If you’re craving more brain-teasing action after your daily dose of NYT Connections, you’ve come to the right place. These games will keep your neurons firing long after you’ve conquered your daily Connections puzzle. Whether you’re into deceptive categorization, time-pressured sorting, daily brain-teasers, letter-linking labyrinths, or historical fact-arranging, there’s something here to satisfy your lexical cravings.
Here are 5 similar word games that’ll challenge your vocabulary skills and take your puzzle addiction to a whole new level.
Red Herring: The Deceptive Doppelganger
If NYT Connections had a mischievous twin, it would be Red Herring. This game takes the concept of sorting words into categories and adds a devious twist – it includes red herrings that are there to throw you off your game. With multiple difficulty levels and daily puzzles, Red Herring will keep you guessing and then some. What’s more is, this word game seems to have been around for way longer than its NYT counterpart – Blue Ox, the studio that owns Red Herring, cites its release date as May 16, 2014, while NYT Connections was only released last year. Red Herrings is available for download on all iOS platforms.
PuzzGrid: The Time-Crunching Categorizer
If you think you’re a Connections pro, PuzzGrid is here to challenge that notion. This game gives you just three minutes to sort words into categories, and after solving the first two sets, you only get three guesses for the last two. Talk about pressure! With thousands of user and platform-generated puzzles to choose from, PuzzGrid is a word game you don’t want to miss. PuzzGrid has both a pro and a free version, which you can access on their website.
For those of you longing for a more UK-centric word challenge, Wordlinkle may just be your cup of tea! This connecting wall-style game features British terms and spellings, offering a fresh take on the word-grouping concept. With daily puzzles ranging from Easy to Extreme, and the option to ask for clues when you’re stuck, Wordlinkle is perfect for both casual players and dedicated word wizards across the pond. You can access the daily puzzle on their website.
Squaredle: The Letter-Linking Labyrinth
If you’re a Wordle fan, and you like connecting words (well duh, that’s why you’re here) Squaredle is just the thing for you. A twist on your classic word search puzzle, this addictive game presents you with a block of letters and challenges you to find words by connecting them vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Squaredle doesn’t let you get too comfortable – only words with more than four letters count for points. You can access daily Squaredle challenges on their website.
Wikitrivia: The Time-Traveling Trivia Challenge
If you love the thrill of connections but want to branch out beyond words, Wikitrivia is the place to go. This game tasks you with placing random Wikipedia facts on a timeline, testing your knowledge of everything from art history to pop culture. It’s like playing Connections with the entire span of human history – talk about a brain workout! While Wikitrivia does have a website of its own, the game can also be played on Android and iOS devices.
Bonus game: Pimantle
If diving deep (like really, really deep) into word associations is your thing, Pimantle could be your next linguistic obsession. This game challenges you to guess the word of the day by entering related terms, with the game providing feedback on how semantically close you are. It’s like playing hot and cold with a thesaurus, forcing you to think about the meaning of words in entirely new ways. But you’ve got to be prepared to fall down a rabbit hole of synonyms, antonyms, and everything in between!
Sources: Digital Trends, Mashable, Crazy Games