Mammoth Thunder Pokie Machine
Stampeding into online casinos worldwide, Mammoth Thunder is a beast of a pokie from Aussie developer Aristocrat, that comes with 5 reels, 50 lines and features such as wild substitutions, scatter payouts and free spins with bonus reels.
Themed around prehistoric creatures, the reels are adorned with a caveman, sabre-toothed tiger, grizzly bear and a deer, plus the playing card symbols that create the lower-value wins. It all adds up to a good-looking game that sees the symbols stacked over 4 rows, with wins coming whenever 3 or more of the same type stop across any line in an unbroken sequence running from the left or right sides.
By having winning combinations running in both directions, there’s effectively 100 lines and twice the chance to get a prize paid out, which is reason enough for many people to take a look at it.
Prehistoric Payouts?
With 50 permanently activated lines running across the reels, player will need to stake at least 0.50 on a spin, and to see what each winning combination is worth, they should check the details on the paytable.
This shows the standard playing card icons to be worth the least, with 10x, 50x or 200x the line bet returned when 3, 4 or 5 of them stop in the right places. All the card symbols are worth the same amount, which kind of defeats the object of having them, as players don’t instinctively know what each is worth in relation to each other, but at least they won’t be in for any surprises when lining them up.
The deer and bear are both worth 20x, 70x or 400x, while the tiger and caveman return 30x, 100x or 500x depending on how many land across a line. The mammoth is the biggest beast and so pays the biggest prizes, with 3 being worth 50x the line stake, while 4 will pay out 200x and if the shaggy creature stops across all 5 reels, players are in for a nice 1000x reward.
Mammoth Thunder
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Beastly Bonuses
There’s more to just spinning these reels and lining symbols across the lines, as some Neolithic niceties include a wild and scatter symbol that trigger the extra features.
Some kind of green crystal serves as the wild symbol and while it may have nothing to do with the prehistoric theme, it looks nice and rewards players with extra wins when it substitutes for other symbols to create winning lines where there would not have been one without it.
The wild only appears on the middle 3 reels though, so it’s got no value apart from completing lines, while it also cannot substitute for the scatter symbol which is represented as an image of the pointy end of a spear.
This only has to land in any 3 positions to pay out a win of 4x the triggering bet and once this has been credited, players enter a free spins round. 10 spins will commence and during each of them, extra wilds are added to reels 2, 3 and 4 which should go some way to bringing in extra wins.
If 3 scatters appear during these games, a further 10 will be awarded, with the new round starting off as soon as any left in the current round have finished.
The Verdict
Mammoth Thunder has an unusual theme, with most pokies set in these times going for a cartoon look, but it’s none the worse for it and has some interesting features.
The main point isn’t actually the free spins or wild wins, as these are pretty standard, but the way winning combinations can run from either side of the reels, effectively doubling the number of lines and leading to lots of ways symbols can create one.
It means players should get frequent, but less valuable payouts rather than having to wait ages for a winning spin and perhaps getting a larger prize.
Anyone who likes this style of playing should give these reels a spin, but they shouldn’t expect any stunning bonuses.