In the daily word game space, there's Wordle and then there's everyone else competing for second place (including other NYT games like Connections).
A new game wants to get a piece of the Wordle action, and it's from The New Yorker. The game, called Shuffalo, sees you trying to make progressively longer words each round until you reach the maximum. It's challenging and fun, but it has a tall task ahead if it intends to dethrone Wordle as the daily word king.
What is Shuffalo?
If you're looking to expand your daily roundup of games, you might want to give Shuffalo a go. It doesn't cost anything to try it, so it falls squarely in the "why not" category.
As far as playing the game goes, it's simple enough, though a little more complicated than simply guessing random five-letter words like Wordle.
You start with a wheel with four letters on it. From there, you find a four-letter word. Once you succeed, either by getting it right or using hints, you then receive one more letter and must find a five-letter word. This continues through eight-letter words (and a bonus word of nine letters).
Once completed, you receive a score page with a rating (I'm a baby Shuffalo), completion time (8:38 for me), and the number of hints used (11 in my first attempt). It also features a "Share your results" button, a crucial component of Wordle's success.
Like Wordle, clicking the share button copies a string with the game's name, your time, and the results (yellow indicates a successful guess, and gray indicates a hint used). Here's what the results look like:
Shuffalo, 8m 38s
🟡🟡🟡🟡
🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡
🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡
🔘🟡🔘🔘🔘🟡🟡
🔘🔘🔘🔘🔘🔘🔘🟡
🔘🔘🔘🔘🤩🔘🤩🤩🤩
There's no telling if this will catch on anywhere near the level of Worldle, but it has all of the right pieces in place. It doesn't take long to get in and play the game, and it's shareable. From there, it just comes down to whether players latch onto it.
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