Heardle Is The First Wordle Clone Worth Paying Attention To

thegamer.com:

Kudos to anyone still playing Wordle. I got in on the trend in mid-December as something of an early adopter, until a tough word on New Year's Day bested me while I was hungover. I kept it up for a while after then, but it soon became clear I was playing out of obligation more than anything else. That Wordle was limited to one a day, and that we could all share in the same puzzle, made for a more collective experience than other puzzle games usually accommodate. However, it also made it feel more like a chore. Like brushing your teeth in the morning, Wordle was a task you needed to do to get on with your day. As a result of souring on Wordle, the many spin-offs have never appealed to me, until now. Until Heardle.

Heardle is completely different to the other Wordle spin-offs, in that it's not Wordle at all. The name is clearly trying to cash-in on the popularity, but aside from that the similarities are structural rather than gameplay-based. For example, you again get six guesses, and again can only play one per day, but instead of using words, you listen to music.

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In Heardle, you initially get one second of a song, then get a chance to guess. If you guess wrong or elect to skip, you get another second. As you go on, the amount of the song you get increases, making it easier the further in you get. It appeals because it's essentially a completely different game, using a different part of your brain, and involves application of an entirely different bed of knowledge. With Wordle, the satisfaction is in figuring the puzzle out, not in actual knowledge. I got TIGER in two guesses, but it's not like I'm a genius who specialises in quadrupedal