Hockey Hero Slots

Hockey-Hero-slotHockey Hero is an RTG modern slot, a game that uses as a theme the sport of hockey. It’s an interesting game, one that tries its best to get the player into the right mood and to actually enjoy the graphics and the action. It has its share of good features as well, but the graphic part is one of its stronger advantages, especially since all the symbols are related to the theme and they didn’t use any playing cards. Hockey is a sport that is hugely popular in Canada, with quite a few other countries being also strong contenders.

The game’s list of features is complete, with the wild and the scatter being the special symbols, while free games, a Win-Win feature and the multiplier provide the rest of the entertainment. Hockey Hero doesn’t disappoint with its payouts either, offering you either one of the two small progressives, or the larger $100,000 top jackpot that its own symbols will award. This is one of the 25 paylines slots from RTG and it has 5 reels.

Features of Hockey Hero

You will notice on the paytable area that there are two big symbols that give you something extra. The wild and the scatter will give you access to all the other features in the game as well, so it’s always great to see them make appearances.

The substitute (wild) is the symbol marked Player, with the field hockey player in it. Unfortunately, you can get the wild to appear only on the reels 2 and 4. While on the screen, the wild can substitute for others and you get extra chances to form new combinations. You can’t replace a Clock or a Penalty Box symbol with it, but it works on all the other symbols. Add to the substitution powers a multiplier that doubles all prizes awarded thanks to it, and you get a pretty decent feature (though not as great as it could’ve been if it appeared on all the lines).

Penalty Box is the second great symbol I mentioned, the scatter. In this case, the role of the scatter is to get the player free spins and some cash prizes. The prizes are offered starting from two symbols or more that are present on the screen, without mattering what their position is. They are small at first, with two symbols awarding a prize worth the value of the initial bet, but they get bigger with each additional scatter, up to 200x the bet for five of them.

Hockey-Hero-slot-free-games

Free Games Feature

The same Penalty Box symbol will give the player the free games round, with up to 18 spins offered whenever 3+ scatters appear in the base game. You don’t actually know how many free spins you’re getting at first, since luck has a hand in this matter.

The Clock symbol will be added to the game, appearing only on the 1st reel at first, while the Peanut symbol is taken out of the free spins. Every 3 rounds, another symbol is taken out and another Clock is added to one of the reels. The game ends either when you get to 18 spins, or when you get two Clocks to appear during the same round.

This might sound like a pretty bad deal at first, but it could be good in the right circumstances. As long as the game takes out symbols, there are increased chances to get winning combinations formed since there are fewer possibilities available. Ideally, the game takes out only the low paying symbols, leaving you with better odds of getting the jackpot or one of the other big prizes.

Hockey-Hero-slot-win-win-feature

Win-Win Feature

This is another feature that I’ve enjoyed seeing, not unique but with good potential. It can only be triggered when the player is using the maximum of 25 paylines, plus the free games have to offer total payouts worth less than 10x the round bet.

If those conditions are met, the player receives a consolation prize, which depends on the actual amount won during the free games. If you didn’t win anything, you get a prize that is 200 times the bet value. With wins of up to 2x the bet, the payouts of Win-Win are 20x the wager. They go to 10x the bet when payouts are 2x to 5x, and then to 5x the bet for free spins payouts between 5x and 10x.

Betting options and jackpots

RTG’s standard betting system involves the use of single coins for each line, with their value set in the $0.01 – $5 interval. 25 paylines require bets of up to $125, but only if you want to get bigger prizes. As little as $0.25 can be used per spin otherwise.

While the betting is considered normal for RTG, the payouts are quite a bit larger than their average. In this case, you can get up to 10,000 coins ($50,000) from a regular five symbol combo or up to 20,000 coins ($100,000) if the wild’s multiplier is helping out.

Minor and Major progressives are offered on top, but the trigger is random and outside the control of this game.

Design and symbols

The game’s design is a great choice for this theme, with the hockey field used as the background, while the reels which are laid on top have black and blue vertical lines, with red borders between them. The symbol design uses high quality images, all of them related to the game theme.

Symbols: Player (wild), Penalty Box (scatter, 200x the bet), Rhino Logo (10,000x), Goalkeeper (5,000x), Referee (2,500x), Gold Trophy Cup (1,000x), Ice Skates (250x), Puck (250x), Mask (250x), Tickets (100x), Popcorn (100x), Beer (100x).

Hockey-Hero-paytable

Is It Worth Playing?

With the kind of payouts that this game will offer you, it doesn’t really matter if you’re a fan of hockey or not. As long as you’re not totally repulsed by it, give it a go and it might surprise you. Its unusual free spins and the Win-Win feature were both favorites of mine.

The Hockey Hero slot machine is offered through the RTG platform, so if you want to play it for real or just to practice, look out for casinos that use it.