Asgard (RTG)

The lure of old Norse mythology persists from ancient times to this day. It’s odd to think that modern day Europe, which is predominantly Christian, once held a whole slew of various pagan religions that were usually based around certain tribes, but it seems out of all of them, it’s the Scandinavians that managed to market theirs into beings fitting of modern fame. Thor finds his way to comic books and movies to this day, and the beliefs of the Norse continue to make their way into many things, including slots. It’s no surprise that RTG chose this familiar pantheon of Gods and based their release around them. Asgard is an RTG’s equivalent of the popular Thunderstruck 2 game, so if you enjoyed that one, you’ll enjoy this, as well. It offers a 5×3 playing field with 243 paylines, Wilds that can double all your wins, as well as four different free spins bonuses, which require some time to unlock. You start off with just one choice, but as you trigger more free spins, you unlock different variants that become more profitable as time goes on.

When it comes to graphics, there’s not a lot to tell about Asgard. It certainly doesn’t look bad, and while the Gods themselves are expressive, the other symbols don’t really seem to be particularly interesting, as they are just stylized poker card icons, apart from a select few. The visuals don’t stand out much, either. Considering it came out in 2017, this title has much stronger contenders that put forward a much better show when it comes to graphics. So if you’re looking for eye candy to go alongside your slot, Asgard sadly doesn’t quite deliver.

That said, it does bring over the concept of playing Thunderstruck 2 pretty well. If you haven’t been able to play it due to region locks, which happens often for US players, the RTG’s release is one way of catching up and being able to cash in on the formula that’s been copied over plenty of times. It offers gamblers a medium volatility, which is mostly centered around the various free spins that you can unlock. As you activate this bonus more and more, you unlock different variants of it, which give you additional free spins as well as more powerful special features to keep you invested. It’s a smart system to keep players spinning, and it offers a path of progression that fits well with a longer session, though we imagine if you can only play in short bursts, Asgard might be annoying.

You can bet between $0.30 up to $7.50 per spin, so while lower end gamblers will no doubt be pleased, we can imagine some high rollers might be annoyed at the small limit as to how much they can spend. With a 96% RTP, and a cap of 2,000x the wager when it comes to wins, it certainly seems that the RTG release is capable of unleashing some sizeable wins and the developers wanted to make sure nobody got too crazy with the various special feature combos. Sadly, from our experience, outside of those bonuses, the wins are slim pickings, and while they can occasionally turn up a fun surprise, as a general rule of thumb, Asgard waits until its Gods make a show.

We already touched on this slightly, but there’s really not much uniqueness in these. You have the most popular four Gods of the Norse pantheon, the floating city of Asgard, and Thor’s hammer, alongside some poker card icons made to look like old Norse runes.

There are several bonuses to talk about. The first of which is a randomly triggered Thunderbolt feature, that spreads several Wilds on the playing field, and considering Wilds double all wins, that’s a handy thing to have. Three or more Scatters appearing also give you a choice of four different free spin variants, but you need to trigger the free spins a few times before some of these will be unlocked. In general, their value goes up the harder they are to unlock, but if one of them is working out really well for you, you can choose to stick to that one.