6 Wordle-esque Games That Are Just As Good (or Better) Than the Original
Reading Time: 3 minutesSpice it up with all the clones, copycats, and NSFW versions of the viral word game.
So you’re a Wordle master. You know all the strategies: which words to guess first, which letters are a waste of space. All of your devoted Twitter followers are well-acquainted with your perfect green squares. However, everyone’s main gripe with Wordle is that there’s only one puzzle per day. After you’ve gotten your daily one-game allotment, where do you turn? How are you going to scratch that itch?
We’ve rounded up the best alternatives for you to keep riding the word-guessing wave. The following are not simply word-adjacent games; I’m not about to waste your time recommending something like Words with Friends. (What is this, 2012? Grow up. We’re in a pandemic.)
Instead, this list is for the Wordle-obsessed. This is for those among us who crave a nearly identical gameplay, albeit with some pretty interesting twists. We’re highlighting games that are all clear copycats, spin-offs, and NSFW versions of the OG Wordle (Note: None of the following games were created by the OG Wordle founder Josh Wardle.) Without further ado, here are the best Wordle variants for you to master next, C H A M P.
Let’s kick off with this ‘adversarial version’ of Wordle. We’ve previously walked through Absurdle, a game that feels like it really wants you to fail—in a good way.
Unlike Wordle, which has one set answer that changes day to day, using the same guesses in Absurdle will always result in the same outcome. The game is designed that way, since there’s no ‘answer’ from the start. If these rules sound a little confusing, don’t fret; game creator qntm has an extended explainer on how the entire thing works. However, as MediaDownloader’s senior technology editor Jake Peterson explains it: The best way to understand Absurdle is to play it.
Are you unsatisfied with the prudish, vanilla gameplay of guessing words like ‘irate’ and ‘solar’ over and over? Are you seeking a more vulgar, NSFW way to kill time? Are you simply dying to type ‘farts’ into your work laptop? Well then, you can finally get lewd with Lewdle.
Lewdle is functionally the exact same gameplay as Wordle. The only difference is that you shouldn’t waste time with the trusty guesses that work best for you in Wordle. It’s that straightforward: This game is Wordle for ‘bad’ words. I’d give you all the most strategic words to guess in Lewdle, but I’m not trying to lose my job.
If you scoff at the ease and simplicity of Wordle, get ready for a challenge that just might live up to your superior word-guessing genius. Renata Price puts it best in Kotaku when they describe Dordle as ‘a nightmare that only begets pain and sorrow.’
Personally, I won today’s Dordle by the skin of my teeth. First off, the user interface is not ideal; to get to the game board on your browser, make sure to click on the ‘daily dordle’ button (which doesn’t clearly mark itself as a button). Then, the game itself is delightfully difficult. How it works is you’re essentially playing two Wordles at once. Each word you guess simultaneously applies to two different game boards. I’m sure some people out there can manage to maximize how the letters in each guess apply to both answers. My strategy, however, is to guess the left board as soon as possible and then use the rest of my guesses on the right. I’m simple-minded.
While there’s a bit of a learning curve at first, Dordle will be your go-to game on days that Wordle is just too easy.
Play here (if you dare).
Is anything on the internet safe from yassification? The answer is definitively no.
If you’ve been looking to queer your Wordle experience, this is the LGTBQ+ version of the game. Creator Jordan Bouvier explained to Pink News how they designed Queerdle to be ‘truly queer,’ including ‘references to history, drag, slang, and…sexual references.’
As one commenter on Twitter put it: ‘the secret to Wordle is knowing the distribution of letters in English and opening with words that have a lot of common letters in them. the secret to Queerdle is doing this once and then guessing the gay word.’ Note: Bouvier warns that some (many) of Queerdle’s answers will be NSFW.
This is perhaps the best, most straightforward alternative to get your Wordle fix. Hello Wordl can have the exact same gameplay as the OG Wordle, but with plenty of options to switch it up. Most notably, you can play multiple times a day. And if five-letter words are getting old? Use the sliding icon at the top of the game board to change the length of the word you’re guessing.
If I am Icarus, then Hello Wordl is my sun. I tried the nine-letter puzzle. My first guess was ‘theorizes.’ Other guesses included ‘trembling’ and ‘renegades’ before I looked myself in the mirror and discovered that I don’t have the word-guessing skills I thought I did. I gave up soon after that. (The answer was ‘indenture.’)
This game is the best option if you want to get yourself in the loop of ‘just one more game’ that Wordle itself cannot provide.
What if Wordle was just one letter that you had to guess correctly?
No strategy, just vibes.