Hall of the Mountain King

About Slot

Ever heard of Edvard Grieg? Don’t feel bad if you haven’t, I only came across the guy while researching this review. Grieg, a Norwegian composer, wrote an exciting and dramatic piece of classical music called “In the Hall of the Mountain King” in 1875 and this high volatility slot from Quickspin has taken inspiration from the composer’s work. How’s that for a little culture while you’re spinning those reels?

The video slot comes with a fairly average RTP of 96.29% running on high volatility and 5 reels across 20 paylines. There are bonus features galore, all designed to help the mountain men take down those orcs. Read on and all will become clear.

 

Hall of the Mountain King – Theme and Background

In this game we’re on the side of the mountain people (who are essentially trolls), assisting their king in his battle against an orcish invasion. Sound familiar? Well, yes, but don’t let that put you off. Quickspin has really pushed the boat out with this slot. The animations are superb and there are some very exciting seconds of PlayStation-like video breaks when you hit on bonus features. I can’t say I was exactly certain what was happening, or who was taking a swing at who, but it was certainly entertaining.

The music used is suitably epic, as you would expect, music being the inspiration behind this slot’s creation. I think you’ll quite enjoy letting it boom out in the background, thundering toward crescendo. Quickspin is known for their superb animations and the characters in this slot are definitely up there with the best. Across the reels are a series of grotesque fantastical creatures (4 types of terribly unattractive orcs), glaring out at you as you spin, together with A, K, Q, J and 10 symbols. Hammers and golden shields also make an appearance, bringing in higher wins when you lands multiples of these appropriately.

Gameplay

Hall of the Mountain King is packed full of special features that bring a lot of excitement to the game. You’ll know when you unlock each one as it comes accompanied with a mini visual experience from the Mountain King himself. Quickspin is excellent at injecting that little extra bit of pizzazz. Here are the features you can look forward to experiencing.

Whirling Wilds

In Hall of the Mountain King the Wild Symbol, which is represented by what looks to me like a golden shield, substitutes for all symbols except the Bonus Scatter symbol (more on this next). Once you land a Whirling Wild symbol you’ll activate one multiplier, starting from bottom, up to a maximum of 5 times the bet. So it’s pretty good watching when this happens.

Bonus Scatter Symbol

The Bonus Scatter symbol is represented across the reels by a hammer. It’s quite sight to behold when it’s being swung about at random, even if you’re not sure why. Land three of more of these Thor-like weapons and you’ll trigger the game’s Free Spin feature. That’s up next.

Free Spins

Once you land three scatter symbols you’re ready to experience the three level free spin extravaganza. Here’s how it works:

Stage 1 – The first step is for the hammer to let rip and smash up the Symbol Upgrade Blocks. The result is that all the low paying symbols are switched up for high paying ones. If you have enough match ups that could mean some nice big wins.

Stage 2 – Then comes the smashing of a Whirling Wild block, which releases the Whirling Wilds inside the block to be collected above the reels. You can collect up to a maximum of six of these.

Stage 3 – And finally, the last stage will take any Whirling Wilds collected during the previous stage and release them into random positions across the reels. At this point they’ll turn into wild symbols. This will also commence your final three spins and end the three stage free spin round.

Multiplier Meter

As the name suggest, this feature deals with those lovely multipliers, raising the bar on potential wins. In this slot each Wild symbol activates one multiplier apiece. If you’re lucky enough to land five Wilds in one spin you’ll trigger up to a 5x multiplier on all your wins. Take a moment to process this, it could mean very big money. The multiplier is decided based on how many Wilds you’ve landed. 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 Wilds will give you a 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x or 5x multiplier respectively. To make things more interesting, the Wilds are stacked, so even bigger multipliers can be applied to your final haul.

Payouts and Wagering Limits

You might be disappointed to learn that Hall of the Mountain King doesn’t bring any jackpot to the table. But it’s not all bad news because with a potential maximum win of 7,326 times your bet, there’s still the possibility of a big money downpour. And because you can place a bet from 0.20 to 100.00, you could come out of things with a windfall if you’re working at the top of the scale.

The slot is high volatility with a fairly average RTP of 96.29%. This means that wins won’t come with every spin, but they do offer higher value when they roll around. You’ve just got to have the strength to sweat out the dry spells if they come (if you’re very lucky they might not). What you really want to go after is the Mountain King symbol. The reason you should cross your fingers for this guy is that it’s the highest paying symbol available. It offers a payout of 2x the bet if you land three as part of a winning payline, 7.5x the bet if you land 4 as part of a winning payline, and a whopping 40x the bet if you land 5 as part of a winning payline.