Globle

“It’s like Wordle, right, but with…” is pretty much the pitch for everything here. But Globle likely takes it to the extremes. “It’s like Wordle, right, but with the entire planet.”

Thankfully you’re not guessing words from all of Earth’s 7,151 languages, but rather the slightly more simple feat of guessing the name of one of Earth’s 195 countries. Since highlighting bits of the guess wouldn’t help here, Globle instead opts for a hot/cold system, with your guesses marked in increasingly deep shades of red depending upon how geographically close it is to that day’s destination.

It also gives you as many guesses as you need, meaning you could—and now I desperately want to—deliberately attempt 194 incorrect guesses before seeing the correct nation turn green.

There are some flaws with Globle which are yet to be addressed, despite the game’s enormous popularity. Large countries really flummox its heat-map approach, with Russia especially causing problems. (Please, no.) And, well, there’s a fair amount of luck involved in picking the right part of the planet to start in.

Alternatively, there’s Worldle, a game you have to really convince Google to let you search for. This appeared before Globle, and requires that you recognise a country by its outline shape.

This time the hint system is used to show you how close you are to the correct location, telling you how many kilometers away you are, and in which direction to head.

Frankly, kudos to anyone capable of this feat, because unless it’s Italy or Great Britain, I’m pretty stuffed.