Gods of Asgard Megaways

Gods of Asgard Megaways: Slot Overview

At the time of writing, developer Iron Dog Studio seemed to be thundering down two paths - churning out 'bespoke' Branded Megaways slots and revisiting their back catalogue for do-over opportunities. The latter is the situation we find ourselves in today, reviewing a Norse-themed slot titled Gods of Asgard Megaways, a remake of a previous Iron Dog game called Rock the Reels Megaways.

Rock the Reels Megaways was a music slot set in an arena with animals as band members. Some say music can be a spiritual experience, but in Gods of Asgard Megaways, we are literally hanging with deities in a celestial sphere. It looks decent, with a chunky 6+1-reel Megaways grid floating on a cloud before Yggdrasil, the tree of life, and a starry night sky in free spins. There's some curvy stuff on either side of the screen, and while it's unclear what it is meant to be, it looks pretty celestial as well. This should be a more enticing scene than the rock game was if crossing the Bifrost and hoisting a few beer steins with Aegir, the God of brewing, is on your fantasy bucket list.

It's worth checking what sort of numbers Gods of Asgard Megaways produces while we are rubbing elbows with the Norse pantheon. First up is the all-important return to player value, which clocks in at a healthy 96.7%, whereas volatility is marked as high. The stake range is modest, going as low as 10 p/c per spin or as high as $/€10. The maximum xbet multiplier potential is massive (at least it is claimed to be), which perhaps explains why the maximum bet is relatively low.

Gods of Asgard Megaways' game grid has 6 reels holding 2-7 symbols each, plus a horizontal tracking reel on top holding 4 symbols. The symbol configuration changes on each spin, generating anywhere from 324 to 200,704 ways to win. Wins are created by landing matching symbols from the left-hand side in adjacent reels, which then triggers the reaction feature - a mechanic which removes winning symbols, filling the gaps with new symbols and triggering again if a new win is formed.

Leading the paytable off are 10-A card ranks, designed in a rock/Norse font, paying 0.6x to 1x the stake for a six-of-a-kind ways win. This rises to 2 to 15 times the stake when landing a winning way of 6 horns, mugs, necklaces, hammers, or rings. Appearing on reels 2, 3, or 4 is a Wolf wild symbol, while a Raven x2 wild multiplier appears on reels 2 and 3. Both wilds substitute for any of the normal pay symbols.

Gods of Asgard Megaways: Slot Features

It couldn't be a Norse-themed slot without a few gods somewhere. Here, players get four of them, each one bringing a different modifying ability. God symbols appear on the upper reel in either the base game or bonus round. They can land on the initial spin or land from a cascade and function like so:

• Freya – transforms 2-4 symbols on reels 2-4 into wild Wolf symbols.
• Loki – transforms 2-4 symbols on reels 1-4 into a symbol from reel 1.
• Thor – transforms 3 or 4 symbols on reels 1-3 into premium symbols.
• Odin – transforms 2 symbols on reels 2-3 into Raven multiplier wilds.

God symbols are removed from the reels after their modifier has triggered, and more than one modifier can be activated during a spin.

Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatter symbols in the base game awards 8, 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. When free spins are going, landing 3-6 scatters awards a further 4-12 free spins. Gods of Asgard Megaways' bonus round benefits from a progressive win multiplier that starts at x1. Following every cascade, the multiplier increases by +1 with no set upper limit imposed. Another plus is that when the Odin feature triggers, the value of multiplier wilds starts at x2 and increases by +1 from each trigger from then on.

Bonus Buy

Clicking the bonus buy button allows players to buy Normal, High, or Super versions of 6 or 8 free spins. The costs range from 120x to 575x the bet, where RTP varies from 96.3% to 96.5%. The difference between the various versions is the frequency of modifier symbols landing on the top reel.

Gods of Asgard Megaways: Slot Verdict

Like its forebear, Gods of Asgard Megaways mixes a bag of modifiers with a traditional progressive win in free spins bonus round to produce a decent Megaways game. Animals as rock stars were charming but a little niche, perhaps? Using the engine/features in a Norse game might have a broader appeal. It's not for nothing that there are so many Norse slots available to play, after all, and there are likely to be more to come in the future. There's just something tantalising about the subject matter for both developers and players. Drinking mead, getting rowdy, doing brave deeds, casting magic, and saving the universe, not to mention looking buffly heroic while doing it. What's not to like?

Having said that, there doesn't appear to be much ambition over at Iron Dog to move forward seeing the studio has been churning out mostly reskins or games that have been more sideways steps than leaps forward. It's not a studio that comes across as being brave or taking risks, which is ironic given the industry they are active in. To be fair, Iron Dog has made good use of the theme, so for some, Gods of Asgard Megaways will have a better look than its predecessor. Admittedly, it's not as original as seeing cats doing that power fist thing onstage. The modifiers are as potent as ever, more so in free spins where Odin's wilds have a progressive aspect, plus there's the global win multiplier as well, let's not forget. It leads to impressive winning potential, topping out at 50,000x the bet. However, it's questionable whether these Iron Dog games are really capable of dishing out wins of this magnitude, and if they are, the frequency must be incredibly low as there isn't much proof of it on social media. Not sure if or how close Rock the Reels Megaways has gotten to achieving this out in the wild, but on paper, it's a notable amount.

Gods of Asgard Megaways is another example of a seamless transfer of mechanics and features from an older game into an equally playable new one although it's hard to feel too excited about yet another reskin.