Hook’s Heroes Pokie
Captain Hook has leapt from the pages of the Peter Pan stories to a fantastic pokie by Swedish casino games developer Net Ent. The Hook’s Heroes video pokie sees his merry band of pirates bobbing around in a unique animated fashion across 5 reels and awarding players with bonus features such as 3 distinct free spins rounds and wild substitutions.
Anyone old enough to remember Captain Pugwash will recognise the style which has cardboard-effect cut-outs of the Sun, clouds and palm trees to the sides of the reels, all held up by string and there’s even a little hand moving the ship around the bobbing waves. It all adds up to a great-looking game that’s very different from most others and has a suitably jaunty soundtrack to go along with the piratey adventures on the reels.
This is a 20 payline game where 3 or more of the same symbol stopping on adjacent reels across a line running form the left side will be needed for a standard payout, but as we shall see, there’s several other ways that coins can be awarded in the many bonus features. While free Hook’s Heroes video pokie games can be played, to win real cash players will need to stake at least 0.20, which can be raised to a maximum bet of 200.00.
Playing Hook’s Heroes
Although playing card symbols are used to create the lower-value winlines, each has been designed to fit in with the theme and to look like cardboard cut-outs that have had clouds, teeth or crossbones added to them. The 10 is worth 5, 30 or 100x the line bet when 3, 4 or 5 land, while the top playing card wins come from the A that returns 10, 70 or 200x.
Higher payouts are awarded by Hook’s crew, each of which will become animated when they are part of a winning combination. These fun characters include a portly guy with an eyepatch, someone wearing a stripy hat pulled down over their eyes, a sulking girl and a voodoo-inspired crewmember with a skull painted on his face. This symbol is worth 50, 300 or 900x the line bet, which is the most that can be won in the normal run of play.
Hook turns up as a wild symbol, able to replace his crew or the card icons if that can complete a winning line. He isn’t worth anything on his own however and just serves to either fill in the gaps in a run of matching symbols or to extend a winning line further across to the right of the reels which will result in a higher payout.
Hook’s Heroes
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Bonus Features
A pirate in a crocodile outfit will take players to the various bonus features when he lands in any 3 places at once, although just 2 will be needed for a single free spin with a randomly-awarded extra twist thrown in. Those extras are also available when 3 or more scatter symbols trigger the main features, with players able to pick from any of three free spins games.
If they choose the Fairy free spins, they will get 7 bonus games playing out and during these between 2 to 5 wild symbols will appear in random positions on each spin. The Mermaid free spins round consists of 10 games and any wins are doubled in value, except those created with the help of the wild symbol which are quadrupled.
Anyone going for the Pirate free spins will get 15 games and in a unique twist, all symbols will pay out for 3 of a kind in any positions, effectively becoming extra scatters, although wild symbols won’t appear in this round. This should be more than enough however, to ensure plenty of real cash wins, although all of the bonus rounds are potentially lucrative and most gamblers will probably want to try them all out. If 4 scatters triggered the games, players get to enjoy 2 rounds and if 5 scatters appeared, then they can pick all 3 free spins games or just play the same one several times over.
The Verdict
This pokie has become a big hit at online casinos where Net Ent games are carried, and it’s hardly surprising. The fun design and nice animations are one thing, but it’s in the bonus rounds that players are really going to plunder the casino, as no matter which feature they choose, there’s sure to be some big rewards paid out before the games end.
Like many Net Ent online casino games, it’s not mobile-optimised unfortunately, and while 0.20 is hardly much to stake on a spin, it could put off a few people who like to play with micro-bets, but these issues aside, Hook’s Heroes is a good quality pokie that we are happy to recommend.