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Writer's pictureToni Oisin H.C. (QSO)

17 More Great Wordle Spin-Offs

The -dles don't stop coming and they don't stop coming and they don't sto--

It's been around six months-ish since Wordle first started, the web-based mobile game that swept the internet one five-letter word at a time. Since then there's been tons of spin-offs, with around seventy -dles of various varieties available for daily freeplay. We've already shared some of our favourites with you, like the Pokémon-themed Squirdle and the maths-oriented Nerdle, but we figured it was high time to dig into some new titles that we've been playing at QSO Media headquarters (isn't it remarkable how these games still work in zero gravity?). Starting with...


Queerdle

One that will definitely appeal to our audience: Queerdle. You have six guesses to decode the mystery word, with an LGBTQ+ twist. This is by far and away the longest Wordle I've come across, going up to a whopping eight letters. As well as it being super fun to sit and brainstorm queer language, the actual interface for Queerdle is really nice too, with a pastel colour palette and cute little icons. This -dle is well worth a play if you think your rainbow lexicon is shit hot. Queerdle is always always being added to and developed, with the option for gaymers (sorry) to suggest slang that seems to be missing.


Lewdle

Lewdle is roughly what it sounds like: Lewd Wordle. You'd best cast your mind back to words read off of the backs of public toilet doors if you want to have a fighting chance of succeeding with this one. Personally, I find that Lewdle keeps adding new words and phrases to my already excessively colourful vocabulary, making it a good game in my book (because I really needed to be taught more curse words, of course). As well as having a remarkable range of vulgarities, Lewdle also introduces two fun new gaming mechanics to the -dleverse: hints (charmingly named "Just the Tip") and "Ghost Guesses". The hints mechanic reveals the placement of a random single letter in the grid, while the latter allows the player to guess a valid shorter word to check letter placements. Also, look at which version it's on.


Sweardle

Continuing on a crude note, Sweardle is a four-letter Wordle specifically for curse words. Unlike Lewdle, this one takes on all swear words, including those of a non-sexual nature. As well as each word only containing four letters, you only get four chances to guess the answer. You might think that it's harder to cock up a Wordle with only four letters, but do try to keep in mind quite how many curses only have four letters. So few letters, so much meaning. There are around fifty different curses included in the game, of varying levels of severity, allowing for repeats to come around sometimes.


Quizle

Probably my new favourite -dle, Quizle consists of five daily trivia questions with a multiple choice answering format. Like a tiny pub quiz in your back pocket, the topics covered in each daily quiz can vary wildly from oceans to The Flintstones. Great news for those us who seem to have heads full of useless knowledge and not a lot else (although, how useless is it really if it helps you to perfect a Wordle?). Quizle is pretty different to a lot of the other Wordle-style games that I have played in so far as your score isn't based around managing to come to a singular, correct answer - it's based around how many questions you get right out of five. Far more chances to succeed. Or fail.


Flixle

If you're on QSO Media, it's probably fairly safe to assume that you like TV. If so, then Flixle is definitely the new Wordle for you. To win at Flixle you need to be able to successfully guess a TV show based on up to five shots from any given episode of the series. For each guess you make wrong (or skip), you unlock a new frame of the show to help you uncover your answer. It's not as tough as it sounds - or maybe I'm just a bit biased.


Actorle

Easily one of the tougher Wordles on this list so far (that or I just know jackshit about actors - it's possible), Actorle hinges on you being able to identify an actor based on some of their filmography. The catch is that you don't get the entire filmography revealed to you - or really revealed at all. At the start of the game, you're given a small selection of films the actor has appeared in with the names redacted. You need to try and extrapolate which film is which by looking at the film's genre, release date, and by counting the number of letters and words in the title. It's tricky, but surprisingly not impossible.


Moviedle

Continuing with the theme set out by Flixle and Actorle, Moviedle is where - you guessed it - you need to guess what a movie is in five turns or less. This Wordle mixes it up a bit by showing you an entire film, though. The film is condensed into a single second, played back at ultra-speeds. Each time you make a wrong guess, you can watch the film again, slowed ever so slightly (two seconds, four seconds, and so on). A particularly nice component of this game is that it has a playback function, meaning you can go back and play every single day of the Moviedle so far, should you want to. I'm slowly working my way through the archive and it slaps.


Posterdle

Made by the same team as Moviedle (they describe it as a sequel to it - "think Empire Strikes Back, not Jaws 4: The Revenge"), Posterdle needs you to know all about theatrical film posters. When the game starts, you're presented with a super pixelated version of a movie poster. As the timer ticks down, the image begins to become more clear. It's up to you to try and beat the clock and successfully guess the film the poster is advertising. If you guess wrong, the timer keeps going. If you keep guessing wrong, the poster is eventually completely revealed to you. Tricky stuff. Same as Moviedle, you can work your way through all previous Posterdles at your own leisure.


