Birds On a Wire slot

Birds On a Wire is a slot by Thunderkick with the usual unique touch that we’ve come to expect from all of their games. The slot is high volatility meaning that wins are somewhat hard to come across, but unlike usually this time it’s quite well balanced with the bonus game and other features. You won’t be left hanging dry, and when you do hit it big there’s quite a few bucks landing on the lines. The game opens up with an intro that you can either watch or skip, and same applies to bonus games that start and end with feature animations. It’s good to check these at least once, if for no other reason than to make sure the Thunderkick artists have earned their paychecks.

This slot is perhaps my favorite of all Thunderkick games so far, and that stesm both from the graphical look, the music and the way the game plays out. The basic game play has enough to offer to keep it interesting, and we all know how difficult that is in this age of generic slots, and the bet level required even for big wins is not wallet shattering. Take a look at the in depth review below before diving further into the world of bird watching yourself.

Basic gameplay

What we have on the screen is 5 reels in three rows, though it doesn’t quite look like it. It doesn’t function like it either, as in use what we have is fifteen individual reels. In use this means that all symbols are considered individual, but the game itself plays out exactly the same as any normal slot. Except, of course from the graphical and game play perspective, which are done quite unlike most other slots. While this sounds complicated so far it is not, the game is still a slot and plays like a slot, it’s just the gameplay and the engine that functions a bit different.

The goal of the game is to, of course, gain combinations of three or more symbols which are always checked from left to right. The bet level can be set anywhere from ten cents to a hundred euro, or whatever currency your casino uses, with combinations paying out 0.1 to 12 times the original bet. The wild symbol further pays 200 times the original bet. There are a total of nine symbols, with one being a wild and one a bonus scatter symbol. None of them are presented by the traditional aces, kings, bars, or sevens that you still seen in so many slots. With 17 different paylines the came gives out wins quite often, as long as the symbols land in the right sequence.

Dropping symbols and other features

The core enjoyment in this game comes from the different features that the game has. Though you are of course always waiting for the bonus game to really make some big money, the basic gameplay still offers quite some big wins. While you only get 12 times your original bet as the highest five symbol combination (not counting the wilds), in use you can land quite a lot more thanks to the modifiers in play. Take a look below for details on these:

• Dropping symbols – every time, and I do mean every time, you score a win the winning symbols, birds in this case, get electrocuted and disappear from the power lines. New symbols drop in to replace these creating new winning combinations. This will go on as long as new combinations are formed.
• Multiplier – every time you win your win multiplier goes up. Starting from one you can go as high as five, and in the bonus game the multiplier starts and goes even higher. This means that with some luck the max win from basic symbols can go as high as 110 times your bet.
• The wild symbol – the wild susbtitutes for all other symbols except the bonus symbol, and it also dishes out the max win in the game, paying out 200 times your bet when five land in a row. Add in multipliers and one euro bet can at the best of situations pay out a cool thousand euros. Enter the bonus game and your luck may pay out more cash than you know how to spend.

Bonus game and Inwinity spin

The bonus game in this slot starts when you have three scatter symbols, which in this case are presented by a cat in a box. Why the cat is in a box is beyond me, though having had a cat I know that for some mysterious reason they cannot resists getting into a box of any kind. In this case perhaps it is some kind of disguise in order to catch the birds on the wire. Initially you will get 10 free spins with the three symbols, and any extra above that will land you two more spins per carboardcat, for a maximum of 34 free spins.

During the free spins the multiplier increases to 4 for all basic wins, and like in the main game it will continue to increase as long as you keep getting wins in a row. Again, same as in the main game all symbols in a winning combination disappear from the lines and are replaced by new symbols. The multiplier can get as high as 20, meaning that if you are really lucky you can land the main pot of 900 000 euros on a single spin. Do notice though that this is the absolute maximum exposure in the game, and I am guessing it would require you to land the screen full of wilds a few times in succession. In any case in my test game the first free spins landed several thousands euros with one euro per spin. Unfortunately, I was playing in demo mode at the time.

Once all the free spins have been played the game gives you one more. This is the so called Inwinity spin that is present in a few other Thunderkick games as well. This feature will keep the reels rolling until you land at least one winning combination, so for sure you will never leave the free spins without any wins. In use it will often give you a small win, and it’s a feature that is present more for the look and feel than for any chance at great wins. Still, it’s something. Though the hit frequency is quite low you are always sure to make some wins during the freespins.

Summary

Birds On a Wire is an excellent slot, and continues the tradition of exceptional new designs that Thunderkick is known of. They don’t seem to release that many games per year, and this is not due to laziness but because all the slots they release are well designed, thought out and done. Quality, much like with out site, is their main concern. The game is high volatility, meaning that it’s not for every player out there. In general that is also my main concern with most of their games, as sometimes you go quite a few spins without any wins. In this slot however that is well balanced with the multipliers and dropping symbols that balance out the wait between winning spins.

I would heartily recommend this game for any slot fanatic, those looking to win big and especially those who want to play for the enjoyment of it all (it’s surprisingly hard to find slots that you can play for fun).  The game has been recently updated to take advantage of the new HTML5 standard, which means that it scales well for all screen sizes and works in all devices from desktop computers to tablets and smartphones. Give it a spin and find out if you’ve found out your new favorite slot.