Hellboy Pokie Machine
Based on the iconic comic book character developed by Mike Mignola in 1993, Hellboy is a feature-filled pokie that summons our heroic demon to life across 5 reels and 20 paylines. A fun theme, wild substitutions, scatter wins, free spins and a bonus game that takes players through the underworld have made this pokie a big hit wherever it’s available.
Although Hellboy was the subject of 2 films in 2004 and 2008, the game is firmly based on the comics, with no references to the movies at all. This has the advantage that Microgaming, who have released this pokie, don’t need to pay royalties to various actors and film studios, and can instead maximise returns on wagers.
Descending into the World of Hellboy
Anyone unfamiliar with the character should know the basics. Hellboy is a demon summoned by the Nazis in 1944 and who now works for the U.S. government Department of Paranormal Research and Defense. A couple of side characters make appearances in the game including half man half fish Abe Sapien, the beautiful but dangerous Liz Sherman and his adopted father Trevor Bruttenholm.
The game is presented in a fiery red hue with the reels dominating the screen and leaving just enough room for a title and background image of the city above them. Below, we find control buttons that players can use to set the size of their bets from just 0.01 to a maximum of 50.00 per spin.
Lower value symbols are the usual 10, J, Q, K and A, although they have all been drawn to fit in with the overall style. Wins occur when 3 or more of the same icon land on an active line, on adjacent reels running from the one on the left, with the 10 being worth 5x, 10x or 80x the coins bet per line when rows of 3, 4 or 5 land in place.
Hellboy
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Moving up through the payout schedule, we arrive at the picture symbols which are the various characters, and Hellboy of course takes prime position as the highest paying icon, being worth 50x, 500x or 5000x the line bet.
Players can summon up some extra wins with a couple of special symbols, starting with the Hellboy logo that’s a wild. It works by acting as other symbols if that helps to complete winning combinations, while just the wild on its own across a line will be worth up to 10,000x the coin value.
Hellboys’ stone hand features as a scatter symbol, so there’s no need for it to land on a payline to create a winning combination. Instead it can be scattered anywhere around the reels, and just 2 of them will be worth a prize of 2x the total bet per spin, while 3, 4 or 5 will pay 4x, 25x or 500x. Any 3 or more will also take players to the Underworld Bonus game.
This is an interactive round where they have to guide Hellboy through a series of tunnels to find a Relic of Power that’s guarded by various monsters. The aim is to click on a series of doors, with allies winning points and beasts or blocked tunnels ending the round, but if players get him through all 4 levels they get a big extra prize for finding the Relic.
There’s also a random free spins round, with 10 spins awarded in a so-called Supermode. Up to 3 spots on the reels will be turned into wilds that stay in position throughout the spins so players should be able to pick up a few wins here, although the free games can’t be retriggered.
After any win, players can opt to gamble it, doubling its value by correctly guessing if a playing card will be red or black, or quadrupling it for picking the right suit. They can keep going until the gamble limit is reached, but a wrong pick at any point loses the triggering bet and any gamble wins so far accumulated. Like all gamble games, it’s a pretty risky strategy and probably best tried just for fun rather than seen as a serious attempt to turn a modest win into a bigger one.
A Hell of a Game?
Hellboy should appeal to fans of the comics and movies, but anyone who hasn’t heard of the big red guy should still give this pokie a go, as it’s got some good features that can bring in some decent wins. With many pokies it’s easy to think of a couple of improvements that could have been made, but other than a lack of multiplier payouts with wilds, or in the free spins, Hellboy has pretty much covered it all.