There’s plenty to like about Wild Gambler – Arctic Adventurer, but it’s a game that’s mildly complicated to figure out. Read out full review to give yourself the best chance of knowing what you’re doing before you press the ‘Spin’ button. And, if you like this one, you’ll probably also want to check out the other version of this game, Wild Gambler, which is essentially the same game but set in Africa.
Special Features
It’s the special features of Arctic Adventure that mean it’s a little tricky to know what you’re doing when you first sit down and play it. Here’s an explanation of how each of them work:
Polar Bear Wilds
In Arctic Adventure the Wild symbols are made up of a groovy looking Polar Bear. They’ll substitute in for any symbol apart from Scatters, so seeing one will mean that you’ve got an increased chance of a previously losing line becoming a winning one. Hit five across your lines and you’ll get paid out for a win all of its own.
Lock & Spin
The exciting feature of Arctic Adventure is the Lock & Spin option that is available to you once a Wild has landed on an active line. It allows you to lock your Wild in place before your reels spin, meaning that you don’t lose it if it’s a loser the first time around. If you then find another Wild lands underneath it then you’ll notice that the Win Multiplier for the original Wild increases by one. You can end up Multiplying your line by up to five. Do be aware, though, that locking Wilds in place will increase your stake. You’ll see how much you’re betting in the ‘Total Bet’ box above the ‘Lock & Spin’ symbol.
Play Your Way
If you don’t want to wait for a Wild to land on your screen in order to lock it in place then you don’t need to. You can click on any symbol on any reel and it will transform into a Locked Wild. You can even dictate the Line Wins by up to five times, should you wish to. You can then either click on the minus sign or on the padlock to remove the Locked Wild from your game. The minimum amount that you’ll win can be found by hovering your mouse over the ‘Lock & Spin’ button, just in case you want to know what you could receive for a winning spin.
It’s not just the number of Wilds and the possible Multiples that can be dictated by the Play Your Way feature of Arctic Adventure. You can also specify the amount involved in your stake by clicking on the plus and minus buttons located next to the ‘Total Bet’ box. It’s essentially another way to remove Locked Wilds and Multipliers from said Wilds, but it’s fun all the same and allows you to control how much you’re staking.
Auto-Lock
This is essentially a derivative of the Lock & Spin feature, allowing you to Auto-Lock any Wilds that land on your pay lines. This stops you from needing to worry about pressing to padlock next to the Wilds in order to keep them in place, doing it all for you. Of course, some of you might have specific patterns that you want to play with your Wilds and if that’s the case then you’ll want to turn this feature off. That’s easy enough to do and you’ll know that it’s disabled because the padlocks on the Wild symbols will be red. Have Auto-Lock on and those same padlocks will be black. For your information, Auto-Lock is enabled automatically, so you’ll have to actively turn it off if you don’t want it.
Coin Symbol Free Spins
There is one symbol that you’ll be hoping to see throughout your time playing Wild Gambler – Arctic Advbenture, which is the Free Spins coin. If you land three or more of them on active lines then you’ll be rewarded with a series of Free Spins. How many Free Spins you get will depend entirely on how many Free Spin coins land on your reels. Three of them will see you get seven Free Spins, four will result in twelve Free Spins and five coins will see you get twenty Free Spins. If you’ve locked a Wild or Multiplier in place before you hit the Free Spin game then they’ll stay in place during it, whilst any new Wilds that appear during the Free Spin game will be locked into place automatically for the duration.
Gameplay & RTP
96% is a very good Return To Player average, allowing you to feel as though you’re getting decent enough bang for your buck. It’s still a little bit below the 98% that we think is nirvana, but it’s well above the most common number of 94% so that’s worth acknowledging. It’s an RTP that should, theoretically, allow you to start off with a reasonably modest stake and get a good amount of playing time out of it. Is that enough to keep you coming back to Wild Gambler – Arctic Adventure? That’s entirely up to you and will be dictated by how much you like the theme and the gameplay. Certainly the RTP alone shouldn’t dictate your choice, but it’s good enough to at least influence it slightly.
When it comes the theme, there’s no argument that it’s consistent from the moment you start the game up. You’ll see an ice-skating penguin come onto your screen, whizzing across it and revealing some information about how the game works. It’s worth paying attention to this informational video, given that it will help you to understand what we’ve tried to explain in writing on this page. Once you’ve started the game properly you’ll find the reels stand in front of an arctic setting, with ice caps and frozen lakes filling up the background. The symbols are made up of fun versions of various animals that you’d perhaps expect to come across in one of the Poles, including a Dancing Penguin, an Arctic Fox and a Walrus. Even the 10, J, Q, K and A symbols are covered in frost, sticking with the theme of the game.
The special features within the gameplay of Wild Gambler – Arctic Adventure are fun and certainly keep with the theme overall, but they can be a little bit confusing when you first start to play them. The ability to Lock in Wilds is obviously very tempting, but you might get suckered into doing it at every opportunity, which might see your stake money dwindle rather quickly if you don’t hit many winners. It’s risk reward, however, so it’s definitely worth exploring. The game plays nice and smoothly, with the graphics seemingly modern enough to mean that there’s no blurring of the reels as they spin. The frozen Wilds ‘melt’ once they’ve landed, which is fun. It might be slightly confusing to get your head around what you’re doing, but once you’e figured it out there’s enough in this game to keep you amused and coming back for more.