Are you among the millions of game fans who have fallen in love with all of the browser-based games that have sprung up since the advent of Wordle? If so, you’ve probably had the same thought I did: Where’s my Zelda-themed Wordle game? Well, it seems we still need to wait on that one, but at least we can play a Zelda version of Heardle, a very popular Wordle-inspired game.
Now, is your first thought right now, “What the heck is Heardle?” Don’t worry, I have you covered. Heardle takes Wordle’s premise and reimagines it as a sound-based game. Instead of trying to guess five-letter words, you must deduce what the song is by listening to small pieces of a track. To bring Zelda Heardle to life, you do what comes naturally: You take Heardle and slap a bunch of Zelda songs into it.
Each day, Zelda Heardle generates a new puzzle for you to solve. This means you have a perfect reason to return to the game each and every day.
The Step-by-step Rules
Still not sure how the game works? That’s what this breakdown is for. Solving a puzzle in Heardle or Zelda Heardle is very similar to solving a Wordle puzzle. If you play that game, you’ll be able to figure out any version of Heardle quickly.
Start the game by pressing the play button at the bottom of the screen. This prompts the game to play one second of the mystery song.
Once the song plays, you can type the title of a Zelda song into the search bar underneath the play button. If you only have a general idea of what game the song came from, you can type that in. The game will show you some autofill options.
Enter a song title and press the “Submit” button. Or, if you can’t think of a title or find an autofill suggestion that seems to fit, you can press the “Skip” button to pass to your next turn.
If your guess was incorrect or you chose to skip, the game will add more time to the song on your next attempt. This gives you a greater chance of figuring out what the song is.
Enter the correct song title before using all six of your attempts to win the day’s puzzle.
After you complete the puzzle, you can listen to the entire song. You can also copy and share your results on Twitter or any other social media site. Here’s an example:
Of course, the best thing about Zelda Heardle is all of the songs it uses are from everyone’s favorite Zelda games. This game pulls from every title in the series, and I do mean “every.” The following are just some of the Zelda games I’ve heard Zelda Heardle pulls songs from to test everyone’s musical knowledge:
And although I can’t remember its name, Zelda Heardle even stumped me with a song from one of the spinoff DS games that star Tingle. The songs truly do come from every part of the Zelda series.
Some Important Shortcomings To Consider
Zelda Heardle is a lot of fun, but that doesn’t mean I have been without my fair share of gripes while playing it. Two of them are worth sharing here.
The most noticeable problem I had with the game is also, ironically, what draws most of my praise: the music library. Having songs from all sorts of Zelda games is fun, but pulling from the truly obscure stuff, such as those aforementioned oddball Tingle games, creates some insane difficulty spikes. As popular as the Zelda games are, the series is not without its share of obscure titles. And obscure titles mean songs you might not remember or have ever heard before.
Another big issue is that Zelda Heardle always starts a song from the very beginning. Many songs from Zelda soundtracks start with a few seconds of silence before leading into the actual melody. As you can imagine, this makes it hard to figure out what the song is before you use all of your turns.
Zelda Heardle’s The Perfect Daily Game For Zelda Fans
If you’re a fan of easy-to-play daily puzzle games like Wordle, you’re a bit of a music buff, and you have an appropriate love for the Zelda series, I’m betting you’ll have a lot of fun with Zelda Heardle. It’s not perfect, but it’s also free, so I’m not sure how anyone could say the game isn’t worth playing day after day. The game lets you listen to Zelda music and flex your knowledge of said music. What more needs to be said about it?
SCORE: 7.5/10
Zac Pricener
Zac Pricener has been an avid Zelda fan for twenty years. The series has been a source of creative inspiration for him and fueled his desire to become a writer. That desire to write in turn led him to now serve as the Features Manager, Assistant Columns Manager, and Assistant News Manger for Zelda Universe.
by Zac Pricener on May 13, 2022
