Silver Wolf Pokies
With a slightly unusual layout that sees up to 120 lines in play, the Silver Wolf pokie from Aristocrat could leave people overwhelmed, but they shouldn’t be barking up the wrong tree, as in reality it’s quite simple to play and has the potential for some big rewards.
A popular American wildlife theme, free spins, stacked wild symbols and the option to play 1 set of reels or go for all 5 sets, should be enough to draw in players at the many casinos when Aristocrat games are included.
It’s found in the Helix style cabinet, where wide screens make the details of the game pop out, but above the main reels, players will see 4 smaller sets, while above these is the game title and a majestic-looking wolf who oversees the action. It all looks a bit complicated, but rather than howling at the appearance, potential players should first take a quick look at how it works.
Playing Silver Wolf
Right at the top of the cabinet is a sign that declares this game uses the Mega Line Power reel and payout format, and we’ll cover this tricky topic first.
The main part of the game is a perfectly standard 5 reel, 40 payline setup, where winnings come when 3 or more matching symbol types stop across a line, on adjacent reels running from the left side. All very simple and straightforward so far then.
It gets a little more complicated when players choose to activate the secondary reels, as they have the option to spin between 1 and all 4 sets, adding 20 lines with each. Obviously, it costs a little more, but having a total of 120 paylines in play should bring in lots and lots of winning combinations.
Wild symbols also take on special duties when playing extra reels. The silhouette of a howling wolf in front of a full Moon is wild, so it can substitute for other symbols to help complete lines, but any time it appears on a secondary set of reels, it will be copied into the same position on the main ones, leading to lots of substitutions and more winning spins, with multiple combinations in a single spin easily achieved.
In practice, it’s quite simple, although no matter how many sets are activated, it has been designed to give similar returns to player on average.
All reels use the same symbols, with the ever-present playing card icons 9, 10, J, Q, K and A being the ones that will bring in the smaller, but more frequent winning lines, while the unique picture symbols consist of and eagle, bear, salmon and owl, as well as the high-paying wolf itself.
Silver Wolf
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Bonus Features
The Mega Line Power format isn’t the only bonus feature that players will see, as there is also a free spins game to be triggered by 3 or more snowflakes landing anywhere on any set of the reels at once.
This scatter symbol will trigger 8 free spins when 3 appear, 12 games if 4 land at once, and should 5 or more scatters float onto the reels at once, players are awarded 25 spins, during which the wild symbol becomes even more valuable.
In the normal run of play, single wild symbols move down to the main reels, but during the free games, any time the wild appears on an upper set of reels, the reel will ‘nudge’ to become covered in wilds, which will then move to the main set.
It’s easy to get several reels filled with the wild symbol this way, so even if just 8 free spins are playing out, there should be multiple wins throughout them, and if 25 have been awarded, players are in for some serious payouts.
If 2 scatters stop on the reels on a free spin, a further 5 spins will be added to the total, while the whole round will be re-triggered by 3 or more of them.
The Verdict
Silver Wolf takes a very popular theme and pleasing design, and turns it into something new with the Mega Line Power arrangement. While the extra cost of activating all those sets of reels has to be taken into consideration, the multiple chances to get wins from wild substitutions will on average cancel it out.
This means that players who like see lots of wild symbols should activate as many of the reels as they can, while those who are content with a normal pokie, where wild substitutions are an added benefit, not the main reason to play, could just stick to the main set of reels.
This will still see scatter wins and the free spins bonus game being triggered, so it’s just a matter of personal preference.