Game review

Hexle

7.8 / 10

Developer
James Livesey
Publisher
James Livesey
Released
1 January 2024
Platforms
web
Genre
puzzle
Monetisation
free
Players
false

The short version

A clever hexadecimal spin on the Wordle formula with an extra logic hint each round, whose full on-screen hex keypad was confirmed to type and submit guesses correctly by touch after a hidden third-party hit-counter tracker was found and removed.

Biggest strengths

  • A genuinely distinct twist on the Wordle formula - guessing a 16-bit hex number instead of a word, with an additional daily logic hint (e.g. "highest digit minus lowest digit = D") layered on top of the usual green/yellow/grey feedback
  • Full on-screen hex keypad (0-9, A-F, DEL, ENTER) confirmed working correctly by touch: individual digits were typed in sequence, an invalid guess was correctly rejected against the day's hint with immediate visible feedback, and a hint-satisfying guess was correctly submitted with the row and keypad both updating to reflect it
  • Identical behaviour confirmed with a real keyboard on desktop

Biggest weaknesses

  • A hidden third-party hit-counter (hits.seeyoufarm.com) was found loading on every visit and was removed for this review - it wasn't caught by a standard analytics-script scan since it's an innocuous-looking visitor-count badge image rather than a recognisable tracking snippet, which is exactly why it's worth flagging
  • Requires comfort with hexadecimal to fully enjoy the extra logic hints, which narrows the audience somewhat compared to a plain word game
  • Minimal sound, and visual feedback is functional rather than flashy

Who it's for: Fans of Wordle-style daily puzzles who enjoy a bit of extra numeric logic, or anyone comfortable with hexadecimal.

Our recommendation: play

7.8 / 10

Opening

Hexle takes the now-familiar Wordle formula and asks you to guess a hidden 16-bit number in hexadecimal instead of a five-letter word, with the same green/yellow/grey feedback per digit — plus an extra daily logic hint (something like "highest digit minus lowest digit = D") that adds a genuine layer of numeric reasoning on top of the usual elimination process. It's a clever, distinct enough spin to stand on its own rather than feeling like a reskin.

A hidden tracker, found and removed

Before anything else, a genuine issue turned up during testing: every page load fired a request to a third-party hit-counter service (hits.seeyoufarm.com) that logs a visit against a specific URL. It's easy to miss because it doesn't look like a typical analytics snippet — it's just an innocuous "players today / ever" badge image in the page footer — but it's still a third party being pinged with every visitor's load, which isn't something this shelf ships. It was found and removed for this review, along with an accompanying GitHub star-count badge that served no purpose once separated from the original repository page.

Controls, confirmed digit by digit

With that resolved, the core interaction — a full on-screen hexadecimal keypad — was tested directly. Individual digits were tapped in sequence on a simulated phone and correctly appeared in the guess row in order; submitting a guess that didn't satisfy the day's logic hint correctly produced an immediate "Doesn't satisfy hint" rejection; and a second guess constructed specifically to satisfy that hint was correctly accepted, with both the guess row and the on-screen keypad updating their colours to reflect the result. The identical sequence — type, get rejected, type again, get accepted — was confirmed with a real keyboard on desktop.

Final Verdict

A smart, well-differentiated take on the Wordle format with touch controls that were tested and genuinely work, once a hidden third-party tracker was caught and stripped out. Recommended for anyone who enjoys the format and doesn't mind a bit of hex arithmetic.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • A genuinely distinct twist on the Wordle formula - guessing a 16-bit hex number instead of a word, with an additional daily logic hint (e.g. "highest digit minus lowest digit = D") layered on top of the usual green/yellow/grey feedback
  • Full on-screen hex keypad (0-9, A-F, DEL, ENTER) confirmed working correctly by touch: individual digits were typed in sequence, an invalid guess was correctly rejected against the day's hint with immediate visible feedback, and a hint-satisfying guess was correctly submitted with the row and keypad both updating to reflect it
  • Identical behaviour confirmed with a real keyboard on desktop
  • Clean, legible presentation consistent with the format's roots

Cons

  • A hidden third-party hit-counter (hits.seeyoufarm.com) was found loading on every visit and was removed for this review - it wasn't caught by a standard analytics-script scan since it's an innocuous-looking visitor-count badge image rather than a recognisable tracking snippet, which is exactly why it's worth flagging
  • Requires comfort with hexadecimal to fully enjoy the extra logic hints, which narrows the audience somewhat compared to a plain word game
  • Minimal sound, and visual feedback is functional rather than flashy

Category scores

Category scores are the reviewer's read on each area. They inform the overall score but do not average into it — the number at the top of the page is a judgement, not a calculation.

  • Gameplay 7.5 / 10
  • Visuals 7 / 10
  • Sound 5 / 10
  • Originality 7.5 / 10
  • Replayability 8 / 10
  • Controls 8.5 / 10