Reel Warriors

Reel Warriors: Slot Overview

Combining punching, kicking, and gambling, software provider AvatarUX has gloved up to produce Reel Warriors, a fight slot that's part online betting, part nostalgic video game. In this slot, consecutive wins cause two combatants to batter a gaming grid, triggering various features in order to possibly help players fatality their way to sizable wins. While many people prefer to avoid physical altercations in real life, Reel Warriors lets players leave all that behind for a moment to heap devastation on their pixelated enemies whilst having a punt.

Packing a 90s/00s look, Reel Warriors takes users back to an earlier era of one-on-one fighting games, such as Street Fighter, Tekken, and so on, complemented by a fitting old school soundtrack that gets pretty hectic. In fact, the bonus round music is like stumbling into a hard house tent at the climax of the night, where party goers are throwing shapes like inflatable air dancers, having surrendered their bodies and minds to the DJ. In short, gamblers familiar with older versions of the video game Mortal Kombat should feel right at home playing Reel Warriors.

Conducted on a 5x4, 1,024 ways to win reelset, winning combinations can be formed from both sides - left to right from the leftmost side, or right to left from the rightmost side. Winning symbols are deleted from view, and their respective positions respin to land new symbols, providing another chance to win, keeping in mind other symbols do not tumble downwards or anything like that. A highly volatile slot, gamblers may stake 10c to $/€300 and can theoretically expect a top RTP of 96%. An ante bet is also available, at 1.5x the stake for twice the chance of getting the bonus.

Reel Warriors' low symbols are the letters C, O, M, B, A, and T, awarding 0.7x to 0.8x for a 5 OAK winning combination, while the highs are six various punch, kick, and elbow strike poses paying 0.9x to 13x the bet. Wilds help form winning combinations by substituting for any paying symbol. Wilds appear on the middle three reels 2, 3, and 4.

Reel Warriors: Slot Features

Consecutive hits in Reel Warriors lead to Hit Collector rewards in the base and bonus game, which also comes with several feature buys to hurry the action along.

Hit Collector

All hits (wins) progress the Hit Collector located above the reels. Every two consecutive hits unlock a reward, which is triggered at the end of the spin when no more wins are present. The rewards are:

• Low Symbol Upgrade - unlocked by two consecutive hits, which upgrades 1-6 low symbols to their corresponding high symbols.
• Board Expand - unlocked by four consecutive hits, which adds one extra row in the base game or up to two extra rows in the free spins round.
• Wild Throw - unlocked by six consecutive hits, adding 1 to 3 wilds to reels 2, 3, or 4.
• Bonus Game - eight consecutive hits trigger free spins with Persistent Hit Collector Rewards. This is only possible in the base game.

Bonus Game

After landing 8 consecutive hits in the base game, the bonus round is unlocked. Grid expansion is persistent in free spins, so when two rows have been added to the grid, the Board Expand reward is removed from the Hit Collector.

X-press

From the X-press section, players can buy Head Start for 5x to unlock the first reward. A gamble wheel costs 80x to activate and can award up to 9 free spins, though it can also end up awarding nothing depending on the outcome. Buying a 5 free spin bonus costs 80x, while the 9 free spin option with a higher chance of features costs 240x.

Reel Warriors: Slot Verdict

Reel Warriors put up a good fight, went a few rounds, but it didn't feel like a slot that's going to go the whole distance and take out the final win. It's a good concept, though, mixing the likes of Mortal Kombat with gambling. Maybe some more actual fighting might have given the game a greater impact, but then again, it might be hard to incorporate violent physicality into a slot without it feeling way over the top. So, players will have to content themselves with punching and kicking the gaming grid when progressing the Hit Collector and activating features from it.

The features aren't totally over the top, meaning they were easier to track than NetEnt's Street Fighter 2 slot was, if we're looking for a comparison. Two hits, boom, low symbol upgrade, four hits, board expansion, six hits, wilds, and eight hits, free spins. No problem, and no doubt these feature combinations can deal damage - up to a cap of 10,000x, but it also seemed like a final fatality producing killer combo was missing. Maybe a multiplier of some description might have boosted things. AvatarUX is good with those. Or sticky respins rather than respinning winning positions, or even just a more regular cascade effect? Of course, this is just daydreaming about different possibilities, really, like a KO'd cartoon boxer watching birds fly around their head.

It did mean that Reel Warriors was a tad unfulfilling by the end, as if a crucial element had been left out, and it felt outclassed by AvatarUX's more complexly engaging fight slot, DonKey & the GOATS. Still, as it is, Reel Warriors can pile on the hits, and trying to link as many high pay symbols on an expanded game grid made for an entertaining blast from the past 'Finish him!' demo.