Wolf Strike

Wolf Strike: Slot Overview

If you're the type of player who fantasises about dropping the façade of 'civilisation', letting your bestial nature take over, and running wild through the prairies howling at the moon, maybe Wolf Strike from developer Iron Dog Studio is the game for you. Especially if Pragmatic Play's popular Wolf Gold slot is a personal favourite since the two games are exceptionally similar in terms of atmosphere and features. As well as free spins, respins, and nugget prizes, one minor innovation is an expanding wild symbol that collects prize nuggets when it grows.

Wolves are an adaptable species which can thrive in a wide range of habitats, but in slots, they tend to live in canyon country, like the one depicted in Wolf Strike. In the middle of the screen sits a 5-reel, 3-row game panel while shooting stars light up the sky above rocky outcrops, waterfalls, trees, and water features. This is classic imagery found in countless wolf slots, so it was tough to get excited about Wolf Strike's looks. Suffice to say; Iron Dog has done a satisfactory job creating a familiar picture, though they had plenty of games to borrow ideas or find inspiration from.

Playable on any device, Wolf Strike is a medium volatile slot offering stakes of 20 p/c to $/€50 per spin. You might have thought Iron Dog would do something like tack on an eye-catching RTP to draw players away from the competition. They haven't, it turns out, with Wolf Strike's theoretical return value coming in at 95%. As for the potential, it is pretty bang on average for this sort of game as you will see, so no particular concerns were raised over its numbers.

Making their way across the game grid are 20 fixed paylines where winning combinations of matching symbols can land. Non-bestial low pays are made up of 9-A card royals, then followed by buffalo, deer, and cougars as the premium symbols. Landing five symbol winning lines is worth 1.5-10x the bet for five lows or 18 to 25 times the bet for five high pays. Wild wolf symbols are the most valuable paying symbol in the game, paying out up to 50x the bet for a line of five. Wolf wilds can also be used to substitute any normal paying symbol to complete a winning line.

Wolf Strike: Slot Features

Like watching reruns of Friends for the 19th time, there won't be much in Wolf Strike that's new. Features in the game include free spins, a hold & win bonus, expanding wild collections, and nugget prizes.

Golden Nuggets and Strike Nuggets

Nugget symbols can appear in any position, and there are two types. Landing at least 6 of either kind triggers the Hold & Win feature. Once in, 3 spins are awarded where the triggering nuggets stick in place while all other symbols fade away. The empty positions respin, and if new nuggets hit, they stick while the spin counter is reset. When spins run out, the total of all nugget values is awarded, or, if all positions are filled, the winning total is multiplied by x2.

The difference between the two nugget types is that Golden Nuggets display a prize value, Strike Nuggets do not. If a wild lands on the same reel as 2 Golden Nuggets, the wild expands and collects their prize values. However, when 3, 4, or 5 Strike Nuggets land, players win the Mini, Minor, or Major Payout, worth 50, 250, or 1,000 times the stake, respectively.

Free Spins

Scatters appear once on any reel, and having 3, 4, or 5 of them in view awards 8, 12, or 20 free spins, respectively. The Hold & Win can be won from free spins, and landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters awards an extra 4, 6, or 10 additional free spins.

Wolf Strike: Slot Verdict

Has Iron Dog kind of dropped the ball of late? If yes, it's surprising since not long ago the studio picked up a Rising Star Award and Game of the Year for Branded Megaways. How much stock can be placed in some award ceremonies in the iGaming industry is certainly up for debate and a topic for another day. Branded Megaways wasn't a particular innovative slot, though its use as a template for future games makes sound business sense. From a player perspective, though, having a reusable slot template did mean a bunch of insipid Megaways titles followed. Britain's Got Talent Megaways was one disappointing example which sticks in the mind like a stubborn piece of grit that toothpicks struggle to extract.

Speaking of disappointing, let's turn our focus to Wolf Strike, which is very much like Wolf Gold, except five years late to the party. Wolf Strike sits in a fairly numerous game category, begging the question, how many of these games do players really need? We're talking about being out in the North American countryside chasing scatters to trigger free spins or hold & win respins. Wolf Strike's only real new bit is the expanding wild symbol. It's alright, nothing special. Wild expansions occur every so often, thereby collecting a couple of nuggets and maybe linking up a line win or two. The feature might have been more interesting in another game but being attached to such a hollow knock-off robs it of much of the clout it could have garnered elsewhere. For those keeping score, the maximum payout in Wolf Strike is 5,100x the bet, which, when hit, will end any bonus round currently in play.

Maybe if Iron Dog had just… nope, there's not much we could suggest to really justify Wolf Strike's existence. Let's sum up by saying Wolf Strike is the sort of uncreative game a rookie company might have made or a studio that's running short of new ideas. Iron Dog couldn’t be classed as a rookie, and Wolf Strike might well strike a chord with Wolf Gold aficionados, but it makes one wonder.