Nitropolis 5

Nitropolis 5: Slot Overview

Buckle up players; the wait is over. After exploring various nooks and crannies of the Nitropolis world in the Gritty Kitty, Rogue Rats, Dirty Dawgs, and Pug Thugs slots, the big one has arrived, like a monstrous windowless tower of oppression appearing downtown overnight to haunt the horizon of a futuristic city. The game is Nitropolis 5 and is the final instalment in ELK Studios' 5-slot Battle of Nitropolis extravaganza. After going back to their home ground in the previous four games, the clan members have polished their skills in order to get ready for a final battle - the Battle of Nitropolis. For Nitropolis 5, the ELK team has funnelled what it's learned over a long-running, successful range to create a boss battler of a slot chock full of features, extras, and expansive gameplay.

First, the setting and players join the clan members back in Nitropolis, a futuristic authoritarian city that looks to be squarely under the thumb of the dastardly Sergeant Nitro Wolf - the chap who drove the clan members away in the first place. With any luck, players will be there when the clans unhook Sergeant Nitro Wolf's iron grip on the city and pick up a few wins along the way. The visuals are great, and the audio is outstanding, creating a gripping 'Blade Runner' meets '1984' (a must read!) meets feisty animals world.

Instead of gassing up, players have a few decisions to make when taking Nitropolis 5 for a ride. The first is stake selection, where the choices are 20 c to $/€50 per spin, while the second is deciding whether to use the X-iter to enter bonus modes or not. Either way, the RTP is 94%, and the volatility is high. Nitropolis 5's game grid is all over the place, too. It has a default layout of 6 reels, landing 4 symbols each, and at this size, there are 4,096 ways to win. However, it is possible to expand the reels up to 8 rows high, and Nitro Reels can hold up to 12 symbols each, drastically increasing the number of ways to win. So much so that the game doesn't mention the upper limit, but millions are possible. Usually, the game pays left to right from the leftmost reel on consecutive reels, but can occasionally pay both ways..

Three levels of symbols make up the regular pays - lows, mids, and highs. The lows are J-A royals, the mids are 4 clan emblems, while the highs are the 4 different animal characters. Hitting a 6 OAK winning way of lows is worth 0.25x the bet, mids are 0.3x the bet, while the highs are worth 1 to 3 times the bet. Wilds substitute any symbols except scatters or super scatters. A payline of wilds has the same value as the highest pay symbol.

Nitropolis 5: Slot Features

Nitropolis slots are famous for having an extensive list of features, and Nitropolis 5 sticks to this tradition. The game has got Nitro Reels, big symbols, Nitro Multipliers, avalanches, an NPD Holding Cell feature, 11 modifiers from the Nitro Booster, a Boss Battle, free spins, super free spins, and X-iter bonus buys.

Standard Features

• Nitro Reels - A Nitro Reel covers 2 symbol positions and contains 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 identical 1x1 pay symbols. A big Nitro Reel always covers 6 symbol positions and contains 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 identical 2x2 pay symbols.
• Big Symbols - Wilds and pay symbols may land as big symbols in sizes of 2x2 or 3x3. Big symbols count as the number of 1x1 symbols they cover. Empty spaces below big symbols or big Nitro Reels are filled with 1x1 symbols of the same type as the big symbol.
• Nitro Multiplier - A Nitro Multiplier is a blocker appearing in a Nitro Reel, holding a value of x4, x6, x8, x10, or x12. It multiplies all wins in view and is multiplicative if more than one of them is on the reels. The Nitro Multiplier counts as one 1x1 symbol. Nitro Reels and Nitro Multipliers part of a win are kept and respin during symbol refills.
• Avalanche - All regular symbols part of a win (except NPD Holding Cell feature wins) explode off the reels and leave spaces for symbols to drop down to fill. An additional row of symbols is added at the top up to a maximum of 8. Nitro Reels and Nitro Multipliers part of a win respin. Avalanches continue until no new win appears.
• NPD Holding Cell Feature - The NPD Holding Cell feature triggers randomly on a spin, respin, or free spin. A symbol type is randomly chosen. If the chosen symbols are part of a win, they are kept on the reels, along with scatter symbols and Nitro Multipliers, for a respin that expands the main grid. This process continues as long as additional symbols of the chosen type contribute to the NPD Holding Cell winning combination or if another NPD Holding Cell feature triggers. Locked symbols pay when the feature ends.

