Hunting Slot Machine
You have to hand it to the people behind this mammoth 100-payline, 5-reel gambler – 777igt. When it comes to choose themes, they obviously weren’t that concerned about offending animal lovers.
Then again, this is (fundamentally at least) a video game, and this area of entertainment is no stranger to the sport of bringing down large creatures to claim a trophy. And what else did you expect from a game called Hunting? Probably nothing, so we’ll move beyond any thoughts of welfare for all creatures great and small.
So the premise is thus- you’re out on the plains, looking for things like lions to stalk and eventually bring down. Thankfully, there’s not much blood spilt in the actual process of playing (well, none at all in fact), and so this is as good as it gets in terms of guilt free targeting of rare beasts. Once the game loads up this will become quite clear, what with the whole cartoon-look of this particular online slot machine; the graphics themselves are really nice and polished, as it happens.
Lions and Tigers And...
So Hunting is a classic 5-reel gambler, albeit with one pretty big difference – there are 100 paylines available to bring into play, which is loads more than the vast majority of machines out there. We’ll come to what this means shortly. First up, the basics.
If you’re only just discovering this type of game then basically it’s all about matching up like-pictures across the reels. You need combinations of threes, fours or fives to win, and those combinations must land on active paylines. Depending on which you land, and how many of the same you land, the machine will pay out different values in winnings.
The pictures themselves are nice and varied, which helps in terms of being able to easily differentiate between different wins. There are letters – A, J, Q, K – the number 10, a pile of wooden logs, the rather grim notion of some raw steaks and a longer hunk of meat, perhaps a loin of some description. These are all relatively low value, and you need a minimum of three to win with these.
In addition, there are three jackpot cards – a shield, map, and tiger. Respectively these are the Mega, Mini and Minor jackpots, with value descending in that order too.
Gearing up for the Hunt
Before you head out on the hunt, it’s a good idea to get familiar with some of the ways you can affect your chances of winning. The first is through adjusting the value Bet Per Line. This is done with the controls at the bottom of the screen, and can range from 0.01 per line, to 1. The more you put down the more you will pick up.
It’s also possible to change the number of paylines in active play. As we said before, if you don’t land a winning combination on a payline, then you don’t win. You can increase and decrease these in increments of ten at a time- so 10, 20, 30, and so on, up to 100. Playing with 100 active paylines is pretty busy, with regular wins, but this combined with a max bet value means 100 per spin, which can get pretty expensive, so use these options wisely.
Out in the Wild
OK, so you’re pretty much ready to play now, and like we have said a few times now, Hunting is a really fun gambler to play. Before hitting spin, though, it’s a good idea to quickly familiarise yourself with the special pictures.
The first of these is what looks a little like a snow leopard. This is the Scatter, and will award multipliers on any winning lines it lands with. Next are the gold coins- presumably the reward for killing the beautiful animals. These are the Frees, meaning they give out free spins, the number of which depends on the number of Frees you land.
On top of these, the arrows and sheath is a Bonus, and triggers a bonus game that’s a lot of fun, and not least because it means even more ways to potentially win.
Finally, there is the cross daggers, or the Wild card. This can substitute for any other to make up a winning combination, apart from the jackpots, scatters, bonuses and frees.
Hunting High and Low
There’s not a lot not to like about Hunting, apart from the whole hunting thing. The graphics and animations are lovely, really polished and really professional. The gameplay is really smooth and slick, with enough to keep you busy and interested what with the bonuses and jackpots. A very strong contender for a new favourite, then.
