Wordatro! (PC) Preview

It’s no small secret that Balatro took the world by storm in 2024, erasing tons of productivity and captivating gamers worldwide. I’ve seen a few imitators here and there on gaming storefronts, but none that are anywhere near the level of quality of the original. Then, when scrolling the Steam Next Fest, I came across Wordatro!, a game wearing its inspiration on its sleeves but smart enough to lean into it enough so that it doesn’t matter. With Scrabble as the base and the mechanics of Balatro, this title’s demo offers up to seven levels of replayable rounds, so let’s see how it pans out!

A solo dev effort from Le Poulet early on in their game development career, Wordatro! doesn’t necessarily have the sharp UI that Balatro does, but that isn’t a negative. Navigating the game’s menus and plugging away at words is clean and a cinch. Much like the former, you’ll be stringing words together, with certain (more obtuse) letters granting a larger individual tile score and longer words increasing the multiplier with each letter. It’s great to think outside the box and in a verbose manner to reach the ever-increasing target score with huge combos from strong word choices.

You’re not going to get any hints or be able to cheat within Wordatro!, as it’s all up to your vocabulary skills to pull out longer, more vexing words to keep a run alive. Thankfully, each new round grants a choice of bonuses, such as boosting a letter score if you choose to reroll only one, or a multiplier buff after each turn to save last-ditch efforts. It’s quite simple in stature, but sometimes easy does it, and Wordatro! is an easy recommendation for those addicted to its source material or those who are missing Words with Friends or any of those tried-and-true word games.