Neon West Slot Review
Yggdrasil Gaming’s Neon West takes a Money Train-esque vibe with a futuristic reimagination of the Wild West, but with a bonus round that might seem reminiscent of something from Relax Gaming’s portfolio…Yggdrasil’s futuristic frontier focuses on a bounty hunter as he roams neon-lit deserts and outlaw-infested towns.
Among the most popular Wild West Slots, Yggdrasil unfortunately do not have a champion. The accolade for titans of the Wild West genre belongs to the Money Train series by Relax Gaming, Nolimit City’s Deadwood, Hacksaw Gaming’s Wanted Dead or a Wild and perhaps more conventional releases, like Pragmatic Play’s Wild West Gold.
Of course, you could also make an argument for Dead or Alive II by NetEnt, but you can’t really argue that Yggdrasil Gaming hasn’t broken into this space. They’ve not leaned into it like some other providers, so you could say it’s through lack of trying, and not releases that flopped.
Still, it’s a tough market, and Yggdrasil’s futuristic take on the old-timey Wild West directly contends with what many consider to be the absolute gold standard of Wild West Slots.
Is Neon West an interesting new gunslinger? Or a wannabe cowboy in the wrong part of town?
Base Game & Features
Neon West is a 4-reel slot with 20 fixed paylines. Forming a win requires at least 3 of any high-paying symbol or 4 of any low-paying symbol to connect from left to right on adjacent reels, starting from the left-most reel.
Connecting 4 of the highest paying symbols pays 6.25x the bet, whereas 4 of the lowest pays a meagre 0.25x. There are also Wild Symbols, which substitute for all regular paying symbols.
Neon West takes an unusual stance with its 4 reels and requirement to connect 4 of the lower-paying symbols. Many may find this slightly odd or a little confusing at first, but it’s not hard to get the gist of it.
Growing Wilds
Wild symbols are located on all reels, both in Base and Free Spins games.
Wilds substitute for other symbols to complete wins except the Free Spins Scatter symbol.
When a Wild lands on the reels, it expands into adjacent symbols. Additional trains move from the Wild symbol and replace other symbols with new Wilds.
The growth direction is random, and Wild expands by a number of symbols between 1 and 3.
Wild symbols that are growing cannot take the place of the Scatter symbol or expand to the Wild symbols that are already present.
Neon West Bonus
Neon West has a number of bonus rounds, including the Sticky Wilds, Multipliers and the bonus trail. The bonus is triggered when 3 or 4 scatter symbols land anywhere on the grid.
Players may then choose a bonus round.
Sticky Wilds
Starts with 6 Free Spins. Wilds during this mode become sticky and persist for the entire Free Spins round. This round cannot be retriggered.
Multiplier Wilds
Starts with 5 Free Spins. Between 3 and 8 symbols will be randomly covered by multipliers ranging to 1x-5x. If the winning line goes through a multiplier, the multiplier is removed and collected.
This round cannot be retriggered.
Trail Bonus Game
The main board is a large loop with several smaller side-loops. Players move clockwise in steps of 1 to 6, starting just after the barrier, with 3 moves available. When moves run out, the game ends.
Each node can hold a Prize, Feature, or Golden Feature. Certain nodes, including some Prize nodes, Features, Golden Features, and side-loop entries, contain Spark icons. Landing on a Spark restores moves back to 3 and removes the icon, while locked Sparks restore moves but remain on the board.
Prizes are collected as you land on them, beginning with values of x1 to x6. If the total exceeds the Max Win, the game ends, awarding the capped payout. Final collected prizes are multiplied by the total bet.
Landing on a Streamliner train triggers a feature, while Golden Streamliner trains trigger a persistent feature or the Collect All feature.
Feature Nodes apply one of the following features:
- Cash Prize: x15 to x30 is added to the win
- Sniper: Multiply the value of 2 to 4 Prize nodes by 2
- Persistent Sniper: The same as Sniper, but triggers after each move
- Sheriff: x3 to x5 is added to each Prize node value
- Persistent Sheriff: The same as Sheriff, but triggers after each move
- Two Guns: x75 to x125 is added to 2 to 3 Prize nodes
- Persistent Two Guns: The same as Two Guns, but triggers after each move
- Refuel: Spark icon is added to some Prize nodes
- Throw Back: The Value of the collected win is added to several Prize nodes
- Collect: Value of 4 next Prize nodes is added to the collected win
- Collect All: The value of all Prize nodes is added to the win
Bonus Buy
Players can pay 30x to buy into the Trail Bonus Game only.
The RTP for this is 94%.
Our Honest Verdict
Neon West is okay, but just that, okay. We wouldn’t say it’s a standout in the big, bad Wild West genre, and let’s be honest, it’s a crowded and tough genre to crack.
The futuristic spin-off is a nice touch, but it’s been done before by Relax Gaming’s Money Train, and seemingly, the theme isn’t the only thing similar to Relax Gaming’s slot. The bonus trail game is very similar to Dead Man’s Trail and Dead Riders Trail, so it doesn’t scream originality through its features either.
We’ve never been sure of what to make of the trail games. They’ve evolved from the trail seen in the likes of Rainbow Riches, Worms or other older slots with a trail style feature, but it seems fairly predictable with these games on when it’ll all come crashing down as the lives run dry.
Neon West has a few persistent features, which were also present in Dead Man’s Trail, by the way. These make the bonus round quite interesting, but it can be fairly predictable again, as it feels like the round dies quite soon after these hit.
This particular instalment does have other bonus rounds, if you prefer, but we’d say that neither is mega exciting, nor is its below-average (by today’s standards) 5,500x win cap.
Overall, it’s a fair offering, but forgettable in the grand scheme of things.
