Pearl Harbor Slot Demo Preview

Pearl Harbor Slot Review 2024

Pearl Harbor from Nolimit City marks their penultimate slot of 2022, and this time we’re getting historical once more with a slot themed upon an event that changed the world.

The attack on Pearl Harbor happened in O’ahu, Hawaii in 1941 when the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service mounted a surprise attack on the United States Air Force. 2,390 U.S. servicemen and civilians died at Pearl Harbor, and as a result, it drew the reluctant United States into World War 2. The events of Pearl Harbor spurred on a period of national unity, and the conclusion of isolationism and it set the stage for America to become one of the world ‘superpowers’ as we know them today.

The significance of the events of Pearl Harbor is as interesting as it is horrifying, and it’s interesting to see Nolimit City take what could be considered another controversial stance for their latest game. How much time may pass before historical events are fair game for movies, games and slots? Pearl Harbor claimed almost as many lives as 9/11, yet none would dream of creating a slot centred around something so recent.

It’s interesting to think about, but it’s evident that 81 years makes Pearl Harbor aged enough for Nolimit City to make a slot based on it.

Opinions on the tastefulness of Pearl Harbor certainly won’t take away from Nolimit City’s tenacious ability to make it interesting, and we’re excited to see how they conduct themselves this time around.

Pearl Harbor Slot – The Base Game and Features

Pearl Harbor is a dynamic xSize 7×7 area with an active 3×3 area as the default.

Cluster wins are achieved by connecting 5 or more symbols that are connected horizontally and/or vertically within the active area. After a cluster win, symbols within the cluster are destroyed, which allows for new symbols to drop in. Multipliers on the symbols in the winning clusters are summed up together with a possible round multiplier from previous xBomb symbols before they are multiplied by the Cluster size payout value.

The active area may be expanded with the following features

• xBomb Explosions
• Targets
• Colossal Symbols

Banzai! Bet

The Banzai! bet can be activated at the cost of +50% on the base bet. When activated, the player is guaranteed one Scatter symbol in the middle of the active area, increasing the chances of entering the Dog Fight bonus by over 3 times.

Another option is also available. At the cost of +100% of the base bet, the player is guaranteed two Scatter Symbols on the initial drop. This increases the chances of entering Tora! Tora! Tora! bonus by over 10 times.

xBomb Wild Multiplier

xBomb Wild Blows away a maximum of 10 symbols surrounding it in the active area. xBombs will only blow up if they are within the active area.

If xBomb symbols are adjacent to the active area border, then it will move the active area 1 reel or row. Should the xBomb sit in the corner of the active area, then it will expand the active area to 1 reel and 1 row.

The xBomb symbol may get split. If it’s split, then it will get an x2 multiplier on the first split and then increase it with x2 for each consecutive split. Exploding xBombs will increase the win multiplier for the next avalanche with the +1 or (x)x-Multiplier amount it has been split into.

Target Symbols

Target symbols may land anywhere on the reels. When a Target Symbol lands, the active area will expand to make the Target Symbol a part of the rectangle active reel area. When a Target Symbol has landed and becomes part of the active reel area it transforms into a Wild Symbol

xSplit Symbols

xSplit Symbols come in the shape of a Samurai Sword and splits all symbols in the direction of the sword handle.

xSplit symbols have either one or two swords that can point both horizontally and vertically, but only one direction per sword. xSplit symbols are only active when inside the active reel area and the win avalanches have stopped.

xSplit symbols may split other xSplit Symbols. If this happens, then it will get an additional sword pointing in a new direction. If an xSplit symbol has 4 swords, then a new split will add an x2 multiplier. xSplit symbols with multipliers will add its multiplier to all symbols that it splits, or it will multiply its current multiplier with the xSplit multiplier.

Scatter symbols, target symbols and xBombs get an x2 multiplier when hit by an xSplit, and consecutive xSplits on multiplied symbols double the multiplier value.

Colossal Symbol

When a Colossal Symbol drops in, the active reel area will expand its rectangular area so that the Colossal Symbol becomes part of the active area.

Colossal Symbols come in 2×2 and 3×3 sizes, can have a multiplier of x2 or x3 and are initially counted as 1 symbol in a possible cluster.

If the 3×3 symbol becomes split, it first splits into 3 symbols either vertically or horizontally depending on which way the split came from. Second xSplit Symbols will split the Colossal symbol in the other direction to a 3×3 symbol regardless of the xSplit direction. A third xSplit will split all 9 symbols in half to make 18 symbols in total.

