Gator Hunters

Gator Hunters: Slot Overview

Not too long before this review was conducted, roughly half a year or so, software provider Nolimit City leapt on the scatter pays bandwagon with the release of Duck Hunters, a big bore slot that mixed the uber popular pay mechanic with a host of features, most notably individual position multipliers. It would seem the studio is neither done with scatter pays nor with blasting wildlife and has trekked outdoors, armed to the teeth, and dragged back Gator Hunters. Like its predecessor, scatter pays are bolstered by multipliers, but this time it's a total multiplier that is fed by Revolver bullet values, with no less than four bonus rounds to stalk toothy, leathery beasts through.

Where Duck Hunters' base game was like popping shots at wildlife from the front porch, Gator Hunters plunges players into the back country of, say, Louisiana, Georgia, or Florida, perhaps, somewhere the American alligator calls home. It took an internet search to confirm that alligator hunting is legal, with certain restrictions, and can be quite a lucrative business. Amongst other things, hunted alligators end up as belts, shoes, or meat. It's probably quite an exciting activity, too, if you're into that sort of thing. Even if you're not, Gator Hunters gives players the chance to pretend they're hunting big, wild, dangerous beasts from the comfort of their own home; after all, the game's maths might be considered pretty lethal in their own right.

Scatter pays slots can frequently be found played on a 6x5 gaming area, of which Gator Hunters is one. A win occurs when 8 or more matching symbols land anywhere on the reel area. Winning symbols vanish, and a symbol drop fills all of the empty spaces, repeating if a new combination appears. The hunt begins by selecting a stake of 20c to $/€100 per spin, and this being a Nolimit City slot means it overflows with extra ways to try your luck. It's also highly volatile, with the highest RTP variant coming in at 96.11%.

Gator Hunters' pay symbols include boots, binoculars, liquor bottles, traps, and baby gators as the low pays, then four-character symbols (is that Steve Irwin and Hillary Clinton?) as the highs. Winning combinations of 8-9 OAK pay 0.15x to 2.5x the bet, while the biggest clusters are 14+ size, worth 5x to 60x the bet.

Gator Hunters: Slot Features

Gator Hunters arms players with Eater symbols, Revolvers and multiplying bullets, four bonus rounds, bonus buys, boosters, and extra spins.

Eater Symbol

The Eater appears one at a time and triggers when there are no wins. The regular Eater removes a random number of symbols and all their instances, causing symbols to fall in. Then it turns wild. The Super Eater does the same thing, except it gets a multiplier of x2, x3, or x10 when it turns wild, which applies to wins it is part of.

Revolver

Revolver symbols trigger when there are no more wins and no Eater symbols. Each Revolver has a set of bullets with multipliers and empty positions. When triggered, the cylinder spins and chooses a random position. If a bullet is selected, its multiplier is added to the total win multiplier, which applies to the current spin's win. Up to 6 Revolvers of the same or different types may appear at once.

The regular Revolver spins once, whether it chooses a bullet or not, though it can spin again if activated by a Super Fire Revolver. The Super Revolver spins again if it selects a bullet. The Super Fire Revolver forces all Revolvers with bullets to spin again if it selects a bullet. Bullet multipliers are Purple x2-x8, Blue x10-x20, Orange x30-x75, Red x100-x500, and White x1,000-x2,000.

Swamp Spins

Landing 3 scatters awards 10 Swamp Spins. The total multiplier is kept during free spins and is applied to wins on spins where a Revolver lands and selects a bullet. Hitting 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatters during the feature awards a further 3, 5, 7, 10, or 15 free spins, respectively. Before the round begins, one of the following upgrades is randomly awarded:

• Extra Bullet x2 - all Revolvers have an additional x2 bullet.
• Extra Bullet x10 - all Revolvers have an additional x10 bullet.
• Super Eaters - all Normal Eaters are replaced by Super Eaters.
• Super Revolvers - all Normal Revolvers are replaced by Super Revolvers.

Frenzy Spins and Gator Spins

Landing 4 or 5 scatters triggers 12 Frenzy Spins or 15 Gator Spins, respectively. As well as keeping the Swamp Spins mechanics, Frenzy Spins award 2 upgrades, while Gator Spins award 3 upgrades.

Apex Predator Spins

Hitting 6 scatters triggers 18 Apex Predator Spins, which awards 4 upgrades while keeping the mechanics of Swamp Spins. Also, the Super Revolvers upgrade becomes Super Fire Revolvers upgrade, where all Revolvers are replaced by Super Fire Revolvers.

Nolimit Boosters & Feature Buys

At 2.5x the bet, players are guaranteed a scatter on reel 2. At 90x, an active Super Revolver is guaranteed, but no other symbols land, and the total multiplier achieved applies to the base bet. Super Fire Spins cost 400x and they guarantee a Super Fire Revolver with 5 bullets of different colours, though scatters do not land. Finally, Massacre Spins cost 1,200x the bet, and all Revolvers are replaced by Super Fire Revolvers with 1,000x and 2,000x bullets. From the Nolimit Bonus menu, it is possible to buy Swamp Spins, Frenzy Spins, Gator Spins, or Lucky Draw for 70x, 200x, 500x, or 250x the bet, respectively.

Extra Spin

When a round ends, players may be given the chance to buy an Extra Spin, keeping the total multiplier and all Revolvers with any remaining bullets. The cost is calculated by the state of the grid. Optimal RTP is achieved by not choosing the Extra Spin.

Gator Hunters: Slot Verdict

There are few studios that can tease, deny, sometimes tease, thrill, like Nolimit City can. Gator Hunters is a prime example. Those Revolvers, dang, they're like your best friend or number one nemesis. Sure, there's room for middle ground results when Revolvers spin, but it's the massive hits or misses that make the bigger impressions and linger in the consciousness longer. Unlike Gates of Olympus' active multiplier symbols (it's almost impossible to review a scatter pays slot and not mention this game somewhere), active Revolvers may or may not bestow multiplier values - depending on whether a bullet or blank position is hit. The thinking is Gator Hunters might be a tad too much for a casual gamblers' sensibilities. Maybe try toying with Massacre Spins (in demo) to find out. They could be unbelievably swingy. From peanuts, to, shoot, stack some x2,000s and sky's the limit. Sure, Massacre Spins is Gator Hunters in its most condensed, extreme form, but the rest of the game operates in a similar spirit, just maybe not quite as condensed or extreme.

Revolver symbols are what you want to see, but even hitting them doesn't guarantee anything is going to happen. They still need to spin and land on a bullet before any multiplier is going to touch the total win. Eaters are an interesting side show, and wilds in scatter pay slots aren't super common. Shame there is no mention of getting extra upgrades when retriggering free spins, as they might be a major help. There are some massive multipliers available, though, so the impression formed is that Gator Hunters is very volatile, possibly too volatile for regular scatter pays enthusiasts more used to games like Sweet Bonanza 1000 or Gates, and so on.

The final question is how Gator Hunters compares to Duck Hunters. As they say, opinions are like butt cracks; everyone's got one, so others may rightfully disagree, yet Gator Hunters wasn't as enjoyable as its duck bud. To be fair, when Gator Hunters is stacking massive multis, it is probably about as thrilling as Duck Hunters, but the other slot's individual position multipliers, whether inspired by Sugar Rush 1000 or not, were just something else. Despite the host of features, Gator Hunters could be hard going, and the audiovisual effects aren't as attention-grabbing as they can be in a Nolimit City slot, particularly the music, which is unusually low-key for the studio. However, with winning potential of 25,000x up for grabs, Gator Hunters might be a match with gamblers in the mood for scatter pays powered by extreme maths and multis.