Tally Ho Pokies
Tally Ho! Is the traditional cry from fox hunters as they set of on horseback to do whatever they do and while many people may be repulsed by the idea of basing an online pokie on this controversial sport they needn’t worry, as in this world, the fox is lord of the manor.
He’s top dog in a game that features 5 reels and just 9 paylines, while players can hunt down some nice, if fairly standard, bonus features such as free spins, wild substitutions and a gamble game.
Players can brush away any worries, as this game comes from one of the most trusted and respected developers in the business, so the Return To Player ratio will always be fair and equitable.
Playing Tally Ho
This is an older style pokie and it really shows in the quality of the animations. That’s not to say that they are bad, but there’s no real flair to the design of this game, with a plain background image of a few leaves and branches behind standard white reels.
This extends to the control buttons beneath the game, which are the same ones found on many other pokies, although these are tried and tested designs that actually work perfectly well. The range of possible bets goes from just 0.01, or 0.09 if all lines are activated, up to 90.00 per spin, plus there’s an Expert mode that sets the reels spinning for a selected number of times and can be set to stop them if certain win or loss limits are reached.
Symbols at the lower end of the payscale are made up of various posh types of food, of the sort that our dapper fox would serve for afternoon tea, presumably after his hunt had chased some humans around the countryside.
We see some tasty cheesecake, cheese and biscuits, scones, sandwiches, a bowl of strawberries and cream and of course, a teapot and lovely cup of tea.
The higher value symbols are a gate, complete with the fox family crest, a vintage sports car, the palatial mansion that our friendly fox lives in, Mrs. Fox and the main man himself, dressed to go hunting and smoking a pipe.
Tally Ho
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Bonus Bits
He’s the highest value regular symbol, but a horse acts as a wild symbol and also pays out the biggest wins when it lands across an active line. Just 2 are needed to make up a win, while this will also act as any other, with the exception of the scatter symbol, if it can complete winning combinations, doubling the base value any time it does so.
The hunting horn is a scatter symbol, so there’s no need for it to stop across a line to pay out a win, and any time 2 or more land, players get paid multiples of the total bet per spin. Any 2 scatters will be worth 2x the stake and landing 5 at once will equal a reward of 500x.
Additionally, there’s a free spins round that starts off whenever 3 or more scatters appear, with 10 spins playing out automatically. Any winning combinations during this round will be quadrupled in value, and if 3 or more scatters land at any point throughout them, the free spins will be re-triggered.
Like many pokies from Microgaming, this one has a gamble round that players can choose to enter after a win. By correctly guessing if a playing card will be red or black, they can double the amount won, while getting the right suit quadruples it, with the option to multiply it again and again until the gamble limit is reached. These are tricky to get right however, so maybe best played with smaller wins rather than bigger ones that would be missed if it all went wrong.
The Verdict
This older game may not have much in the way of stunning visuals, but it looks OK and has a fun theme with a nice twist. The lower value symbols are a bit of a strange choice although there’s probably not much related to a hunting fox that Microgaming could have used instead, so we’ll let them off that one.
Bonus features are pretty good for a game of this vintage, especially when the free spins with their big multipliers come into play, while doubling any wins made with the wild symbol is a nice little extra.
Players just need to be careful with that gamble round as these are notorious for turning a win into a loss rather than the other way around.