Fans of “Game of Thrones” may be dismayed to hear that “Iron Bank” doesn’t focus on the icy bankers of Braavos. That is to say, you shouldn’t count on going throughout Westeros in search of debts or striking shady bargains with unscrupulous kings. Instead, Iron Bank is the offspring of casino streaming community Casinogrounds and video game company Relax Gaming. Tobias Svensen, CEO of Casinoground, describes Iron Bank as “a slot based on our own experience, preferences, and ideas.”
Kim Hultman, best known by his streaming handle Letsgiveitaspin, a casino streamer, addressed Bigwinboard.com about his creative process.
“Being a part of the development of Iron Bank has been both gratifying and enlightening. In contrast to the preexisting concept for the Dead or Alive 2 project, our team and Relax had the unique opportunity to develop our own idea from the ground up. Streamers, the player community, and games that we admire served as major sources of motivation. Further, we’ve included common slot jargon like the “ZaKappa” and “Printing” to spice things up. We can’t wait to hear feedback from gamers!
The game begins with a 6-reel, 4-row grid outside the aforementioned Iron Bank in the heart of a Cuban metropolis, perhaps Havana. The Jaguar is a criminal genius intent on robbing the bank blind. The game has a pleasant, almost hazy look to it, evocative of the communist island heat, reminiscent of Relax Gaming’s bull-filled slot La Fiesta. Each has a wacky, cartoonish vibe and a ton of useful extras.
You may play Iron Bank on any of your devices, and the betting ranges from 10 percent to $/€20 every spin. Volatility is high (5/5) on Relax’s dice meter, as one could expect from a bunch of dedicated players working together. However, victories occur at a rate of greater than one in four times (28.51% to be precise). You may expect a respectable return to player (RTP) of between 96.2% and 97% while playing in the normal mode and using the bonus purchase, respectively. The main game moves along smoothly thanks to the 4,096 possibilities to win while you wait for the three bonus games to activate.
First are the 10-A royals, then come the cigars, rum bottles, gold bananas, flower vases, and finally the furious bull bank executives. Six of a kind premium wins pay out anywhere from 2x to 50x the wager. The Jaguar, a fellow bank robber, serves as the wild symbol, and it does so in two different ways: as a regular 1×1 wild, and as an expanding full reel wild. In both cases, he may stand in for the standard pay symbols to assist complete winning combinations.
Slot Machines and the Iron Bank
The game offers a few of bonuses in the regular game, free spins, and one of the most sought-after bonus symbols you’ll find. The chances of triggering free spins are considerably boosted by the main game’s scatter feature, which adds anywhere from one to three scatter symbols to the reels at the beginning of each spin and holds them there until the end of the round.
At the beginning of any spin, a random number of hidden symbols may be introduced. When the reels halt, all of the hidden symbols reveal a single pay icon. Additionally, fully stacked wilds, spanning all locations on reels 2-5, might appear during the base game. When two or more of these contribute to a win, their multiplicative effects are compounded.
Free games will begin if you land three or more of the bank vault door scatter symbols anywhere on the reels. If you are lucky enough to see 4, 5, or 6 bonus symbols, your payout will increase by 20x, 200x, or 2,000x your initial wager. Free spins can be played on one of three games when triggered.
The first choice is Mystery Symbols, which has 8 free spins but is quite risky (4.5/5). At the beginning of the game, one of the symbols is randomly selected to become the sticky mystery symbol. When they appear on reels 2 through 6, they get locked in place as mystery symbols. The same symbol appears with each spin. If the sticky mystery symbols fill an entire reel, you will receive 1 free spin.
The second choice, Expanding Wilds, offers ten extremely risky (5/5) free spins. When wild symbols appear in the highlighted region, which consists of the middle two reels, they will grow to span the entire reel, and a respin will be granted. If you get a win during a respin, your wild multiplier will grow by 1, and you’ll get another respin with your wilds remaining in place. Multipliers for expanding wilds are increased if they appear on both center reels. If no more wins occur during the respins, the feature ends and the wilds are reset for the following free spin.
The third choice is the potentially lucrative (12 free spins) yet risky (4/5) Multiplier Collect game. In this game, a multiplier is increased when coconut boxes appear on reels 2 through 5. Two boxes will raise the multiplier by one and light up one bar on the meter. When all three of the bars are lit, you get three more spins. If a wild appears on a reel that already has a multiplier, that multiplier will be used instead. If a win has several wild multipliers, all of their values are added together.
Including a feature purchase would not be indicative of a slot designed by streamers. If this is an option, players can spend 100 times their original wager to activate the bonus and pick one of three games to play. This allows you to bypass the main game, but it means you won’t have the chance to earn extra symbol prizes.
Judgment in the Iron Bank’s Slot
Iron Bank is advertised by Relax Gaming as a “game for players, by players,” a claim made by many developers. It’s perfect for streaming thanks to its high volatility, large payouts, and three distinct bonus games that can be purchased. There appears to be some impact there. The style is decent; it’s a nice contrast to the deadly mathematical model hiding under its dreamy exoticism and cartoonish silliness.
Iron Bank is packed to the gills with extras, so purists of the old school who like less fluff might want to go elsewhere. Others will like the hectic gameplay and fast-paced action, as well as the possibility to win substantial sums of money.
When it comes to slot machines, Iron Bank isn’t exactly cutting edge or innovative. It’s more like a mixtape assembled by slot machine fans, including selections from games other than the ones they favor. Similarities may be drawn between this game and Pink Elephant (basic structure plus random scatter symbol trigger) and Lil’ Devil (Expanding Wilds bonus).
The potency of the Expanding Wilds bonus was demonstrated by the fact that consecutive victories kept awarding respins and multipliers kept piling on top of each other. Test results were satisfactory, albeit obviously far smaller than the maximum potential of 49,998.8 times the stake. Since Money Train 2 was able to surpass the 50,000x win maximum, expectations for Iron Bank have been reduced.
Iron Bank will undoubtedly appear on many future highlight reels thanks to the efforts of Relax Gaming and Casinogrounds. Of course, not everyone will enjoy it, but the target audience for Iron Bank will likely find it entertaining.
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