Box Office

We're starting to break the naming convention now, but I promise it's worth it. In Box Office you're presented with the top five grossing films in US from any given week in history, and it's up to us to guess what those films would be. We're also given some other key information, like who distributed the movie, how many weeks it's spent in the charts, it's total gross income, and so on. It's really hard, but at least you get about twenty guesses. Loads of room to fuck up and still win.


Framed

While on the note of breaking naming conventions and movies, Framed is another -dle(ish) where you need to guess the title of the movie. The core difference between Framed and Moviedle is that you don't get to watch the whole film. Instead, you get to see random shots from the movie, from any given scene. Sometimes you can get real lucky with this - seeing a key actor or prop can do wonders for figuring out the answer - but there's a whole lot of staring blankly at landscapes and highways, hoping for the best. You just need to pray that you don't get the Golden Gate Bridge in any of your shots. It's a great game, even if I completely suck at it.


Quofee

Quofee is another Wordle of the movie persuasion - film buffs, you're in luck - where you need to identify the film based on quotes alone. Sound tough? It is. Thankfully, you don't just get one quote that you guess about again and again and again; each time you make an incorrect guess or skip a turn, you have a new quote revealed to you. With a huge range of movies available to guess, from Se7en to The Aristocats to 10 Things I Hate About You, it can lead to some pretty funny mistakes. I guessed a quote from Ice Age was from Casino Royale.


Heardle

Movies and TV not so much your jam? You're in luck - there's loads of Wordle spinoffs about music. You might have come across Heardle already, as it's already a pretty popular spin-off. Similar to the classic gameshow Name That Tune of the '50s and '70s (depending on which side of the Atlantic you're on), the aim of the game is to try and identify a random song as quickly as possible based on it's opening bars. For each time you skip or make a wrong guess, you get an extra couple of seconds of music, up to a sixteen second cap. It's a super fun game - even when it gets wildly frustrating when you just know that you know a song, but you can't remember the name of it. Dammit.


Warbl

Feel like a challenge? Warbl is kind of similar to Heardle in so far as you need to recognise a track as quickly as possible, but this time the entire song is played in reverse. Very Black Lodge of them. Thankfully there are a few hints you can use when trying to extrapolate what track it is - for example, if you guess a song incorrectly, it'll tell you if you have the genre or era right. How kind of them. It's updated daily, as is with all of the other -dles in this list, and has a huge range of songs connected to its interface via Deezer.


Musicle

Musicle is a little different from other -dles in so far as it's essentially a directory or jukebox for several different track-recognition based Wordles all on one interface. Pretty swish. They're all sorted by genre, meaning you can tailor your Musicle experience to your exact interests and knowledge. Classical music whizz? Go to Classicle. Hip hop know-it-all? Go to Hiphople. It's that easy! Plus, if you consider yourself to be a musical renaissance person, you can try your hand at all of them and keep yourself entertained all lunchtime.


MusicVidle

Themed around music videos (in case you couldn't guess), MusicVidle operates like a mix between Framed and Heardle. You get five opportunities to guess which song the frames of a music video belongs to based on random stills. The game has a huge range of tracks to choose from, including some pretty recent releases. It's tough, but if your guess is close MusicVidle will kindly give you hints. For example, if you guess a song with at least one word in common to the answer, the track will appear in orange. It's pretty neat. You can also zoom in on the stills, allowing you to have all of the info before you make a guess.


VGM Heardle

Let's take a minute to have a look at some video game Wordles. VGM Heardle operates in the same way as Heardle, but every song is from a video game original soundtrack. The range of games you can guess from is huge, varying from beloved indies like Celeste and Undertale to classic retro gaming like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Personally, I absolutely suck at this one - I guess I haven't played as many games as I had previously thought - but it's really nice getting to hear such a wide range of beautiful scores and cues that I might have never heard otherwise.


Gamedle

Continuing on the gaming note, Gamedle works a little bit like Posterdle for gamers. You have six guesses to recognise an obscured cover design for a video game, using clues like the game's genre and platform. For each guess you make wrong, or each turn you skip, a little more of the cover will be revealed to you. I wonder if this will be more difficult with newer games, considering the increased prevalence of download-only access? I can't remember the last time I actually looked at the cover art for a game. Either way, this is a super fun, quick Wordle that's well worth your time.


 

Toni Oisin H.C. is the Head of Audio at QSO Media. Read more of his writing here.

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