My mother and I used to play Jotto on paper on the train.
Jotto is almost the same as Wordle but harder. You just get told the number of matching letters. So if my word is STARS and you guess SALTY, I’d just say “3”, and you wouldn’t know which letters were right, and if any were in the right place. It’s like Mastermind, only a little harder as in Mastermind at least you are told how many are in the right place, though not which ones.
Wordle tells you both which letters are right, and which letters are in the right place.
So Jotto took many more rounds as it took longer to deduce from the information given.
(I guess the statement “Jotto is almost the same as Wordle but harder,” is ambiguous, because Wordle needs to be solved in 6 turns, which is its own extra challenge. That said, I’m at 17 for 17 at Wordle right now, most solved on turn 3, so I think it’s justified to say it’s easier.)
