Rat King

Rat King Review

Commenting on the look of our latest release, our Chief Creative Officer said "With Rat King we felt the charm of pixel art was the perfect style for this game. It was so fun to explore the theme of a dark yet delightful cake factory where multiple treats and a cheeky rat all add to the fun gameplay experience. Our animators really pushed frame by frame traditional techniques to transport players to this nostalgic world, where retro aesthetics blend seamlessly with modern gameplay."

There is a first time for everything, and they have timed their Scatter Pays debut slot well. The Pay Anywhere system has had an upswing lately. Rat King seems somewhat inspired by a smash hit, but the charming 8-bit retro theme and significant twists to the features makes sure that this release stands firmly on its own two feet.

The cascading mechanic triggers from both winning symbols and 7+ no-value Dud symbols in view, and this is important since multiplier symbols up to x500 must find their way to the bottom of the grid to be collected and added to the active win multiplier. The same is the case in the bonus round, where the win multiplier only keeps building, and it must also be activated by a newly collected multiplier symbol per free spin to boost your wins.

Rat King Slot Features

The premium symbols award between 7.5 and 50 x your stake for 20+ matching symbols anywhere in view. There are also non-value Dud symbols that are there to take up space, but these are removed when at least 7 are in view. Winning symbols are also removed from the grid, and both events trigger a redrop with a fresh batch of symbols. The process repeats as long as you keep winning.

The Star Multiplier symbols land with values between x2 and x500, and you will see a Collection Box below each reel. The multiplier star symbol has to find its way to the bottom of the grid via the cascading mechanic, and then be collected by the collection box to have its multiplier added to the total win multiplier for that round. The multiplier resets between base game spins.

The Bonus Round triggers when 3, 4, or 5 Rat King symbols are collected by the above-mentioned collection boxes in the same cascading sequence. This gives you 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively, and you get +3 extra spins each time a Rat King is collected during the bonus round. Star symbols are collected to build the win multiplier, and it’s active only on spins where at least 1 new star is collected. The multiplier never resets for as long as the bonus round lasts, however.

The Bonus Buy feature is available in some jurisdictions, but not in the UK for sure. It comes with the following 3 options if you are eligible:

• Pay 100x your stake to get 10 free spins with an RTP of 96.58 %.
• Pay 250x your stake to get 15 free spins with an RTP of 96.36 %.
• Pay 500x your stake to get 20 free spins with an RTP of 96.93 %.

The 200 Spins Rat King Slot Experience

You get to see a win or two in the base game, before we purchase the top-tier Bonus Round at 0:35 into the 5:19-minute highlights video. This gave us 20 free spins, as well as a smaller upfront win from the triggering spin, and you can see for yourself how we fared by hitting the play button below.

Review Summary

The Scatter Pay system has been in the wind lately, and Rat King is somewhat of a tip of the hat to one of the pioneers and top dogs in the genre. However, going with a retro style 8-bit visual presentation is a wise move in that regard, as to make sure the game sticks out. This will probably appeal to a different segment of players as well, but then again, who doesn’t love the nostalgic trip down memory lane that these kinds of games offer (at least if you’re old enough to remember those simpler times).

The gameplay is somewhat similar, but then again, not really. Getting the multiplier symbols into the collection boxes means you have to jump through hoops to benefit from them, but it also makes you feel like you really earned that large win when it happens. The bonus round multiplier system is also a bit more complicated, although the multiplier never resets in this game. It still has to be activated per free spin to boost your win though, which can be frustrating at times. The 10,000x potential decent, and overall this is a solid Scatter Pay debut.