Wild Skullz: Slot Overview
Do you wanna rock? I said, do you wanna... Anyway, we're all going to be rocking today, there are no exceptions. The reason why is that software provider Pragmatic Play has designed the musically themed online slot Wild Skullz. Take note, that's Skullz with a 'z', not an 's', so you know this game means business. As well as a bunch of dudes dedicated to rocking, Wild Skullz gets its head banging on through expanded wild reels with multipliers of up to x512, and that's about it, though there is a free spins round which relies on them as well to scope.
If the name wasn't enough of a clue, the band in this game is of the heavy rock variety, sporting spikes, leather, and boots, giving off the impression that they are not here to play nice. With their selection of aggressive masks, the band also comes across as a sort of knock-off version of, say, Slipknot, for example. Still, the game rocks pretty hard, especially for a generic no-name, home-made musical group rather than a known brand. Of course, doing it this way means no license, so Pragmatic Play doesn't have to share the gate sales with anyone.
A ticket to the show, so to speak, costs $/€0.20 to $/€240 per spin, and plays out on a 5x3 grid with 243 ways to win. A highly volatile math model keeps the beat, producing a theoretical RTP of 96.44% at the highest configuration.
The 10 to Ace royals come wrapped in chains, and they pay 0.75x to 1.25x the bet for 5 OAK. More chains appear on the premium symbols, which include keyboards, mikes, drums, and guitars. They pay 2.5x to 6.25x the stake for a 5-of-a-kind winning combination. Wilds, regular, and expanded, substitute for all symbols except the scatter.
Wild Skullz: Slot Features
The game's name is no misnomer as it relies on expanded wilds, at times with multipliers, to provide thrilling moments. These are available in the base game and are needed in the bonus round to keep free spins going. On an optional note, gamblers have access to special bets and feature buys.
Expanded Wilds
An expanded wild counts as a single symbol when it hits. In the base game, they can appear on all reels except the leftmost reel. Expanded wilds can land with a multiplier of x2 to x512. When part of a winning combination, the multiplier applies to the relevant wins. Only one expanded wild can land on a spin.
Free Spins
Hitting 3 scatters triggers 5 free spins. On the first spin, an expanded wild appears on the rightmost reel. For each of the following free spins, it moves in order to reels 4, 3, 2, and 1. Additional scatters may land on the rightmost reel, and when one does, the expanded wild moves back to the rightmost reel. The expanded wild initially lands without a wild. The first win it is part of grants it an x2 multiplier, which is doubled on each subsequent spin when it is involved in a win. The round ends when the expanded wild reaches the leftmost reel, and no scatter is in view.
Special Bets & Feature Buys
The two special bets are an ante bet and the super spin. The ante bet costs 5x, making the chance of triggering free spins ten times higher. Super spins cost 10x, and they guarantee an expanded wild, but free spins cannot trigger when using them. Players are also able to buy free spins for 100x or super free spins for 600x, where the expanded wild's starting multiplier is x32.
Wild Skullz: Slot Verdict
Wild Skullz has come up with one good guitar riff, and dammit, it's going to belt it out as long and as hard as possible. The riff in question is the expanded wild symbol, but Wild Skullz does make deviations along the fretboard with it. One of its most powerful aspects is the ability to get and double its multiplier when used in subsequent wins. Wild Skullz drops a little teaser of this ability in the main game, before dialling everything up to 11 during free spins, potentially, or not, there are no guarantees after all.
It was a teensy let down to find out there can only be one expanded wild on the reels at a time. The thought of two or more of them dancing around the grid was a spicy one. But having just one isn't a deal breaker on account of several factors. One is the fact that the multiplier can blossom to rather high values, maybe randomly in the base game, progressively so in free spins, provided the wild is linking with winning combinations. Another plus is the way the wild resets the free spins cycle by moving back to the rightmost reel when scatters hit, keeping the round alive a bit longer. And yet another is the decision to use ways rather than paylines to evaluate wins.
Combined, it gives Wild Skullz the technical ability to keep the rhythm tight while laying out a beat of up to 10,000x the stake. That's a pretty thick icing on the cake for players who possess wild progressive multiplier reels in heavy rock concert tendencies.
A bit of a one-trick pony perhaps, but Wild Skullz is able to use what it's got to rock quite hard.
