Wild North Radiant Skies Go Collect

Wild North Radiant Skies GO Collect: Slot Overview

Wrap up warm, players, we're going borealis hunting with software provider Play'n GO in the icy north, where it gets chilly, and rather magical. The slot is Wild North Radiant Skies GO Collect, and it comes on the heels of the iconic Wild North slot, though not hot on the heels, since the original was released more than a decade ago. And while Wild North might not have achieved blockbuster status, there could be a sizable number of players intrigued by a reboot. Possibly more so if they're intrigued by what the GO Collect part of the deal is. Spoiler alert: if you were hoping for scandalous innovation, it might be best to cool those jets as we trek forth to see what Wild North Radiant Skies has to offer.

A snowy wilderness is the setting once again, and in the base game, players are treated to a chilly scene of icy water and frigid trees. Bonus games increase the majesty factor, as they play out before a mighty mountain beneath the aurora borealis. Hopefully, you like the view because Wild North Radiant Skies is a game that triggers its bonus round often, at least, it did during the review. A graphical spruce up has occurred, but more than enough of the original spirit has been retained that if you squint hard, the two games may be tough to tell apart.

A 5x4 reel set spins through animals and royals and has 40 paylines for evaluating winning combinations. Buried in the snow is a low volatility math model, which, at best, has an RTP of 96.2%. That other crucial mathematical component, volatility, has been rated 4 out of 10, putting it on the lower side, and players may stake $/€0.10 to $/€100.

Wild North Radiant Skies' set of pay symbols is made up of 10-A card ranks, followed by five animal symbols - Owl, Wolf, Bear, Reindeer, and Fox. Hitting 5 matching symbols in a winning line pays 1x to 4x the bet. When wilds are on the reels, either the regular Lynx wild or the temporary wilds during features, they substitute for all paying symbols. A line of five Lynx wilds pays 10x the stake.

Wild North Radiant Skies GO Collect: Slot Features

Under the GO Collect heading, Footprint tokens may appear on animal symbols in the base game, and are collected to the Call of the Aurora when they land. When collecting a token, the Northern Lights Wheel may trigger. The more tokens collected, the higher the chance of triggering it. The wheel awards one of five bonus games - 3 respins are awarded for each, except in the Majestic Fox feature:

• Owl's Wisdom - Owl symbols appear either as two 2x2 symbols (on reels 1-2 and 4-5) or one 4x4 symbol (on reels 2-5). On each free spin, 2x2 Owl symbols may shift positions, or they may change between the two sizes.
• Savage Bear - Before each spin, a random multiplier up to x10 is revealed and applied to any win.
• Wolves in the Wild - Wolf symbols act as sticky wilds. Another spin is granted when a new Wolf symbol lands. At the start of the feature, four sticky wild symbols are randomly placed on the reels.
• Wilderness Reindeer - Reindeer symbols act as full reel expanding wilds. Expanding wilds move one reel to the left on each spin. When new Reindeers land, they become expanding wilds. One respin is awarded each time extra Reindeer symbols land. At the start of the feature, one expanding wild is randomly placed on the reels.
• Majestic Fox - A grid of 20 tiles appears. Players pick tiles one at a time to reveal prizes, which include cash prizes or one of the bonus games. When a bonus game is revealed, it plays out, then players return to the tile grid to pick another one. Selection continues until an X is revealed or the max win is reached.

Wild North Radiant Skies GO Collect: Slot Verdict

Wild North Radiant Skies is a bit of an odd one. Play'n GO's GO Collect feature debuted in Book of Dead GO Collect, which added a jackpot element to the studio's legendary 'book of' slot. Some may have cried sacrilege, and it is hard to argue with that. In Wild North Radiant Skies, the GO Collect appears to add, well, not much, really. The gameplay is very much as it was when the original was released around 11 years ago; there are no jackpot prizes next to the reels, and it seems like GO Collect is simply the name given to the collection of tokens used to trigger the Northern Lights Wheel instead of landing scatters to activate the bonus phase. Hard to know what to make of that.

Moving on, and what was clearer in the review is that Wild North Radiant Skies was a game which triggered its bonus features often. And there is an interesting variety of them to discover. From giant symbols, to win multipliers, expanding wilds, sticky wilds, and a pick me round. The issue wasn't variety, just how weak the bonus features could be, and very modest payouts were common. Three spins, they're just not a lot, and would often quickly fizzle out before they had a chance to build something half decent. Furthermore, in a bizarre twist, Wild North Radiant Skies has dialled down winning potential to 2,000x the bet. Which, while being on the low side, felt like Mount Everest after seeing what the bonus features could, or couldn't, do.

Branding this as a GO Collect title suggests some sort of added layer or modern twist, and while tokens are collected, fair enough, what's delivered is essentially a lightly refreshed Wild North with familiar mechanics under a new label. The GO Collect part of Book of Dead GO Collect wasn't the most exciting innovation to pour forth from the Play'n GO workshop, and in Wild North Radiant Skies, it's the second time it feels closer to pointless than exciting. Hopefully, the next time it'll do something special because so far, GO Collect has been underwhelming.