Thunderstruck Stormchaser

Thunderstruck Stormchaser: Slot Overview

When it comes to superpowers, having the ability to call forth lighting from the sky is a pretty darn tootin' one. Storm from X-Men has the ability, as has David Lo Pan's henchman Lightning from Big Trouble in Little China. Few can bring it quite like our man Thor, though, who apparently can also shoot off something called Godblasts, which are strong enough to take down immortals and gods. Thor and his powers have been channelled into an online slot from Stormcraft Studios titled Thunderstruck Stormchaser, the fifth release in the Thunderstruck range of slots.

One of the reasons the Norse gods have stuck in the popular imagination so much is the quality of the stories or sagas that keep people coming back hundreds of years after they appeared. In Thunderstruck Stormchaser, the back story involves Thor heading out on a quest to retrieve his father Odin's spear and claim the throne of Asgard. The story has been fitted to a good-looking game, and Thunderstruck Stormchaser is set in the celestial realm of Asgard and is by far the most visually rich slot in the Thunderstruck range. The soundtrack is something else as well. It keeps things pretty chilled during the base game but trigger free spins, and the riff-heavy rock track is rather rockin'. To get a better understanding of the story, structure and progress, Stormcraft have shared a pretty cool trailer on their Youtube channel.

Highly volatile, the game is available in four RTP models, with the highest return to player value being 96.1%. It's played on a 5-reel game grid, with 4 rows and 1,024 ways to win. Wins occur when matching symbols land on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost side of the panel at a frequency of roughly 20%. Any device may be used, and bets vary from 20 p/c to $/€25 per spin.

Pay symbols begin with runically fonted 9-A card tiles, followed by an ominous tower, Yggdrasil, Asgard, a throne, ravens, and Thyra as the six higher value symbols. A five-of-a-kind win pays out 1-1.25x the bet when made up of royals or 1.5-4x the bet for five premium symbols. Thor is wild, so he can substitute for all normal pay symbols. Wilds appear on all reels and, when making wins of themselves, are worth up to 10x the bet for five of a kind.

Thunderstruck Stormchaser: Slot Features

Thunderstruck Stormchaser comes with a bunch of features, including Rolling Reels, Multiplier Symbols, Wildstorm, free spins with a multiplier and Wildstorm collect, plus a bonus buy option.

Rolling Reels

Rolling Reels removes winning ways from the grid when they hit, letting symbols fall down into the gaps. After the symbol drop, if a new win is created, it is also removed and replaced, and so on, like this, racking up consecutive hits until no new win appears.

Multiplier Symbols

Multiplier Symbols can land anywhere, displaying a multiplier of x2 to x20. Multiplier Symbol values are collected throughout a Rolling Reel sequence and applied to the winning total at the end of the spin. Collected multipliers are reset between base game spins.

Wildstorm

In the base game, the Wildstorm feature can randomly trigger, awarding a free spin with up to five wild reels fully stacked .

Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters symbols awards 1x, 5x, or 25x the bet, plus a spin of the free spins wheel. The wheel determines how many free spins are awarded and the starting multiplier value;

• 3 scatters award 7-12 free spins with a starting multiplier of x1 to x6.
• 4 scatters award 10-15 free spins with a starting multiplier of x3 to x9.
• 5 scatter triggers award 15-25 free spins with a starting multiplier of x5 to x12.

When spins and multipliers have been determined, a random number of Wildstorm tokens is also awarded. When multiplier symbols land in free spins at the same time as a win, their value is added to the total win multiplier. This total win multiplier is applied to the total win at the end of a spin. Randomly, Thor may increase the value of multiplier symbols. Keep in mind that the total multiplier is only applied to a win if a multiplier symbol hits on that spin as well. Landing 3 or more scatters awards +5 free spins. When scatters land, they also award a Wildstorm token. Collecting 12, 14, or 16 tokens awards 1, 2, or 3 Wildstorm spins when regular free spins end.

Buy Feature

Where available, clicking the feature buy button lets players buy free spins for 50x the bet. Doing so instigates a spin with 3, 4, or 5 triggering scatters.

Thunderstruck Stormchaser: Slot Verdict

Reach number five in a series that stretches back nigh on two decades, and you know you're onto something. Way back in an earlier age of online gambling, Thunderstruck fired off like a bolt of lightning, but it was the follow-up, Thunderstruck II, that really hit pay dirt. Since then, there's been a Mega Moolah version, a Wild Lightning edition, and now Stormchaser. This one is arguable the best-looking one of the lot and backs up its immersive audio-visuals with some entertaining gaming as well.

First, there's the Wildstorm feature which has starred in most of the Thunderstruck slots (as well as Jurassic Park Gold), helping tie the range together. It adds a little something to the base game and is an enjoyable way to end a round of free spins if enough tokens have been collected. The rest of the features don't blaze with innovation, yet they've all been woven together well, so Rolling Reels intermingle with multiplier symbols to produce the odd decent result. The bonus buy is worth a mention. Not only is it relatively 'cheap' compared to a lot of what's out there, but it also felt like good value as well, since players go through the free spins wheel section, the token award, then free spins, and maybe, hopefully, one or more Wildstorm spins at the end. None of the feature buys really blew up during testing, though none of them were particularly brutal either. Naturally, there is no way to guarantee results, and maybe we got lucky, yet the feature buy felt like it offered a solid level of entertainment for the cost.

The focus on entertainment value permeates almost all aspects of Thunderstruck Stormchaser. The only real niggle was hitting some lengthy load times between game phases, but they weren't deal breakers. Thunderstruck Stormchaser was actually surprisingly fun to play. Then again, perhaps it shouldn't be so surprising since it was produced by Terence Igesund, of Immortal Romance fame. In short, Thunderstruck Stormchaser rolls up its excellent artwork, head-banging music, and Marvel film-like quality to deliver a hearty, Thor-based spectacle.