Last updated on January 4th, 2026 at 01:37 pm
Wordlike – Word Roguelike – Word Game Review
Wordlike – Word Roguelike is a Word/Strategy/Entertainment game from ROADTRIP GAMES, LLC, first launched in 20th December 2024.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 42+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Wordlike – Word Roguelike Stand Out
Wordlike is a word-based, roguelike deckbuilder! Make words, tune your bag of letters, and collect powerful items.
It combines the strategy and replayability of roguelike deckbuilders and the challenge and nostalgia of classic word games. If you've played Balatro, it's like Balatro with words.
Wordlike is made up of four boards, each with several levels—your goal is to beat these levels by making words. As the level target scores climb, you'll need to pick up Knick Knacks that boost your score and direct your strategy.
You'll also encounter unique, game-changing events that bolster your run, forcing you to evaluate tradeoffs, swap items, and more.
Highlights
• Endlessly Replayable: Every board is procedurally generated, so you'll constantly encounter new items, events, and bosses!
• Unique Knick Knacks: Pick up Knick Knacks at the shop between levels. Create word-based synergies based on parts of speech, letters, and more.
• Powerful Tile Enhancements: Strengthen your bag of letters with fun effects that boost their Base Points and Multipliers
• Challenging bosses: Face a variety of bosses that force you to make words without certain letters, of a certain length, or ones you've never made before.
• Unfiltered dictionary: Make words you can't say at grandma's house. Slang and abbreviations are fair game!
• Offline Play: Play the entire game on the go, no internet connection necessary.
This Word game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Wordlike – Word Roguelike is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 28th April 2025
Recent improvements include:
Wordlike 1.8 introduces two new Knick Knacks and some bug fixes!
New Knick Knacks
- Metronome: Gains +3 mult per consecutive word of different length. Keep switching up word lengths!
- Grappling Hook: Gains x1 mult when the word is longer than the previous word.
Bug fixes
- Dumbbell accumulated mult still applies when you play a word with blanks
- Anchor mult doesn't increment twice
- Joker copies accumulated mult on Houseplant
- Game Center access point appears on Main Menu after a win
Download & Availability
Wordlike – Word Roguelike is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Wordlike – Word Roguelike on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
We wanted to like this because we like word games and we like Balatro. Unfortunately they left out things that make Balatro more fun and added too much stuff that distract from the game. We dont even need it to be so much like Balatro which would be fine, but this is like a not great attempt of making a scrabble plus Balatro game.
Im so glad we found this game! Its now one of our favorite word games ever. It captures the right balance of thinky and playful. Super engaging to play. We just won our first game, barely, and it was a super satisfying feeling. We appreciate the fair premium price with no IAP and no ads. Im so glad its in portrait mode too. And, when you quit the app at any time for any reason, your progress is saved automatically. When you reopen the app, you just hit play and then you can continue your run. So its perfect for busy people like us who can only play in small spurts. Its so fun you want to keep playing longer. Love it. We like the visual design, we like the whole theme. If you change the game, developer, please dont stray from what youve done so far, its fantastic as is. And please keep it premium, with no ads ever. It could use a little bit of battery optimization, maybe, but its not bad, especially considering the animations. We wish the file size were a tad smaller, too, but again, its ok as is. Anyway, thank you developer! We highly recommend this game! Its really fun.
Very intuitive and fun! Pretty similar to balatro in terms of the structure of runs, but does its own thing with the whole letter-tile system. 100% recommend it.
The game is extremely fun and in the discord server they do show plans of an endless mode!!! You should definitely play this game.
The strategies behind the scoring and bonuses make this game a super refreshing take on a traditional build-a-word game. Definitely one that gets better the more you play. 100% worth it; its a great addition to our word game to station.
Am we missing something or are there no saved stats? High Score, Best Word ect.
Even in its early stages of design, this game plays and feels exceptional. Every element feels well balanced and the UI is perfect. It really has the same strengths as Balatro since it follows the game loop so closely, but brings a fantastic mechanic to make a unique identity. We think more modifiers and further customization would propel this game into the same conversation as its influences.
We are obsessed with this game!!!! Its like a word game combined with a strategy game and its the perfect level of challenging but doable. Also it doesnt have annoying ads like other word games which makes the experience so much nicer.
Plays a lot like a blend of Balatro and Scrabble. If that sounds appealing, then the game is definitely for you. The developer is actively engaged with the players and improving the game.
We dont normally write reviews but we were really impressed by this. Definitely has a lot of elements of Balatro, so if youve played that youll pick it up quickly. The word-based items (like giving you mult for nouns or certain letters) do a lot to make it feel unique though. Have only played it for a couple days but have already found several really fun builds. We also shared it our mom who loves word games. It was definitely a steeper learning curve for her (mostly to get the hang of the scoring) but now shes addicted too lol Excited for more content.
Im loving this word game its so fun and challenging to play.
Great alternative to NYT word games if youre bored of those. Been playing this and reading Jade City by Fonda Lee to pass our time on the weekends.
Played on desktop and so glad its finally on mobile! The knickknacks really give this game a lot more replayability than most word games.
We love word games but get bored of ones that dont involve enough strategy or challenges in them. This combines the simple fun of making words with the strategy of figuring out how to multiply your points. Fun art for the Knick knacks too. Well worth it, stands out from a lot of the other attempts at this idea.
Im always on the hunt for a game to play on the train, this one scratches that itch and more. We love word games and wordlike is that and so much more. Love the cute and creative power ups that keep the game feeling new.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.8
- Size: 279.64 MB
- iOS: 13.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor
- Developer: [ROADTRIP GAMES, LLC]()
Last updated: 28th April 2025 | Genre: Word, Strategy | Developer: ROADTRIP GAMES, LLC