Niagara Falls

Review of Niagara Falls Slot by Yggdrasil

Niagara Falls slot is a game that’s coming at Yggdrasil casinos, and it’s a collaboration that they have with a smaller studio, called Northern Lights. It seems to be similar in concept with the Microgaming recipe lately, where a bigger developer gets exclusive content for their platform by collaborating with lots of smaller companies. The first game to come at Yggdrasil casinos this way, Niagara Falls mixes a classic theme with charming retro graphics and a bit of the waterfall influence that you’d expect is there as well. The game they designed here offers 5×3 reels, with 20 paylines present.

It might be a simple theme that you’re getting, but the features look interesting enough to belong in any modern title:

• Wild symbols
• Scatter symbols
• Coin Drop Bonus with 5 types of bonuses
• Free Spins with sticky wild reels
• Random Cash Fall bonus

Theme & Graphics

The theme of Niagara Falls doesn’t actually have a lot to do with the famous waterfall, and instead, it appears to be inspired by classic fruit slots. The waterfalls come into the picture mostly through the surrounding graphics. On the plus side, I think you will enjoy the retro-style of the graphics here. It’s not something I get to say a lot about fruit-themed slots, so this one is really special.

In a game which relies on classics to inspire it, the symbols give us images of a Wild logo, Niagara Falls, Red 7, Blue 7, Bar logo, Bell, Plums, Orange and Cherries.

Special Features

I enjoyed the various special features present in Niagara Falls slot. They might not be unique to this game, but at least they’re not the basic versions that you’re used to either.

Wild Symbols

One of the two symbols that you can use to get the 10x top payouts, the wild will act as a replacement and will be of some help even when appearing only once. Ideally, you’d get it up to five times on the same line, to get a bigger win that way. Long term, the presence of the wild in the game can only give your winnings a boost.

Coin Drop Bonus

Getting this feature requires that you land a Gold Coin symbol. It can only appear on reel 5, and you need only one to get into the feature. The coin drops from its position, into a slot shown at the bottom, with five different ones possible. As it drops, a trail is left behind it. If the slot is empty, you don’t get anything. If it displays something, then you get that feature.

• Wild Trail: the symbols from the coin’s trail are transformed into wilds.
• Free Games: takes you to this feature, with 5 rounds to play inside.
• Shake: it adds 1 Shake, to use later, once you trigger the bonus game.
• Multiplier: wins from the current round get a 2x to 5x multiplier applied.
• Stacked Spin: 1 re-spin which has stacked symbols.

Free Spins

Another scatter symbol that you can get along the way, the Whiskey Barrel will be needed at the same time, on the reels 1, 3 and 5. You receive 5 free spins, during which the slots below them will have either wilds or empty positions. When a wild lands on the bottom reel, that column is turned into a full wild for the rest of the feature.

Random Cash Fall

As you can guess, Cash Fall is a random bonus, which can trigger at any point during paid spins. Coins can come down and land in the bottom slots. If the slot in question has a value set, then you win it once the feature is over, along with any others that are collected. If Super Coins come down, then the value doubles for the wins.

Betting & Jackpots

For a game that uses a total of 20 active lines, you will find 20 coins in use for its bets. The decision you make might be for the entire game area and total bet, but what changes inside is only the coin value. The range of available bets is from $0.20 to $100, allowing for coin values of up to $5 to be used.

The biggest payout that the slot seems to be capable of, is 1,000x total stake. That kind of reward is possible if you’ve also triggered the Coin Drop Bonus, and gotten the 5x multipliers to help out at just the right time. Otherwise, you get at most 200x total stake in a single spin, as the slot’s best combinations offer at most 10x each. At best, you’re looking at a top prize of $100,000 here.

If you look at the fact that the game has Medium volatility, the lack of an impressive jackpot might not be as much of a problem, but even then, I feel like the reward motivating you to play the slot should’ve been higher than this. Despite the size of its top rewards, the slot’s RTP manages to reach 96.20%, so it’s an acceptable return for the players that give it a chance.

Verdict: Despite the fact that it has retro fruit-themed graphics, Niagara Falls slot ends up looking great, a good pick for anyone that’s into the retro-style design. I’d count among the pros its list of features, potential multipliers and everything else it offers. As a downside, I’d say that I’m not happy with its very low top payouts (200x total stake, up to 1,000x in certain moments).

23 Sep. 2019, by Ari Waknine