Skate or Die

Skate or Die: Slot Overview

Any 'core skater worth his or her salt has likely heard the phrase 'skate or die' before. It's a bold statement to the world that life without skateboarding is a dark, sad, pointless existence that isn't worth living. Since there are a lot of things in life which give other people joy, such as walks in nature, listening to podcasts, or decoupage, for example, non-skaters might have a tough time understanding the harsh binary nature of 'skate or die'. For those who do get it, or want to get it, how about grabbing a virtual board and coming to see what sort of thrills Nolimit City's slot Skate or Die is capable of performing? It's a slot stacked with tricks, including the return of the xZone feature, which debuted in Gluttony.

Whether you liked Gluttony or not is irrelevant in this case since Skate or Die is a very different slot. There's no eating of food in this one, but there may be eating sh*t (as in falling hard from a board), as evidenced by copious depictions of serious injuries. In other words, the skaters in this place take the words 'skate or die' seriously. It's kind of hard to take Skate or Die's humorous stoner main character Chad aka Plantface too seriously, though admittedly, he does seem dedicated to his craft. It appears the dude's set on making it to the pro leagues and is ready to break body parts on his journey. Blasting along in the background is a 90s pop punk soundtrack that perfectly captures the carefree, rebellious spirit of the game, adding an extra layer of nostalgic fun to Chad's wild ride.

Spose gamblers should be prepared to (metaphorically) break some bones as well when bumping up against Skate or Die's 'extreme' volatility, rated as 10 out of 10. The highest return to player is 96.03% when placing bets of 20 c to $/€100, though this can change when using various gambling options, of which Skate or Die has several. For the record, the optimal RTP is achieved by not partaking in the Crasher Game.

Skate or Die plays on a 5x3 main grid with an Extra Sauce Row up top and 243 ways to win. Graffiti fonted 10-A card ranks pay 0.6 to 0.9 times the bet for a 5 OAK win, while Chad's foot, hand, elbow, and face pay 1.5 to 4 times the bet for 5 OAK. When the various wild symbols are present on the board, they're able to substitute for any regular pay symbol.

Skate or Die: Slot Features

Skate or Die's bag of tricks includes the Extra Sauce Row, xZone Wild, xNudge Wild, xNudge Wild Supreme, three free spins features, a Crasher Game, bonus buys, and Nolimit Boosters.

Extra Sauce Row

The Extra Sauce Row sits above the reels with 5 positions showing no multiplier or multipliers of x2, x3, x4, or x10. The values change on each spin. Multipliers connect with xNudge and/or the xZone symbols on the reels beneath them.

xZone Wild

If an xZone Wild lands with an active multiplier on the Extra Sauce Row above its reel, then the top row multiplier is applied to every symbol adjacent to the xZone Wild, vertically, horizontally, and diagonally. Overlapping multipliers are summed together. The xZone multiplier affects the xNudge Wild and xNudge Wild Supreme when they nudge.

xNudge Wild

xNudge Wilds can land on any reel, and always nudge to be fully stacked. Each nudge increases the win multiplier by +1. Multiple xNudge Wilds traversing the win add their multipliers to the total xNudge multiplier. The xNudge's multiplier is increased by the multiplier above its reel on the Extra Sauce Reel, if there is one. xNudge Wilds and their multiplier are not affected by any spreading to their reel by xZone multipliers, but xNudge does pick up multipliers it nudges across that have been affected by xZone multipliers.

xNudge Wild Supreme

The xNudge Wild Supreme only appears in Boneyard Spins. On top of the xNudge Wild features, each xNudge Wild Supreme adds all multipliers from the Extra Sauce Row to its multiplier. The xNudge Wild Supreme and its multiplier is not affected by spreading to their reel by xZone multipliers, but xNudge does pick up multipliers it nudges across that have been affected by xZone multipliers.

Free Spins

Scatter symbols are present on any reel in the base game. Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols triggers 10 Face Plant Spins, 10 Dead Meat Spins, or 10 Boneyard Spins, respectively:

• Face Plant Spins - a guaranteed xZone Wild lands on each spin.
• Dead Meat Spins - 2 guaranteed xZone Wilds land on each spin.
• Boneyard Spins - 2 guaranteed xZone Wilds land on each spin. The xNudge Wild Supreme can land on the reels.

