Thunderstruck: Wild Lightning Slot Machine – Free Play & Review

In Microgaming’s collection, the Thunderstruck slots are among their most popular games, and so there were high expectations from Thunderstruck Wild Lightning as well. The game features the expected Scandinavian design, using the region’s mythology to inspire its graphics.

A lot of those symbols are going to be familiar from other games, but even the Royals from 9 to A will have an appropriate design here, being scratched on the sides of rocks. The premium symbols will include those showing five thunderballs, elemental rocks that appear to be inspired by the elements (colored in fire orange, gold, green, blue, and purple).

Developer

Microgaming worked together with Stormcraft Studios for this one, and it was a good decision. We’ve seen plenty of great slots from the two partners lately, including sequels like Agent Jane Blonde Returns, or Break Away Deluxe.

How To Play It

Thunderstruck: Wild Lightning requires a bet of 10 coins or more. You can have up to 8 coins per line, and denominations go from $0.02 to $0.20. The result is a betting range between $0.20 and $16.

It’s not exactly a small game area, you do get 5×4 reels and 40 active lines, so there are plenty of opportunities to get paid. As long as you can get 3 or more symbols of the same type on a line, you will get a prize.

Special Features

While not entirely original, the mix of features present in Thunderstruck: Wild Lightning will do more than enough to make the action interesting.

I’d start with the wild symbol, the one showing us Thor himself. It’s a multiplier wild, so it will boost wins by 2x or 5x during paid spins. It can also land stacked in this mode. They can either be used as replacement symbols, or they can create combinations of their own.

If you get Thor’s Hammer scatters in view, at least 3 times at the same time, you will gain access to the free spins feature. You get your pick of the following, provided that you unlocked them (the first one is immediately available, while the rest need to be unlocked by triggering the feature multiple times):

• 15 Jotunheim Free Spins, with multiplier wilds (2x to 5x) and prizes of up to $32,000 possible.
• 12 Vanaheim Free Spins, with the multiplier wilds from 2x to 6x, and up to $34,000 in prizes.
• 9 Alfheim Free Spins, where multiplier wilds boost wins by 3x to 8x, and you can win $52,000.
• 6 Nidavellir Free Spins, with 5x to 12x for the multiplier wilds, and a prize of up to $56,000.
• 1 Svartalfheim Free Spins, with a Wildstorm active which gives you up to 5 wild reels. You win up to $128,000. This one is unlocked by getting double scatters in view, a total of 20 times.

During the slot’s free spins, if you get a wild symbol in view on the middle reels, a Wild Lightning will trigger for you. It marks the position, so that new wilds appearing there will expand.

Link & Win is the other major feature that’s been introduced. It requires thunderball symbols appearing 6+ times in view. It involves a number of respins, where you’re trying to get more thunderballs to land. If you manage to get 15, 20, 25, and then 30 of these, then you unlock rows 5 to 8, respectively. The respins reset back to the original number of 3, whenever new thunderballs appear.

At the end of the feature, you get paid for each thunderball symbol that’s been collected. There are also several fixed jackpot versions of the thunderball, that can land and get you paid. The mega jackpot, worth 15,000x the stake, can also be paid here.

Maximum Payouts

A 15,000x jackpot is on the line in Thunderstruck: Wild Lightning. It’s a game with high volatility and a 96.10% RTP.

Summary

I like the sequel, just like I enjoyed the original Thunderstruck slot. I think it has a lot to offer, and players will love it.