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.
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 mammals, my first guess just tee'd me up for a lucky guess. Yesterday I got OutKast's Ms Jackson after just one second of the opening bar's iconic reverse record spin. It felt less like figuring out a puzzle and more like getting a question right in a quiz. Today's (which I won't spoil) irritated me by starting with a record scratch and a single note, then three repeated guitar chords. I knew the damn song, but it wasn't until the third clue when the singer's distinctive voice came into play that I was able to figure it out.
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It was a very different frustration to Wordle's often unfair rejections. If I'm asked to name a five letter word that fits _R_TE and I type CRATE only to be told 'sorry mate, it's GRATE', it doesn't feel like there's much else I could have done. In Heardle, you're right or you're wrong. As someone whose narcissistic tendencies sees them derive great pleasure from being right about things, I appreciate a game where the answers are black and white.
I stopped playing Wordle the day it was sold to The New York Times. There was no moral objection, and I'm glad the creator who refused to monetise the game was able to get what he deserved, it was more like a relief. I was free of it. It did not help that, because I often go to sleep after midnight, what should have been an early morning pick-me-up had become a late-night blue screen brain-bender, but mostly I was tired of it. That's why Lewdle, Wordle but for swears, didn't hold much charm. It probably didn't help that on the one day I dabbled, the word was QUIMS, which is less of a supercool swear word and more of an atrociously weird way to say 'vaginas'. Absurdle, where the word changes as you guess, just felt like Wordle. The endless Wordles were just endless Wordles. The Pokemon Wordles were just Pokemon Wordles, I mean, what did I expect? The maths and geography ones were okay, but seemed hampered by their loyalty to the Wordle design, in a way Heardle is not.
Mostly it's nice to be back on the Wordle train without having to get back on the Wordle train. I might only have a brief dalliance with Heardle, and it might even be briefer than Wordle, but it's the first time I've seen (or rather, heard) a game build on Wordle's foundations without just stealing it.