Cursed Words: The Word Game That Isn't

While I describe this as "Scrabble Balatro" to friends, I think its a lot more complicated than that and its relationship with the player takes a different vibe than Balatro. It's not as quick as Balatro, but it it also rewards thoughtful play in the moment a lot more strongly than just OP combos. That said, OP combos can also cruise you to victory which is fun too. I honestly suggest it if you like these kind of games but want to put some more brain into it. Always come back for a few runs every week myself too, so it'll be there for you a long time from now too!

Boggle, with house rules designed by Peggy Hill if she was also a Balatro fan. And a poker grandmaster. And a chess grandmaster. And maybe a scrabble-dabbler. Overall I'd say it's got a lower skill-barrier to entry than Balatro, but can still give some of the same degrees of satisfaction. At first impressions (16 hrs), some of the items seem a little underpowered via being too niche-use, but maybe they're just meant to be used exclusively for their early-run benefits. There does seem to be a lot of depth that way, with some items being good early on and easily ditched in late-game. Or the opposite, having to invest early game and hold onto them until they're worth it late game. I do think a "draft" or "ghost" mode would be handy, where you could chart out potential words to see if they're valid, before submitting them. Some builds with some characters means you're left guessing a lot of the time. Maybe that's the "word game that isn't" coming in, but I think a programmer with access to the game dictionary and a strong grasp of regex could excel far more than the casual player in that situation... That's a bit sad, but also gives a niche element of fun for the nerdy ones among us.

If you're a fan of Balatro and Scrabble then you will love this game. Also if you're like me and have the vocabulary of a 4th grader, the game has modifiers which let you do crazy things like spell (this has been my best word so far i kid you not) "1, 2/5, *pawn chess piece*, *knight chess piece*, *queen chess piece*, ?, Z, J" and this counted as "QUEENISH." 10/10 better than the 10 am cup of Folgers

Hugely underrated roguelite! The first thing that stuck out to me when booting up for the first time was the very slick design and visuals, it's very polished and looks and feels great. What's kept me coming back is the discovery of deeper and deeper gameplay, with a CRAZY amount of unlocks that are dripfed and at a good pace to keep me interested. Nothing can replicate the GOAT but this is by far the best 'Balatro-lite' I've found, while looking heavily.

Super addictive roguelike. I'm weak when it comes to these

Great amount of content

This game is like Balatro but way more fun because it gives the player more agency in finding the highest scoring combination. What I mean is that when in Balatro you've put points in making flushes more valuable you only look at your cards and either go "I have a flush" or "I don't have a flush" and that's just not that satisfying. It doesn't make you feel all that smart. Cursed words on the other hand always makes you look at the grid and figure out for yourself how to make the most of what you have. You might have put points in colored tiles for example and the game puts those in the grid for you but the difference is that the game doesn't really tell you how you should use them in your word. Experimenting with tiles on the grid to find out what works and what doesn't is a much more satisfying game play loop than looking for poker hands that you can't really interact with. Even when the grid becomes a garbled mess of numbers and symbols and you don't even know what the resulting "word" is going to be, you still get that satisfying feeling of "I did that. I'm awesome" when you score loads of points. In the end Balatro and Cursed words are very similar "watch the number go up" kind of games, but in my opinion Cursed words is much more elegant than Balatro. A game that makes you think should always beat a game that makes you look something you've seen million times.

It very much is The Word Game That Isn't! At first you think it's like Boggle, or Scrabble. Then things get weird. Plenty of fun clues and things to discover while unlocking characters, stickers, stamps, and more!