Wordle with friends – why I think the Wordle board game will be a massive hit

I'm a sucker for Wordle. It's that little daily habit that I've gotten into. Even on days when I don't have the time or forget, it'll be a pre-bedtime sprint to get it solved. It's strangely satisfying, even when the word is really tough.

So the announcement that toy-maker Hasbro is bringing Wordle into the real world brought a little ray of sunshine into my life. "Wordle with friends", I thought (and sorry NYT if you're already working on such a project), giving a different angle to the otherwise previously online only and (sort of) solo game. 

I say "sort of" because so many people I know already challenge one another to maintain the longest success streak, or to succeed the day's Wordle in fewer moves than their friends and colleagues. It's just that the online game hasn't leveraged that any further just yet.

So to bring Wordle 'into the real world', if you will, makes total sense. I'm not entirely sure why it's even taken this long, really, nor why there's no mention of it being a licence outside of the USA (cue me making a sad face if I can't buy it by this December in the UK).

So how will Wordle: The Party Game (as it's to be known) work? Well, the principle is the same: there's a five-letter word and you have up to six tries to crack what that word is; when you guess a letter correctly it'll become yellow, where you place a correct letter within the word it'll become green.

Only, in The Party Game, this will be done manually: a Wordle 'master' will set the word for participating players to guess; then will manually place those yellow and green transparent tiles over their friends' letters as applicable. Once the round is solved, it moves around so each player takes turns in setting the word.

That, to me, sounds like the recipe for total success. Not as a daily habit, mind, rather a board game that you crack out at Christmas or over various holiday periods. I'm sure you've got plenty of other similar rarely-used games on the shelf somewhere too. Well, here's another to add to the pile – and irrelevant of how often it's used I'm sure it'll be a massive hit.