Dwarfs Gone Wild

We hope you’ve read up on your fairytales as a child, because they seem to be becoming more and more common as themes in slot titles. We’d usually say we’re inclined to see trends as they start to form, as we’re constantly reviewing new titles that come in, and the success of one feature or theme can often bring other developers to give it a go and put their own spin on things. But fairytales were something that caught us by surprise, coming alongside the period a few years back where every title developers put out looked like it belonged in a studio made for making children’s cartoons. Dwarfs Gone Wild doesn’t really seem to tap into that cutesy idea – its rendition seems more humorous. It offers gamblers a 5×3 playing field with 20 fixed paylines, and immediately, the title hands you off with a responsibility of filling up the important, golden bar to the left of the reels. It’s important that you do this, as it will give you access to improvements during the free spins special feature. And as if that wasn’t enough, there’s also another bonus available to gamblers!

The backdrop is a fixed image of a shack built inside of a stone or an access to a mine shaft. Some dwarves certainly look like it would fit them, but others do not – which leads to lean more into the idea of a shack hidden within the earth. Some light animation here such as making the grass flutter when wind passes it could have been a huge boon in making the title feel more lively. As it stands right now, it certainly looks good, but it doesn’t really have anything memorable to capture your attention outside of the reels.

Well, except that golden bar we’ve mentioned before. This is likely going to be something you love or hate, depending if you enjoy playing in short bursts or long term sessions. The bar on the left fills up every time a winning combination has dwarves in it, and the more dwarves there are, the more the bar fills. Each time it does, it rewards an additional bonus that will occur during the free spins feature. If you fill it out seven times, you will unlock all the features within, and have a guaranteed free spins round. Your progress isn’t wiped when you close the tab, as it’s tied to your account, which is a good thing if you want to pick it up at your leisure. But how far you progress with short bursts of gameplay is questionable, and it can certainly drag on if you’re not a fan of this system.

Like it or loathe it, it has a major impact on the wins you will be getting. The more that bar is filled, the more dwarf features you get on top of the free spins when it’s triggered. It’s really no surprise when we tell you that free spins are hands down the biggest earners in this medium-high volatility slot. The Quickspin’s release knows how to woo people in – with the promise of a maximum win that’s worth 2,535x your wager, although to reach it, you have to fill out the bar we mentioned before. The title’s RTP is 96.38%.

Given that there are only 20 paylines, we have to wonder if it was really necessary to include playing card symbols. You will find just Q, K, and A here and they’ve been given some stylisation so they don’t stick us like sore thumbs. But, on top of that, you also have seven dwarves, which with a rather eye-catching design, as well as the knock-off Snow White, give this game’s title a whole different meaning. For this amount of paylines, it feels like there are too many symbols included.

So, as we already mentioned, you can win free spins. You do so by collecting three Scatters on the second, third and fourth reel at the same time. This rewards 7 free spins and any additional dwarf bonuses you have unlocked. You have randomly placed Wilds on the third, fourth and fifth reel, Exploding Wild that creates more Wilds around itself, Wilds that are randomly positioned across all the reels, the ability for two full reels to turn Wild entirely, a single Wild symbol placed on the best position, additional free spins awarded on top of the already existing one, and the final unlockable bonus is the multiplier, which can be 2x, 3x or 5x.

And if you aren’t overwhelmed by all the features yet, there’s also the magic mirror, which appears on in the middle of the third reel, rewarding two respins and creating a myriad of magic mirror icons during that time.