What is Squirdle, the Pokémon Word Game?

Depending on who you ask, up to and including Gen 8, there are either 898 or 905 species of Pokémon. Either way, that’s a lot of ‘Mon to remember. And that doesn’t even include regional variants, like my BFF Alolan Riachu. Squirdle, a new Pokémon word game that takes inspiration from the infamous Wordle, does count these regional variations, however. It also counts legendary Pokémon, of which there are 60. Even as a huge Pokémon fan, it’s very hard. And it’s my favorite Wordle variation so far.

In Squirdle, you are spared trying to remember which Pokémon have five-letter names. Instead, Squirdle asks you to guess a Pokémon based on five categories: Gen, Type 1, Type 2, Height, and Weight. PokéBall icons will tell you if your guess is too high, too low, or just right. (If you guess Type 2 in the Type 1 spot, or vice versa, the PokéBall icon will show you a side arrow.) If remembering that much information for over 900 fictional friends seems impossible to ask of your brain, Squirdle will kindly give you the stats of whatever Pokémon you type into its interface. It even does you the favor of graying out types you’ve ruled out and highlighting types you’ve narrowed down.

Squirdle is customizable to a really refreshing degree. Formidable players can turn all Pokémon stat information off for an even bigger challenge. On the other hand, if you, like me have a Dark Spot in your Pokémon gaming history, you can limit the game to a specific span of gens, as long as they’re consecutive. Fewer Gens to pick from means that you get less guesses, which is only fair.

It’s not a daily puzzle, so you can play as many times as you like. Which has been a problem for me today. Even when I “cheat” and consult the internet to jog my brain about Pokémon that exist in the Gens I’m foggy on, Squirdle’s still pretty tricky. (I try to rule out Gen first, so my rule is that I’m only consulting for Gen and Type. Height and weight are left to my powers of informed guessing.) My base guess is Chandelure (Gen 5, Ghost/Fire type), which you are free to steal.

Gen 9 isn’t until the winter (probably). So I guess Squirdle is how I’ll be keeping my PokéBrain fresh in the interim. Well, that and Pokémon Go. And Pokémon Unite. And… okay, there’s a lot of Pokémon games. But still.

Image credit: The Pokémon Company