What is Otakle? The free Wordle alternative for anime and gaming characters, explained

Image via Crunchyroll

There’s a whole new way to show off your anime erudition. Otakle, a portmanteau of “otaku” and “Wordle,” is the latest browser-based game to take on the word-guessing craze. 

Developed by Spanish web developer Kolog, also known as the ex-Nintendo YouTuber TodoNintendoS, the game features all the trappings of Wordle, but with answers all pulled from the casts of popular anime and video games. As such, knowing the basics of the Japanese alphabet and familiarity with Japanese names will give you some extra support in working your way around the otherwise familiar puzzles.

Otakle refreshes daily with a new name from an anime or game, but unlike Wordle, it also offers an archive for players to work back through the prior puzzles thanks to a recent update (archived guesses won’t be added to your score). There are currently over 80 “Otakle’s” to play through. Like its inspiration, Otakle even tracks streaks and you can also share your results with green, gray, and yellow emojis to show off your word-game skills, with a little help from all those years spent watching anime. 

Other Wordle-inspired guessing games have iterated even further, such as Moviedle, which turns watching a film into its own guessing game. There are many others who are still trying to capitalize on the craze. 

You can play Otakle on any internet browser at the game’s webpage

About the author

Avatar

Autumn Wright

Autumn Wright is an anime journalist, which is a real job. As a writer at We Got This Covered, they cover the biggest new seasonal releases, interview voice actors, and investigate labor practices in the global industry. Autumn can be found biking to queer punk through Brooklyn, and you can read more of their words in Polygon, WIRED, The Washington Post, and elsewhere.