Wolf Howl slot's Multiplier Wilds are crucial for landing better value wins

Did you know that they are releasing wolves back into certain areas of the UK to roam free? It may sound a little crazy, but it is happening, so perhaps it is a good time for Microgaming to be releasing their newest slot game, Just For The Win's Wolf Howl slot.

Unfortunately for UK-based fans, some of the more higher volatility features of this game, the Buy Free Spins options, are not currently available for UK customers, I can only assume that is down to new gaming regulations in the UK. So as such, UK customers will get a somewhat watered down version of the game.

If that isn't enough to make you howl at the moon in anguish and you want to give the Wolf Howl slot a try, then what can you expect? Well we decided to take a look and find out and you can see the video of that in our video section on the Mega Moolah site.

Here's what we thought of the game.

Overview

• Game: Wolf Howl
• Developer: Just For The Win
• Reels: 5x3
• Pay Lines: 10 (non-selectable)
• Minimum Bet: 0.10
• Maximum Bet: 12.50
• Jackpot: 25,000x
• Free Spins Bonus: Yes
• Other Bonuses: Yes
• Progressive: No
• Volatility: High

Presentation

The presentation of the Wolf Howl slot is rather eye-catching. The game is set against the backdrop of a snowy winter forest, with orange sunlight cascading through the trees and the sound of a babbling brook playing as you wait for your spins. The five reels are somewhat more squashed than on other games and are ostensibly on the right hand side of the screen.

Once you get the reels spinning however, you trigger a rather catchy tune which plays as you spin the reels. The graphics are nicely done and are more lifelike than on other slots.

One important thing to note is that if you are based in the UK, then one of the key features of the slot, the Buy Free Spins option, is not available in the game. However, if you play from another part of the world then this feature, which allows you to trigger one of the three Free Spins games available for a set price, may well be available. This is disappointing for UK customers, especially high rollers, who would have liked the high-risk, high reward aspect that this feature would have brought.

What is on the reels?

I am a little disappointed to find that we have the four playing card symbols as the in game low symbols on the Wolf Howl slot. Given the amount of wildlife in the parts of the world where wolves roam free, there were a myriad of possible choices for this. Wins start at 0.4x your bet and increase up to 5x your bet for these lower value symbols.

The higher value symbols on the slot are much more interesting and include a hare, an eagle, a bear and a moose. Wins on these symbols range from 1x your bet up to 20x your bet, which goes to show that the Wolf Howl slot does offer some solid returns even in the base game.

In addition to these symbols there are a Scatter symbol (the full moon) as well as Wild and Multiplier Wild symbols on the reels, and we will explore what these have to offer in the sections below.

Wild features

There is a standard Wild symbol on the reels, which is the Wolf symbol and this serves two purposes, it can be landed fully across the reels to land wins of between 5x and 30x your total bet, but it can also be used as a substitute symbol to combine with other symbols on the reels and create wins that way.

Alongside the Standard Wild, there are also Multiplier Wilds available in the base game and also during Free Spins. In the base game, these Multiplier Wilds are 1x, 2x and 3x the standard amount. The 2x and 3x Multi;lier Wilds only appear on the middle three reels.

If you land more than one Multiplier Wild, then the amount they offer is combined, so a 2x multiplier and a 3x multiplier Wild landing on the reels would award a win of 6x the standard amount on that pay line.

Free Spins features

The Moon Scatter symbol can be landed either three, four or five times across the reels on a spin and when it does land in those numbers it will trigger 8, 15 or 30 Free Spins. Furthermore, during Free Spins, if you land between one and five Scatters on the reels at any time during the bonus, you will receive 2 additional Free Spins for one Scatter, five additional Free Spins for two Scatters, 8 additional Free Spins for three, 15 more Free Spins for four and 30 extra Free Spins for five.

During Free Spins the number of Multiplier Wilds increases and there are Multiplier Wilds of 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x and 5x on the reels during the bonus game and they of course, can combine to offer even greater value wins.

Furthermore, during Free Spins before every spin, if you have a Scatter symbol on the reels, this will trigger the Wild Call bonus. This will convert all Scatters and any symbol adjacent to them into 1x Multiplier Wild symbols.

If you already have a Multiplier Wild on the reel from an earlier spin, then the value of that Wild will be increased by one to the next value (so from 1x to 2x and so forth). Multiplier Wilds remain on the reels for the duration of your Free Spins bonus and you can upgrade them up to the maximum of 5x the standard win amount.

There is also a base game bonus called the Scatter Adder bonus, which will see you given a chance to win between two and four random Scatter symbols added to the reels. This can then of course lead to you triggering the Free Spins bonus game

For some customers, though not in the UK, you can also elect to Buy the Free Spins bonus for 90x the standard bet amount for 8 Free Spins, 159x the standard bet amount for 15 and 314x the standard bet amount for 30 Free Spins.

Best feature of the Wolf Howl slot

With some of the key features of the Wolf Howl slot not available to me, the best feature by far are those crucial Wild Multiplier symbols. Not only do they provide you with the best chance of a decent return in the base game, but in Free Spins they can be crucial if you can level them up to higher values to landing you some of the better value wins in the game. This is easier, obviously, if you trigger the higher number of Free Spins in this bonus.

Conclusion

Once again, I feel like UK customers are being a little short-changed here due to UK gambling laws not allowing some features to be accessible on the game. Without them, the Wolf Howl slot is basically a decent and fun to play higher variance slot, but it would have been so much nicer to have had those higher variance Buy Free Spins options available to try out.