The fourth xSplit will either give an x2 multiplier to each symbol from the initial Colossal Symbol or multiply each multiplier with 2.

Pearl Harbor Slot – Free Spins

In true Nolimit City style, there are a couple of bonus rounds to experience in Pearl Harbor.

The standard bonus in Pearl Harbor is Dogfight, and the ‘Super Bonus’ is Tora! Tora! Tora!

Dogfight Free Spins

3 Scatter Symbols in view trigger the Dogfight Free Spins round.

This round is played with 3 spins from the inside of a Fighter Plane Cockpit with an instrument panel containing 18 dials.

The instrument dials all start spinning, and they can land either an x multiplier, + multiplier or nothing at all. Any multiplier that lands will reset the spin count to 3.

When multipliers land, they are active until they have their values added to the round multiplier.

All active + multipliers are first summed up before being multiplied by the x multipliers.

Should a bonus round end with active x multipliers, then they’ll turn into + multipliers before their value is added up

If all 18 instrument dials have been filled a Kamikaze Attack will launch after the Dogfights are finished. 

A multiplier wheel with 10 possible multipliers, including misses, will spin as the aircraft is approaching the target ship. If the ship gets hit, the multiplier from the wheel will multiplier with the total round multiplier from the bonus round.

TORA! TORA! TORA!

4 Scatter symbols trigger the Tora! Tora! Tora! Feature.

This feature starts with 3 spins and plays inside of a fighter plane cockpit, as Dogfight does.

The gameplay here is the same as the Dogfight, but with the added extra of Midway Pop and Bomb Drop

Midway Pop

The Midway Pop is activated when a Multiplier lands on a dial in the mid-row. The amount value pops up to the top row in the current column, and if no value exists there from before it will randomly get a +1 multiplier or x multiplier independently of the mid row multiplier type. If a value already exists on the top row, the mid-row amount is added to the existing value and the multiplier type remains

Bomb Drop

The Bomb Drop is activated when a full row of instrument dials is filled.

When this happens, a Bomb hatch opens up to lock in a ship before the bomb is dropped. If the ship is hit, all + multipliers of that row get added together before being multiplied by all the x multipliers of that row. If only x multipliers exist, then they are multiplied together with 1 to get the sum to be added to the round multiplier.

If the ship is missed, nothing happens.

Pearl Harbor Slot – Bonus Buy

Pearl Harbor Slot has a bonus buy option for players outside of the UK.

• Dogfight Bonus – 60x the bet
• Tora! Tora! Tora! – 712x the bet
• Lucky Draw – 73x the bet
  • 49/50 – Dogfight
  • 1/50 – Tora! Tora! Tora!

Pearl Harbor Slot – Our Verdict

Pearl Harbor is another mind-blowing instalment from the good ladies and gentlemen over at Nolimit City. It’s hard to fathom how it works because their mind seemingly works in an almost incomprehensible way.

Pushing the boundaries is what they do best after all, and they’ve proved it yet again with another slot filled with features that only they could pull off. It’s imaginative, thrilling and controversial all at the same time, and Nolimit City seemingly cares little about making a slot that might ruffle some feathers. Some Casinos may not even take Pearl Harbor. Many opted out of taking on Remember Gulag, Tombstone RIP and we’d be unsurprised if some of their other games were a little too ‘edge’ for some brands as well.

They’re unbothered, and they’re doing them as they always have. There will be plenty more from the Nolimit City catalogue that makes you think in the future, that’s for sure.

Pearl Harbor is as imposing as any other title, but is it as good?

Aspects of Das xBoot shine through with targets that may hit or miss, and the two are fairly related in their wartime theme too. When testing it ourselves we found the Dogfight bonus to be rather underwhelming, but the standard level bonus often is, unfortunately.

It has the potential to kick off, but their games seem much more centred around the highest-level bonus which UK players can’t easily experience. Thankfully they’ve included another level of xBet this time around to double the stake for a massively increased chance at hitting that top-level bonus. Was this a move in a bid to increase the appeal of the game to players outside of bonus buy markets? we’re not sure, but it’s certainly appreciated.

At its best, Pearl Harbor slot is capable of up to 41,127x the bet. If you’ve been following Nolimit City for a while you’ll know of more than one that could outperform it, yet Pearl Harbor is still vastly superior on paper to many slots from other providers.

Overall, Pearl Harbor doesn’t quite tick all the boxes, but it’s another very good slot with great potential.