Nine Realms Review

Nine Realms slot review

Nine Realms	Slot Review
Reels	5
PayLines	243 (up to 78,125 during free games)
Software	RealTime Gaming (RTG) / SpinLogic Gaming
Progressive Jackpot	No
Win Free Spins	Yes, scattered and 2 features
Bonuses	Yes
Wilds	No
Feature Guarantee	No
Mobile Ready	Yes
Play For Free	Yes
Any Way Pay	No
Bet Range	$0.20 to $5.00 per spin
Where to play	SlotoCash, Las Vegas USA, Rich Palms Casino, Slots Plus
Our Rating

The Nine Realms video slot is the perfect evidence that RealTime Gaming (RTG) has been upping their game in the past few years. An amazing 5-reel 3-line video slot machine, Nine Realms is packed with ways for the player to win, and most importantly, it is super fun to play.

Overview and Game Mechanics

As mentioned, Nine Realms utilizes a 5-reel with 3 lines on each to deliver the 243 paylines, during regular play. But unlike most of the 5-reel slots, which simply give you the standard 3-to-5 adjacent symbol wins, along with some scatters sprinkled about, the Nine Realms takes it to a whole new level.

One of the bigger differences is that it contains stacked symbols, in addition to a single symbol, thus a player can get matching symbols on the entire reel, rather than just a single symbol. In other words, you can literally cover the entire slot machine with any of the symbols available. Another difference many players will spot right away is the absence of a Wild symbol, but with its morphing feature, you won’t miss the wilds. Generally, the gameplay is not too unique, to the point that it makes it hard to figure out what’s going on, a pitfall for some newer online casino slots, yet it offers some new and different features that are sure to break the humdrum of a 5-reel slot machine.

First, of course, the scatters symbols are still present, which take the simple form of a crest with “free games” on it. We won’t focus on the free games feature right away, since it needs its own dedicated paragraph. But in addition to the scatters, the video slot uses the middle third reel as the focal point of the gameplay. It contains a stacking symbol which morphs any other Warrior symbol into the triggering warrior, giving you the chance to turn nothing into something in the blink of an eye.

Nine Realms also has an additional Gatekeeper Portal feature, which we will cover in more detail in the next section of our Nine Realms review.

Double Feature: Gatekeeper Portal and Mystical Zone

The Nine Realms slot has two distinct features, in addition to the free games most casino slots usually offer. Let’s look at each one of them in more detail.

Gatekeeper Portal

This feature could be triggered randomly during both the base game and during the free games feature. Depending on which your are in, the payout would be a bit different. But let’s begin by reviewing the feature itself.

The Gatekeeper Portal is triggered randomly, but it could only occur at the end of a non-winning spin. It comes as a rectangle of adjacent Helmet symbols, which will morph into matching Warrior symbols of one of the four types available. Once the new symbols appear, your winnings will be calculated based on the winning lines you’ve achieved with this feature.

And this is where the difference between the regular game and the free spins game comes. During the base game, the Gatekeeper Portal could come in either 3×2 square or a 5×2 square. But during the free games feature, a Gatekeeper portal will take one of three shapes: 4×2, 5×2, and 5×3. Obviously, more symbols would equal higher payout, which is why getting this feature during your free spins is much more beneficial.

Mystical Zone

We already touched on the Mystical Zone at the begging of our Nine Realms review, but a few more details are needed. This feature is the stacked middle (3rd) reel, when a stacked Warrior lands there, covering it fully, all other warrior symbols in the game will morph into it.

As we have begun to expect from Nine Realms, things are a bit different during the free spins feature, and the Mystical Zone is no exception. Unlike during the base game, where the zone is the entire 3rd reel, during the free games the zone switched to covering the middle position of reels 3, 4, and 5. We think this is the better option, since it increases your chances of landing a 5-of-a-kind, but the base game feature is not bad either. The payouts are the same in either position of the Mystical Zone.

Free Games

The Free Games feature is where things really start to get interesting at the Nine Realms slot. The player is awarded the free games feature when three Scatter symbols appear on reels 3, 4, and 5, regardless of their position. Once this happens, you get 7 free games, and let the fun begin.

Firstly, while the base game is played with 5-reels and 3 lines, the free games feature increases the gameboard to 7×5, giving you the whopping 78,125 winning combinations! And as we already discussed, both of the Nine Realms’ features are not only available during the free spins, but also offer better payouts and increase the player’s chance of winning. You will get the bigger Gatekeeper Portal feature and the Mystical Zone will flip to a position more beneficial to 5-of-a-kinds. If there is one sad thing about the Free Games feature of this video slot it would be that the spins do not re-trigger, as the scatters are removed from the board during the free spins. But this is small potatoes compared to the many options (and size) of potential payouts during the free games.

Review Conclusion

After reviewing the Nine Realms video slot, we have to say that RTG (via SpinLogic Gaming) have done an amazing job with this game. The graphics are top-notch, and so is the soundtrack. The general Nordic warrior idea is not only always cool, but well-executed by the game developers, as well.

We love the features of the game, especially the Mystic Zone, and it has been a long time since we’ve seen a new slot machine really give you the payouts during the free games. We’ve gotten a bit bored from the usual doubling of the payout during free spins, and the idea for Nine Realms to have a whole new and bigger gameboard during the free games feature is a breath of fresh air. Overall we rate Nine Realms as one of the best slots you can play right now at the RTG-powered online casinos.