Gaming becomes popular, games become clones, that’s how the cookie crumbles. Vampire Survivors, Buckshot Roulette, Lethal Company; as soon as these games exploded, derivative products were a guarantee. This is also true of Balatro, of course, a game that has produced so many clones that veer wildly between handling the game tactfully and just saying it’s good, actually. So how about a Balatro-like that forgoes the game and asks you to pull out a dictionary instead?
That game is Lexispell, a roguelike word game with a touch of physics added to the mix. The name is not very pleasant in the mouth, a bit ironic for a play on words, but the magic lies in the spelling. Lexispell positions you as a witch of sorts, one in which you fill your cauldron with letters like a Suika game. Each letter is worth a certain number of points, which vary depending on the rarity of the letter, although you can also get fancier ones that are worth more. They can also merge if several letters of the same type land next to each other.
When spelling a word, their value is counted and your multiplier increases for each letter in the word. When you complete a round, you can then purchase scrolls, which are similar to Balatro’s Jokers, each granting you a different bonus. One of them gives you five extra points for each letter that looks the same when flipped the other way. Another will add 15 points to your multiplier if you manage to spell a word that is an anadromous, which is a word that, when spelled backwards, is a completely different word.
Lexispell is also a much slower game than Balatro, not least because you’ll spend a lot of time looking for the longest word possible. It turns out that it’s not so simple to think of words on the fly based on a selection of random letters. Yes, I’ll say it: Lexispell is Wordle’s Dark Souls and no, it’s not a hill I’m going to die on because I value my time way too much for that. It’s neat, though, and you can watch it on Steam NOW.
