Word games have existed for centuries, from the basic hangman to the exciting Scrabble. Now, there’s a word game for the modern age, the game of Wordle. If you have been on Twitter recently, you have probably seen Wordle as a top 10 trend, or you’ve seen people tweeting random green and yellow boxes. These are demonstrations of how Wordle is taking the world by storm. Everyday at midnight, a new Wordle puzzle is made available. Your job is to guess a five letter world in six tries or less. If letters in the word you guess turn green, they are exactly where they are supposed to be. If letters turn yellow, they are in the word, but you guessed them in the wrong spot. If the letter turns gray, the letter is not in the word. If you guess the word right for days in a row, you get a streak. Not to brag, but I am currently on a 23 day streak. My strategy is that my first three words are always “steak,” “pound” and “girly.” Works like a charm.

Unfortunately, there is only one Wordle a day. That means once you are done, you have to wait for a new day. Fortunately, I have found other fun variants of Wordle that I have found. One of the first ones I found was Lewdle. This functions the same as Wordle, but you can only guess dirty words. I’d say my strategy for that but I don’t know if that’s appropriate and it’s honestly a less reliable strategy. Lewdle is weird in that some days it does five letter words and some days it does six letter words. And if you don’t know what the word means, Lewdle will define the word for you after the game and link you to Urban Dictionary. It is definitely harder than Wordle, but it is still a lot of fun.

Then there is Quordle. Quordle require a lot more thinking. Again, it functions just like Wordle, but times four. You have to guess four five letter words at once. Luckily, you get nine tries for this one because six tries would be impossible. I use the same strategy for this one that I use with Wordle, and it honestly is not as hard as you might think. The fun of this game is that it is not over once you guess the daily puzzle. There is a practice section on Quordle where there are unlimited puzzles that you can keep playing, which I find a great way to kill boredom. There is also Octordle which ramps up the stakes even more. You have to guess eight words at once with thirteen guesses. This one also does daily puzzles and practice. I do not play it as much because it feels more intense, but it certainly is a game for a thinker.

Stepping away from words, there is Nerdle. Nerdle is a game for people who like to work with numbers. In Nerdle, you have to guess a math equation that takes up eight spaces in six guesses. It is never anything too complicated, just addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, although it could be multiple at once. Same rules as the word games, except instead of yellow, purple is the right number in the wrong spot. I’m more of a wordy person, so Nerdle requires more thinking for me as I have to remember what some equations equal. Nerdle also has mini games on their homepage. There is Mini Nerdle for a six block equation. There is Instant Nerdle where the required numbers are there and you have to put them in the right order. Then there is Speed Nerdle where you are timed, so you have more pressure. Now the math fans can have their puzzle game fun too.

Last but not least, there is Heardle. Music lovers, this one is for you. In Heardle, you are playing the beginning of a song and you have to guess that song. It starts with the first second, then the first two seconds, then the first four seconds, then the first seven seconds, then the first eleven seconds and your last chance is the first sixteen seconds. In this game, you are allowed to skip your guess if you really don’t know it, but that just means you have less chances. The game will also auto suggest songs when you start typing, which can be helpful if you know the artist and not the song or you only know part of the title. It has songs for everyone, from modern day Lil Nas X to old school Fleetwood Mac. Once the word is guessed or you are out of guesses, the game will automatically play the song from SoundCloud. So you get to play a fun game and possibly find a new song for your playlist.

These are not the only variants of Wordle, just the ones that I have played. There is also Worldle for guessing countries and Squirdle for guessing Pokemon. And I’m sure there are other variants that I do not even know about. People are seeing how popular Wordle is getting and they want to work off of that popularity. It has never been a better time to be a puzzle game fan. I like these games because they are fun distractions that work out my brain. I might learn something new or I may improve my strategizing skills. All of these are fun games to play when you need a break. And if you are swamped with homework or studying, these games usually do not take more than five minutes so they are nice relaxers. I highly recommend checking out one of these games or all of them, they are all free on a web browser. I don’t know if I have a favorite out of the games that I have just mentioned as they all have their positives and negatives, but I like how they all are a lot of fun and they all require me to think.