Crasher Game

The Crasher Game symbol can land in the base game. If it lands fully stacked, covering all reels, it awards 30x the bet, and players get the option of betting the win in the Crasher Game. Symbols covered by a partially in view Crasher Game symbols are dead. Alternatively, after any win of 30x or higher, players have the option of betting their win on the Crasher Game. This way, the Crasher Game starts with the win value. Hitting no awards the original win.

When participating in the Crasher Game, the player has to click STOP before a falling skateboarder hits the ground to win anything from 30x to 30,000x. If the skateboarder lands in a grave, all winnings are lost. However, if the skateboarder lands in a dumpster, the Max Win is awarded.

Nolimit Bonus Buy

Opening the Nolimit Bonus menu reveals these buy options: Crasher Game - 30x the bet, Face Plant Spins - 60x the bet, Dead Meat Spins - 200x the bet, Boneyard Spins - 1,000x the bet, and Lucky Draw (50% / 40% / 10%) - 210x the bet.

Nolimit Booster

The xBet can be activated for 1.1x the bet, which guarantees a scatter on reel 2. The xNudge booster is activated for 10 times the bet, which guarantees an xNudge Wild.

Skate or Die: Slot Verdict

If you were looking for a way of defining Nolimit City slots for someone unaware of the studio's work, Skate or Die is a pretty good example to use. It's got the sort of maths the developer is famous for, that is, extremely volatile, and is backed by substantial winning potential. The base game rolls along, slinging out patches of low activity, but always with the knowledge that getting a few multis here or there, implanted by the xNudge, xZone, Extra Sauce Row combo, means monster hits can fall out of nowhere. Chad's a crack-up; the music has a sweet 90s/00s punk pop nostalgia, and the visuals are shot through with gore and images of protruding broken bones. Who but Nolimit City would roll tougher such an impertinent set of gaming elements?

It was nice to see the xZone again, too, and if Gluttony was a little too much to wrap your head around, then Skate or Die is a more straightforward vehicle for it. One way magic may occur is when the Extra Sauce Row causes the xZone to spread multiplier values around, which xNudge symbols then nudge through. The higher the bonus round, the greater the potency, capped by the highly desirable xNudge Wild Supreme. It's just a shame there is no mention of progressing from lower free spins rounds to higher ones as other Nolimit City slots have done in the past.

The Crasher Game is an interesting one, too, and after the Slash Game was included (then later withdrawn) from Outsourced (to be made as a standalone game titled Outsourced: Slash Game), it seems Crash games are something NLC are leaning into at the moment. First and foremost, the Crasher Game is an optional extra, so players can skip it if they don't want to risk their winnings. It is tempting, though, so it might have been useful if players could disable this feature altogether to avoid being sucked in, as it is possible to do in some of those choose a card's colour or suit gamble slots. Like those gamble features, the Crasher Game is basically all or nothing, or some or nothing, depending on how quickly you successfully press the stop button, just with a more exciting seat-of-your-pants presentation. Do you hold out till the very, very end each time in order to have a chance of getting the full 30,000x, or hit stop hard and often get littler wins yet run the risk of being eaten by insta dead drops? As mentioned, the Crasher Game is optional, yet exciting, for gamblers into this sort of thing.

Skate or Die's max win is 30,000x the bet, and nowhere does it say the Crasher Game is a requirement for hitting this amount, which may provide some comfort. Even better, just 30x is required to take part compared to the terrifying proposition of fronting 5,000x as it was in Outsourced. Don't be getting the impression Skate or Die is a benevolent game, though; it can trigger wipeouts and faceplants like a regular Nolimit City slot. But hey, it took Tony Hawk 'countless' attempts before successfully landing his famous 900 trick at the 1999 X Games. When describing the moment, he said, and this might sound like he's describing attacking a Nolimit City slot, 'I was either going to make it or get carted off in an ambulance. Those were the only two choices.'