12 Bolts of Thunder

12 Bolts of Thunder: Slot Overview

These days, landing a certain type of symbol to win a linked prize from a list of rewards is as common as muck, and now we've got developer Thunderkick muscling in on the action. Its contribution to the pile is 12 Bolts of Thunder, the name being a strong clue as to what sort of game players should expect. For those unsure, the goal of 12 Bolts of Thunder is to land as many Hammer symbols as possible to collect cash, and in its free spins round, the top possible prize is far in excess of what most of these sorts of slots have to offer.

12 Bolts of Thunder didn't look particularly mighty to start with, though. Its list of prizes, known here as the Hammer Paytable, isn't very impressive, and neither really is much of the view. Not a bad view by any means, but the drifting amongst clouds setting isn't the most inspired scenery Thunderkick has crafted. Never mind, it got better as the review progressed, helped by a warm golden glow in free spins, which added a nice touch, as did things like the rainbow effect when 3+ free spins scatters hit, transitioning the base game to the free spins round. The music makes an ideal accompaniment, too.

Bet selection in 12 Bolts of Thunder is 10 c to $/€100 per paid game round, with a bonus buy button sitting next to the spin button for those who wish to get the bonus round stat. Since the Hammer prize ladder can be seriously upgraded during the bonus, it makes it a highly desirable place to be. Both phases take place on a 5-reel, 20 payline action area. A high max win is matched by a highly volatile math model, as well as a default RTP of 96.15%.

12 Bolts of Thunder's pay symbols are an odd mix of mythically styled royals and classic slot icons. For lows, there are J to A card ranks where a 5 OAK hit is worth 1.5 to 3 times the bet, then the highs, which are a horseshoe, a bell, BAR, and triple 7s. Landing a 5-matching premium symbol win gets you 5 to 20 times the bet. The wild symbol substitutes for all other symbols except the scatter or Hammer symbols.

12 Bolts of Thunder: Slot Features

Players clued up on how these scatter prize win games function should feel at ease in this section as we deal with Hammer Wins, free spins, and a buy feature.

Hammer Win

Hammer symbols may appear on reels 2, 3, and 4. When at least 4 Hammers hit, players win a payout in accordance with how many Hammers are in view and the corresponding prize on the Hammer prize ladder. In the base game, hitting 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12 Hammers awards 2x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 50x, 100x, 500x, or 1,000x the bet, respectively. However, in free spins, the values on the Hammer Paytable can be increased.

Free Spins

Players win 6, 9, or 12 free spins when 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols land on the reels. Each time a Hammer Win occurs in free spins, the Hammer prize ladder increases a level, and so do the prizes it displays. The maximum number of upgrades is 5, and at the top level, hitting 12 Hammers awards 30,000 times the bet. Each Hammer Win also awards an additional 3 free spins. The Hammer prize ladder resets when players return to the base game.

Buy Feature

The bonus buy is where players can gain access to the free spins round for 100 times the total bet. The RTP when buying free spins is 96.5%.

12 Bolts of Thunder: Slot Verdict

With all this talk of thunder and hammers, all that's missing from 12 Bolts of Thunder is the mighty Thor himself. It's a little odd that the big man doesn't make an appearance. This lack of something summed up the first look at 12 Bolts of Thunder, because visually, it was a little on the plain side to behold. There is a quality to the graphics, though, a certain bright Thunderkick quality. The tunes are nifty, too, as are the animated moments, so it's not like staring at Jens Haaning's 'Take the Money and Run' for which the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art paid the artist 532,549 kroner for two blank canvases (which he mostly had to pay back).

Fans of these 9 Masks of Fire style games, but with extra firepower at their disposal, should be pretty intrigued over what they may find when taking on 12 Bolts of Thunder. Though Thunderkick slots' reputation for not exactly dishing out max wins on a regular basis may give pause, even if 30,000x the bet is technically achievable in 12 Bolts of Thunder. Obviously, this figure is far beyond what much of the competitor slots muster up. Even more memorable releases like Push Gaming's 10 Swords topped out at 5,000x, though with its lower volatility, that one was perhaps better suited to a different audience than 12 Bolts of Thunder.

The target audience this time, presumably, are gamblers who prefer things a tad harder, a tad more challenging, with more reward on offer despite a potentially bumpier path to get there. With its tastefully spartan visuals and no complicated rule set getting in the way, 12 Bolts of Thunder sets out to satiate those sorts of desires in a scatter prize game that is more high-wired than most.