Rogue Rats of Nitropolis

Rogue Rats of Nitropolis: Slot Overview

Ding ding, it's round 2 of Swedish software provider ELK Studios' Battle of Nitropolis series; this time, the battle is being fought by the toothy rodent of the pack. The slot is Rogue Rats of Nitropolis, and if you missed out, what ELK Studios is doing is releasing four slots focusing on the 4 clans - Gritty Kitties, Rogue Rats, Dirty Dawgs, and Pug Thugs, then capping the dystopic extravaganza by releasing Nitropolis 5. The story goes that after being kicked out of Nitropolis by Sergeant Nitro Wild, the clans are mastering their skills on their home turf in order to battle it out in one titanic showdown.

The rat's home turf is a desert wasteland somewhere far away from the sprawling built-up urban nightmare that is Nitropolis. Players get to see a lot of it, too. This is because Rogue Rats of Nitropolis is not played on a gaming grid of reels, rows, and ways. Instead, the rat drives around an infinitely large grid collecting pay symbols, coins, blowing stuff up, and gathering Nitro Fuel. Shocked? Same. This is a Nitropolis slot without Nito Reels or the thousands or even millions of ways to win, which have been a hallmark of the series till now. However, Rogue Rats of Nitropolis is no oddball sideshow but a new and arguably just as satisfying way of exploring the world of Nitropolis, this time from the rat's side of things.

How does it work? The rat moves about the map in 1 of 4 different coloured vehicles and collects only pay symbols of the same colour as the vehicle. However, the rat may change vehicles during a game round, changing the colour of the symbols it can collect. Initially, the rat sees an inner 5x5 grid, and even though players get a wider view, the rat's field of vision can expand. What's in the rat's field of vision determines the direction it drives.

The four pay symbol types can be upgraded, and at their lowest level, each one is worth 0.05 to 0.2 times the bet, rising to 1 to 5 times the bet each at the highest level. The rat collects symbols when they are horizontally or vertically adjacent to them, and a cluster of the 4 coloured payout symbols may make it change direction. Clusters of symbols differently coloured to the vehicle may make it change direction, too. As well as pay symbols, the rat can also collect coins displaying multipliers of the bet.

A game round starts with a random vehicle and a certain amount of fuel. Each movement consumes fuel, but collecting payout symbols and shooting at or collecting feature symbols awards additional fuel. Maxing out the fuel gauge awards a temporary boost where the fuel is limitless until the next coin collection - this is called the Nitro Fuel Boost. When the fuel runs out, and no collection is possible, or no bonus is pending, the game round ends. Statistically, Rogue Rats of Nitropolis is highly volatile and has ELK's typical sad face RTP of 94% whether using the X-iter or not. Stake range is 20 c to $/€100 per game round.

Rogue Rats of Nitropolis: Slot Features

While racing around the wastelands, other things the rat may make use of are a host of feature symbols, a multiplier, bonus games, and the X-iter bonus buys to potentially speed things along.

Nitro Multiplier

When active, the Nitro Multiplier is applied to coin wins and payout symbols when collected. Shooting the NPD Radar symbol activates the locked multiplier or upgrades the active multiplier to the higher current locked value displayed next to it.

Feature Symbols

Other feature symbols in Rogue Rats of Nitropolis include:

• Nitro Blob - shooting one of these upgrades visible pay symbols to a higher payout level.
• New Vehicle - the rat can hop out of the current vehicle and into one of a different colour.
• Nitro Fuel - grabbing a Nitro Well or raiding a Fuel Depot refills the fuel tank.
• Coins - coins are collected by destroying NPD Cruises and NPD Helicopters. Also, be on the lookout for the Police HQ and the Max Win coin.
• Missile Silo - shooting the silo increases the rat's visible area.
• Turret - drive onto a Turret to reach features further away.

Bonus Game

Collect 2 scatter symbols on your travels, and 3 free spins are awarded. If one of the collected bonus symbols is a super bonus symbol, then 3 free spins are awarded where each spin starts with a Nitro Fuel Boost. It is possible to retrigger the bonus game or super bonus game, and it is possible to upgrade from the regular to the super bonus. The payout level of the pay symbols and the current active multiplier are carried over from the base game and persist during the rounds.

X-iter

At the X-iter menu, these options may be selected:

• Bonus Hunt - game rounds cost 3x the bet and start with 1 bonus scatter symbol already collected. Bonus games are 4 times as likely to trigger.
• Nitro Rally - 10x the bet for 1 spin with extended visibility and double the amount of starting fuel.
• Road Warrior - 25x the bet for 1 spin with double the amount of starting fuel, pay symbols are removed, and coins are more frequent.
• Bonus - 100x the bet to buy the regular batch of free spins.
• Super Bonus - 500x the bet to buy the super bonus.

Rogue Rats of Nitropolis: Slot Verdict

After reviewing Gritty Kitty, the expectation was that the four slots leading up to Nitropolis 5 would be relatively similar to each other. You know, throw some Nitro Reels at a grid, dial up the ways to win, toss in some clever extras, and you've got a playable Nitro slot on your hands. In a delightful plot twist, ELK Studios blew that assumption to smithereens after about 0.5 nanoseconds of playing Rogue Rats of Nitropolis. It performs completely differently. There are faintly discernible links to the Pirots slots and a little bit of Jeff & Scully, maybe even Push Gaming's Mad Cars, but Rogue Rats of Nitropolis is definitely its own rodent and takes the Nitropolis range of slots to exciting new places without feeling like a cheap knockoff of the real thing.

One thing critical to note is that the rat only collects symbols which are the same colour as the vehicle it is driving. Without this knowledge, it would be easy to get frustrated over why the darn critter keeps driving past so many pay symbols it could have been collecting. Once this fact's lodged, the rats' progress around the map makes total sense, and you can sit back and enjoy the carnage it causes, cruising around blowing stuff to bits, sucking up fuel, gathering pay symbols as well as the odd coin or two here and there. When it's flowing, Rogue Rats of Nitropolis is an absolute treat. It's in the same ballpark as Pirots 2 when long sequences of events occur, though maybe not quite possessing the same level of intricacy. But still, when the rat's hooning around causing mayhem while collecting dosh in the dystopian future setting while a tune that brought to mind a Northlane, Skrillex wub-wub mashup is pounding your eardrums, Rogue Rats is rather exhilarating indeed.

Gotta tip a hat to ELK on this one. Rogue Rats of Nitropolis was not what was expected by a long shot, in a good way, too. Naturally, games like this won't be everyone's cup of tea - there are no rows, reels, ways, or anything like that, so Rogue Rats does not perform like a standard slot in any way. It can still frustrate or reward like a regular slot, though (up to 25,000x the bet), no doubt. Actually, scratch that, like a finely crafted, hugely entertaining slot, the sort which only comes from a bold innovator of ELK Studio's calibre.