Siberian Storm Pokie
Tigers and colourful claw ornaments make up the majority of the symbols in Siberian Storm, one of the biggest pokies from IGT at both land based and online casinos. The combination of majestic cats, a great layout that makes it easier to line the symbols up for a win and additional treats like stacked wilds and a free spins game have kept Siberian Storm as one of the top dogs, or cats, for a number of years.
Like many other pokies from the same developer, this game has adopted the Multiway Xtra format, where there’s no need for symbols to land across defined paylines and instead, just getting them on adjacent reels running from the left or the right sides is enough to create a win. If there’s more than one example of the winning symbol on any single reel, the prize is multiplied and because there’s up to 5 symbols on a reel, it’s possible for a 5x multiplier to be applied for some decent payouts.
With Siberia being the theme, this pokie is inevitably set in a wintery environment and true to form, there’s a frost-covered forest making up the background image. It sits behind some unusual reels where the 2 outer ones are 3 symbols high, going inwards, the next are 4 symbols high and the middle reel contains 5 symbols, for a hexagonal effect that makes it relatively easy to line matching images on reels 1 and 2, but slightly more tricky to get a third on the middle reel for a prize.
Playing Siberian Storm
Players will need to wager at least 0.50 on a spin of this game, as it’s not possible to activate just a line or two for a tiny stake simply because there aren’t any. The maximum bet per spin is 25.00, so high rollers may want to look elsewhere if they want to win a fortune, although a jackpot of 1000 coins isn’t bad.
Lower value symbols are the green and purple claw ornaments and these are worth 5, 15 or 50 coins when landing on 3, 4 or 5 consecutive reels from either side, but it’s worth remembering that like all base game wins, this amount can be multiplied by having several of the same type on a single reel.
Next up is a blue double-claw ornament that’s worth up to 100 coins, and then a horn will pay 10, 25 or 100 when landing across the reels, with a pendant worth 15, 30 or 125. The top value symbols are a bit nicer to look at, as we have a couple of beautifully drawn tigers, the white being worth up to 300 coins and the orange paying 400 when landing across all 5 reels at once, while the game logo pays 50, 150 or the 1000 coin jackpot.
Siberian Storm
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Bonus Features
A further picture of the white tiger is wild in Siberian Storm, and whenever this lands on reels 2, 3 or 4, it will be able to act as any other base symbol to help complete winning combinations. It can either fill in the gaps across sequential reels, or stretch lines of matching symbols across extra reels for a higher payout. The wild will also appear stacked on the reels, which makes its job easier, although it can’t substitute for the scatter or bonus symbols however, as these work differently to others.
The scatter doesn’t need to land in any particular patterns, and as long as 3 or more appear at once, players get paid a prize that will be multiples of the total triggering bet, not just the coin value. If 3 scatters appear, the win is 2x, while 4 are worth 10x and a nice 50x reward is awaiting anyone who lands 5 scatters at once.
A tiger’s eye is abonus symbol that triggers a free spins game when it stops on 5 consecutive reels at once. Although only 8 free spins are given out, if more than 1 line of this symbol triggers the round, the number of spins is multiplied, to a maximum of 96, and it’s possible to retrigger the games over and over to a huge 240 free games. Although different reels and symbols are used for the free spins, the payouts are just the same as in the base game.
The Verdict
By using IGT’s Multiway Xtrapayout system, Siberian Storm has been given a popular layout which many players actively seek out, and coupled it with an attractive design. The potential for lots of winning spins and some nice multipliers makes this pokie a roaring success, but while stacked wilds, scatter payouts and free spins are always welcome additions to any game, they are nothing particularly ground-breaking.