But Intercasino just sent me a mailer about their new “King Kong” slot game so, well you have to try it don’t you? Unfortunately for US players, Intercasino don’t accept them, although maybe they could try it in “practice mode”, but thankfully I live in the UK so I can And I am impressed.

Why? Well, the thing that really got me was the free spins bonus. Now we’re all used to that right? But how many slots can you name where you can hit 150 free spins, all winds doubled, and get retriggers of the same again? Not many I bet. In fact, if you look at the screenshot below taken from my practice mode session, you’ll see a hefty win from the free spins. What is special about this one is that I hit 100 free spins (3 scatters) and it retriggered not once, not twice, not even 3 times…but six times for a total of 600 spins!

Yes, it took about 30 minutes to spin them out and that was with me pressing the button to skip the animations and speed things up. When you get the free spins bonus - which is triggered by 3 or more King Kong scatter symbols lining up left to right, you get a sequence where King Kong climbs the Empire State Building and you press a button to smash planes out the sky. This goes on until you miss 3 times. I hit 4 on this occasion which is 100 spins, although a bit earlier I hit 6 for 150 free spins! And it retriggered for a total of 300.

I managed to get 550x my bet this time round - and trust me when I say that I wouldn’t play at $500 in real mode! But even if it had been $5, it would have given me back some $2,750.

Leaving the free spins aside, King Kong has another unique feature. The wild symbol on Reel 3 expands whenever it comes in during “normal” play. This also lead to some big wins, especially as it also randomly adds a wild symbol to reels 2 or 4 (or both) when it comes up.

This is a top, top slot and if you want to check it out, shoot over to Intercasino. I recommend it.

OK, now that’s cleared up (!), next up you should be aware that the paytable and the number of free spins you can get are different if you bet on all 243 paylines. This is pretty rare for a slot and normally only found in video poker games. But essentially what it means is that to maximise your expected return, you MUST activate all 243 lines. If this sounds expensive, simply lower the coin denomination or the number of coins per line. Now, that said, when I checked this out at Blue Square casino, the minimum coin denomination was 10p a line whereas at Get Minted casino, the minimum is 1p a line, which isn’t so bad.

As for gameplay itself, when all 243 paylines are activated, it basically means any matching symbols lining up left-to-right anywhere on each reel pays out. So the normal concept of having to be in a straight line goes out the window.

When it comes to free spins, if you are betting “max coins” (5) and thus activating all 243 paylines, you get 15 free spins when a bonus symbol appear on each of reels 1,2 and 3. If you also get one on reel 4, you get 20 free spins and another on reel 5 gives 25 free spins. Each win during the free spins is at normal 1x multiplier unless it includes a “Wild” dragon symbol whereupon the win is trebled. The Wild symbol only occurs on reels 2 and 4, but also doubles up as a bonus symbol.

Still confusing? Tough - I can’t explain it any better than that so you’ll have to try it yourself. What I can say, afetr a few sessions now, is that Triple Fortune Dragon is a very good slot and much easier to play than I probably made it sound! Check it out at any of the Wagerworks casinos listed to the right.

The slot is part of a suite of Flash-only games and is relatively new to the online scene. The concept of stacked wilds was new to the online world when Wolf Run arrived, although there are now a couple more elsewher, including the excellent Microgaming slot, Cashapilla. The free spins are triggerred by getting the Bonus symbol on reels 2, 3 and 4…not ideal, I prefer the scatter apprach, but nonetheless it happens frequently enough to keep you interested. You get 5 free spins and more Wild symbols are added to the reels in the free spins.

Clearly the “holy grail” is getting the stacked wilds covering all spots on all 5 reels. There are 40 paylines and on the rare occassion this happens, it’s a huge payout. I’ve had some very decent 500x payouts playing in normal mode (ie: not just in the free spins), and the screenshot you see above is a decent hit too.

If you want to play it for free, or for real money, click any of the recommended Wagerworks online casinos in the section to the right.

I think a lot of what I like about Thunderstruck is in the graphics and sounds. I come from a “Quake” and “Unreal Tournament” background - many a long night spent fragging my mates - and T’struck definately has a bit of that about it. Not so much in the symbols but in the audio that accompanies the slot. Anyway, it does it for me!

I’ve had some massive wins on this slot, although it can be very streaky. The free spins has an average occurence of once every 127 spins or so, but I’ve been over 500 without getting them so be warned. They can retrigger though and they are triggered by 3 or more “scatter rams” (the orange symbol in the screenshot above) appearing anywhere in view.

If you haven’t played it, and you like slots, then I suggest you do - click on any of the online casinos in the Microgaming list to the right to play Thunderstruck as a guest or for real dosh!

Pretty much all the slots below have the free spins bonus, as I find that’s my “thing”. The exceptions are those with (nfs) after the name.

Top Microgaming Slots

1. Thunderstruck
2. Cashapilla
3. Avalon
4. Spring Break
5. Tomb Raider
6. Tomb Raider 2
7. Kathmandu
8. Isis
9. Dolphin Tale
10. Dragon’s Loot

Top RTG Slots

1. Achilles
2. Derby Dollars
3. Aztec’s Treasure
4. Cleopatra’s Gold
5. Caesar’s Empire
6. Prince Of Sherwood
7. Mermaid’s Dream
8. Ronin
9. Raindance
10. Goldbeard

Top Cryptologic Slots

I don’t play too many of these, so just 5. Some others are OK, but generally for me, it’s these 5 or nothing. Oh and USA players can’t play these I’m afraid.

1. Thor
2. Silver Surfer
3. The Hulk (nfs)
4. Mystique Club
5. Eastern Dragon

Top Wagerworks Slots

These are Flash only, but many are from IGT and can also be found in land casinos. Once again, no US players.

1. Cleopatra
2. Elvis Multistike
3. Wolf Run
4. Triple Fortune Dragon
5. Elvis - A Little More Action
6. Cleopatra 2
7. 50,000 Pyramid
8. Capt. Quid’s Treasure
9. Enchanted Unicorn (rarely) (nfs)