Howling Wolves Megaways

Howling Wolves Megaways: Slot Overview

Booming Games joins the pack by obtaining a Megaways license from Evolution owned Big Time Gaming to release their first slot using the famed dynamic mechanic. The studio has kept the creative tendencies somewhat under wraps, choosing to remake an older game rather than blue sky thinking their way to something revolutionary. This in itself is a recipe for not making a big splash but pairing the unoriginality with some of the lowest potential seen in a Megaways game, and it's hard to figure out exactly what Booming's game plan was.

The original Howling Wolves game was released in the latter half of 2020 and came under the broader genre of North American wilderness slot. Elements of Native American culture could be found on its 5x3 reel set, not to mention lashings of lupus themed action. Pretty much all of this has returned for the Megaways remake, on top of a shift to a 6-reel setting, producing up to 117,649 ways to win. The mysterious background is back, too, making a nice change from the usual desert, plains, or canyon players usually find themselves in. Full moons are well represented, peering through the trees on the upper right side, though there is no transitioning to werewolves at any point if you were wondering.

As before, Howling Wolves Megaways is a highly volatile game that is playable on any preferred device. The RTP has increased a few points, now weighing in 96%, though max win has been lopped to less than half of what it was before. Why? Who knows, let's deal with the issue later and concentrate on some of the rules. A critical one is that winning combinations land left to right from reel number one, triggering a cascade feature when they hit.

The paytable is certainly wolf heavy, with four of them used as the high-value symbols worth 4 to 15 times your stake for six of a kind. Various Native American items make up the remaining low pays, such as vases, axes, headdresses, drums, masks, and a tepee which payout up to 1.5 times the stake for six symbol win. One more symbol before moving to the features is the wild, which replaces any pay symbol to complete winning ways.

Howling Wolves Megaways: Slot Features

Cascades are no doubt the most used feature in Howling Wolves Megaways, though four random modifiers show up at intervals in the base game as well, then they come more frequently when free spins are triggered.

Cascades

Winning symbols are removed by this feature, allowing remaining symbols to cascade down into the gaps. This can create additional wins, and cascades continue to roll until no new combinations are formed.

Random Modifiers

At any point of the base or bonus game, one of these 4 modifiers may randomly trigger:

• Howling Wilds – a random number of wilds are placed on the reels.
• Alpha Pack Spin – all wolf symbols in view are transformed into the highest value wolf symbol.
• Wolf Pack Multipliers – a win multiplier of x3, x4, or x5 is added to the current spin and is applied to any wins. Following cascades increase the multiplier by +1.
• Max Megaways – rams 7 symbols onto each reel to produce the max 117,649 ways to win.

Free Spins

Landing at least 4 scatter symbols in the base game awards 8 free spins, plus 2 additional spins for each scatter past four, up to a maximum of 30. In free spins, one benefit is that random modifiers technically trigger more often than they do in the base game. Make the most of the free spins you win because scatters are removed from the reels for the bonus game.

Howling Wolves Megaways: Slot Verdict

Either Booming Games is playing 4D chess that we are having trouble deciphering, or their decision to rehash gaming with low potential was just a plain disappointing one. There are positives about the game. The graphics are interesting, wolf-themed slots often tend to go down well with players in general, the animations look alright, and the features are decent. Well, they could have been if Booming had really let them off the leash to perform like the wild beasts they are made out to be rather than ankle biting like a domesticated lap dog.

The features used in the game are basically what appeared in the original Howling Wolves slot with the addition of Max Megaways, so don't expect a hugely different gaming experience. Noticeably, free spins can now no longer be retriggered, and it's too bad the multipliers gained from the Wolf Pack Multiplier feature reset for the following spin. Maybe making multipliers persists and grow as is often done in Megaways games would have added some much-needed oomph.

As it is, Howling Wolves Megaways is capable of wins of up to 2,168x your bet, which is oddly low for a Megaways game. Ultimately, the lack of big winning possibilities and underutilised features keep Howling Wolves Megaways stuck in low gear most of the time.