Nitro Booster

The Nitro Booster row sits above the main reels consisting of 3 flippers, which may award modifiers before the reels stop, after the reels stop, and after a win evaluation. There are 11 Nitro Booster features, 6 aimed at the main reels, 5 at the Nitro Reels.

• Dirty Dawgs - replaces some high-value symbols with the highest-value symbol.
• Pug Thugs - moves a Nitro Reel to create or extend a win.
• Gritty Kitty - chooses a random symbol for a scatter win evaluation.
• Rogue Rats - places a random number of Nitro Reels on the main grid.
• Nitro Wild - fills all Nitro Reels below it with wild symbols.
• Nitro Match - matches all Nitro Reels below it with a symbol on the same reel as the Nitro Reel or an adjacent reel to try to create a win.
• Nitro Upgrade - increases the size indicator on all Nitro Reels below it.
• Max Rows - expands the grid to 8 rows high.
• Respin - awards a respin at the end of the game round where Nitro Reels, Nitro Multipliers, scatters, and wilds are sticky.
• Both Ways - calculates wins from the leftmost and the rightmost reel.

Boss Battle

Landing 3 Boss Battle coins in the Nitro Booster triggers the Boss Battle at the end of the spin or free spin. The main reels and the Nitro Booster are replaced by a new 7x8 grid. Each position on this grid is either blank or contains a coin or Max Win. Players are awarded 3 shots. Each hit on a coin awards its value, empties the position, and resets the number of shots to 3. The feature ends when shots no longer remain, or the Max Win is achieved.

Free Spins

In the base game, landing 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatters awards 8, 12, 16, or 20 free spins, respectively. During the round, all Nitro Reels remain on the reels during the whole feature. The round starts with a safety level set to 4 rows. Each winning spin advances the safety level up to 8. The next free spin starts from the new safety level. If one of the triggering scatters was a super scatter, the super bonus game version is triggered. Super scatters only appear in Nitro Reels. A super scatter in a Nitro Reel always counts as one symbol. The super bonus game is played with Max Rows and Both Ways activated, plus NPD Holding Cell triggers on every free spin. Landing 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatter symbols awards +8, +12, +16, or +20 additional free spins, respectively.

X-iter

The X-iter in Nitropolis 5 comes with these choices: Bonus Hunt: 3x the bet for one spin that is 4 times more likely to trigger the bonus game; Gang Warfare: 10x the bet for one spin, where the Nitro Booster is full of features; NPD 4EVA: 25x the bet for a game round, which triggers the NPD Holding Cell feature; Bonus: 100x the bet; Super Bonus: 500x the bet.

Nitropolis 5: Slot Verdict

Cripes, we knew part 5 was going to be a biggie, but that list of features exceeded expectations. Some are favourites from previous Nitropolis games such as Nitro Reels, Nitro Booster modifiers and so on, not to mention the general, avalanching wins which grow the main game area effect ELK favours. You can see why the studio returns to this general formula because when its parts come together, coupled with head-banging sounds, the ride can be thrilling indeed. Mix in Nitropolis 5's newer bits while considering the story that brought the Nitropolis series to this point, and fans are potentially in for another high-octane nitro blast.o

There is a lot of stuff here to work your way through, or at least attempt to work your way through. Admittedly, some of the newer additions, such as the NPD Holding Cell feature, are not brand, brand new ideas, as this hold, build-a-win, and respin idea has appeared on several occasions in the past, notably in Nolimit City's snuff film of a slot Serial. Others are fresher, such as the Boss Battle round - 'To the chopper!' When collated together, augmented by Nitro Reels, Nitro Multipliers, expanding reels, and adrenal gland pumping tunes, you've got all the ingredients for a hugely exciting Nitropolis slot on your hands.

On the topic of potentiality, and not meaning to be greedy, but an even greater max win might have really sealed Nitropolis 5 as a force to be reckoned with. Don't get us wrong, the 50,000x the bet top prize is massive in itself. It's just that the same figure graced Nitropolis 3 and 4, so something a little bit bigger, or a lot bigger, would have put a major exclamation point on the Battle of Nitropolis concept. Never mind, maybe for part 6, if there is one. Plus, Nitropolis slots have proven on more than one occasion in the past they are capable of achieving their max win.

The original Nitropolis slot screeched onto gamblers' screens in 2020, burning rubber, spilling nitro all over the place, and here we are nearly 4 years later, hair blown even further back on a ducking 'n diving roller coaster ride, joining the four clans again as they extend a middle finger to the authoritarian regimed future which is Nitropolis 5.