Power of Thor Megaways: Slot Overview
Developer Pragmatic Play takes on one of the hardest-hitting characters from mythology, the mighty deity Thor, in their game Power of Thor Megaways. As well as being the god of thunder and the sky, Thor was also the god of agriculture. Set in a glorious Midgardian landscape, all majestic mountains and rugged valleys, players get a pretty sweet tract of land to try their luck in. From the moment the home screen loads, you get a good idea of what Power of Thor Megaways is all about. This is no-nonsense mythology, where you keep up with the gods or get left behind. For players after something serious with a bit of passion, Power of Thor Megaways could be ideal.
Once the 6-reel Megaways grid hits, the nods to other slots become apparent. Firstly, the mohawked character symbols bring to mind Vikings Unleashed Megaways, which is one of Power of Thor’s direct competitors. However, Pragmatic Play’s game has even less good-natured humour about it than Blueprint Gaming’s did. Power of Thor Megaways’ business attitude is accentuated by a dramatic soundtrack that gets even more punishing during free spins.
Getting amongst the Vikings is possible on any device where bets from 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin may be set. On each spin, 2 to 7 symbols land on each of the main reels, while 4 symbols appear on the upper horizontal reel. When the grid is full, 117,649 ways to win are in play, though the number changes randomly on every spin. Other stats include RTP with a default configuration of 96.55%, which is a pretty good deal. Volatility is high, rated 5 out of 5, though the 5,000x potential is somewhat on the modest side. There are no major issues with the max win, but it’s not quite as exciting as you might expect from this setup.
Power of Thor Megaways uses 10 regular symbols which pay left to right on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost reel. Card symbols 9-A lead off the paytable and make up the bulk of the winning combinations. After them, we get 4 Viking warriors making up the high pay character symbols - a lady in a horned helm, a couple of craggy gents, then Thor as the highest value symbol. A line of 6 Thors will get you 20 times your stake, while 6 of the other three vary from 2 to 5 times your bet.
Wilds appear in the game in one of two ways. The least exciting way is the regular 1x1 version that appears only on the upper horizontal reel. In both cases, wilds replace regular pay symbols to complete a win. The second wild, let’s look at below.
Power of Thor Megaways: Slot Features
As is standard for most Megaways slots, when a win lands on the board, it is removed via the tumble feature, which then drops new or existing symbols into the gaps. This can lead to consecutive wins, and tumbles keep tumbling until no new wins appear.
Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, appears only on the horizontal reel, taking up 2 positions. Whenever it lands fully in view, whether on an initial spin or by a tumble, all positions below it turn wild, randomly adding between 2-6 wilds per reel in a sort of xNudge fashion. The created wilds on the main reels are removed if part of a win, but the original hammer symbol does not. This means The Hammer Feature can trigger again if the hammer symbol changes position after a tumble.
Triggering free spins (frequency 1/510 spins) require players to land 4 or more scatter symbols land in view to spell T, H, O, R which awards 10 free spins. Up to 9 scatters may land, each additional one adding +4 free spins to the pot.
Before the round starts, if 10 to 18 free spins were won, players can gamble them on an Extra Chilli type wheel to win more or collect. If you gamble, the wheel spins, landing on either a green winning segment or a blank losing one. Losing means all free spins are lost, and you move back to the base game. Winning adds +4 more free spins, up to 22, then the round launches. In free spins, a win multiplier enters the game, increasing by +1 after each tumble. The Hammer feature remains in the game, as do scatter symbols, adding +4 free spins if 3 scatter symbols hit.
The second way of entering free spins is by buying them if the option is available. Doing so costs 100x the bet and gets you enough scatters to win 10 to 22 free spins on the next spin. You can gamble free spins as well, following the rules laid out above.
Power of Thor Megaways: Slot Verdict
Pragmatic Play might have borrowed a few ideas from elsewhere, but they’ve wrapped them in such an entertaining bundle they stop registering after a while. Power of Thor Megaways also has a similar spirit to Yggdrasil’s Hades Gigablox, being a serious mythological number so passionate about what it does it’s hard not to get caught up in the whole shebang.
Punchy graphics drag you kicking into Power of Thor Megaways’ game world, and from there, the pace doesn’t let up. What also helps is the way Pragmatic Play has added nice little touches throughout, such as the way symbols animate when they are removed during a tumble. Royals especially do this neat thing where runes light up before they are blasted from the reels. A small addition, yet each thing adds up to a polished experience, perfect for some mythological gaming.
The Hammer feature is a good one, too, leading to some tidy repeat wins when it shifts positions in a tumble sequence. Of course, creating extra wilds instead of multipliers doesn't have quite the same impact, though it is useful nonetheless and goes hand in hand with a win multiplier in free spins. Potential isn’t quite as high as you might expect from this sort of game - through no fault of its own, it should be added. If the game achieves 5,000x during free spins (hit frequency approx 1 in 860,000), the round ends, and all remaining free spins are forfeited.
For a good, wholesome Norse-inspired slot, it’s hard to fault Power of Thor Megaways. You could say it’s a bit of mish-mash of other ideas, but it’s also easy to see past that to enjoy some well-executed Thor gaming. All in all, Power of Thor Megaways comes across as one of the more exciting Megaways offerings we've seen in quite some time, blowing new life into this particular category of slots.
