is to find the hidden word in as few attempts as possible.”
5. Nerdle
Word games aren’t for everyone. For those that prefer to deal with numbers, there’s Nerdle. “We can’t really call Nerdle a Wordle game, as it doesn’t use any words. Instead, Nerdle is a mathematics game,” says WordFinder. “Each puzzle has a hidden equation that you must deduce. You can enter digits and a limited number of symbols (like plus, minus and divided by) to create equations. Once you enter an equation, the squares will change color, like in Wordle, to reveal if any parts of it were correct.”
“The eight horizontal paneled game — which has 17,723 valid outcomes — also relies on a proper order of operations in solving, according to the game’s description,” NY Post explains. “Yes, just like in high school algebra, you have to show your work and punch in both an equal sign and your sum at the end of the graph, which resembles a good ol’ Texas Instruments calculator.”
Just like Wordle, a new Nerdle puzzle only comes along every once in a while. “After you finish one puzzle, you have to wait eight hours before the next one,” says CNET. “Here’s a hint: The ‘=’ sign is always in the puzzle. You can thank us later.”
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- Best Board Games
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Sources:
- The Week
- Evening Standard
- WordFinder
- NY Post
- CNET
- The Herald
- NationalWorld
- Popular Science
- TechRadar
- Gadget Hacks
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