We are always the first to get excited about new NetEntertainment slot machines, especially the ones that are released as both online and mobile phone slots at the same time.
And we are not sure what the developers at NetEntertainment have been drinking in 2015, but we are having some doubts about their ability to bring exciting new games this year.
We could be wrong. So far we’ve had none of their 2015 slots to review yet, but the video for Tornado Farm Escape (coming 22nd of Jan) looks as weird as this steampunk fairytale hybrid.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Let’s watch the Steam Tower video and speculate, cause that’s always fun.
The Steam Tower mobile slot video preview
For those wondering what the online slot looks like, it’s basically identical to the above, except you get the main character (which you can see in the expanded wild symbol) usually standing to the left of the screen.
So that’s the good news. But then we always expect the NetEntertainment slots to looks and play flawlessly over all the devices. It’s the reason none of their games have ever gotten less than 2 stars.
Would you call this SteamPunk?
NetEnt are saying that this is vaguely based on a 19th century Victorian era and industrial design. So from that aspect… yes?
Yet the theme didn’t sit right with us. We can figure out that the reason for this is that this is more fairytale than a steampunk slot. It has a dragon, a princess and a tower. You can paint it brown and give the prince a handlebar moustache, but that’s still a tale as old as time, and hardly the ‘edge’ needed for that punk feel.
But, ok, fine, let’s say this is a twist on a classic dragon slaying tale.
The Dragon looks amazing, it is genuinely menacing, yet you barely get to see him on the reels. Instead you get a man that looks more like a dead-eyed Mr Hyde than a charming Dr Jekyll, and hardly strikes us as the heroic type. Then there’s the lacklustre high card symbols, all generic cogs and wheels.
As for the blonde princess, she appears to be as bland as the hero. We can’t tell you anything about her, she appears to have no personality.
If Steampunk is where we wanted to go, we would probably find more of it on NetEnt’s Suptopia slot, with it’s bright colourful blues and corals, than the more traditional blacks and browns of this drab Steam Tower.
Yet that’s a killer free spin tower
The free spins bonus feature will no doubt make or break this 5 reels, 3 rows, 15 paylines game. Seeing as this is the only feature other than the stacked wilds, that’s not a difficult things for us to assume.
And, to give the Steam Tower online slot credit, it looks like a doozy of a free spin feature. It’s like they took the multi-level free spins from the South Park Reel Chaos mobile slot and upped the ante by 2000%.
16 levels to conquer the dragon
You start with 10 free spins. And it looks like every time the grappling hook shows up you get 2 more free spins on top.
If the demo video is to be believed, you get the extra free spins easily enough, otherwise that tower is pretty much unconquerable.
You climb the tower by winning. Doesn’t matter how much, or what (even just one grappling hook), if you win, you climb. You’ll also get a climbing multiplier, all the way to the top level of 7x.
The salvation of Steam Tower?
It could make this feature very exciting indeed. By our calculations, you can potentially, and should easily, be able to get 32 free spins per round.
The big prizes are obviously at the top of the tower, but the additional multipliers and free spins symbols could make it good fun to climb as well.
We suspect that reaching that top level will be difficult. That or getting the free spins themselves will be as difficult as slaying that dragon with a steam powered grappling hook.
Don’t expect high variance
Looking at the big free spin win, we are talking 250x your bet.
A super mega win in the game itself was only 60x your bet. And if the Steam Punk trailer is meant to showcase the big hits in the game, then this is, at best, more light fluffy steam than hard hitting edgy punk.
Not that it’s a bad things necessarily, but this time last year we were looking forward to the brilliant Twin Spin slot.
Hopefully the harder hitting slots will be later on in the year?
Feeling pretty lukewarm about this one
Maybe we swallowed a bitter pill on January 1st, but we are finding it really hard to get excited about the new releases planned over the next couple of months.
But give credit where credit is due, at least NetEnt is giving us something new. Two new slots in fact, when you consider Tornado Farm Escape.
Microgaming is currently only releasing old games, or Betsoft are doing the same with only the vague hope that something new might be around the corner. Meanwhile we are still waiting for NextGen’s promised Holly Madison slot.
So. Let’s give a genuine, if not massively confident, clap to NetEntertainment for at least still bringing out new games, on time, month after month.
Meanwhile, you might as well get yourself 15 free spins no deposit on Twin Spin at Guts casino to remind yourself what happens when NetEnt do great mobile slots.
After all, Steam Tower could be the one that slays us all, not just that blonde stealing dragon.
