Nordic Kings

Nordic Kings Slot Review

A longship slides along the bottom of the frame, striped sail full, carved horse-head prows rising at either corner, while green and teal aurora bands fold over a snowy horizon. Nordic Kings puts its real teeth in the wild, not the bonus round: a single treasure chest counts as two Kings, which is how a ten-of-a-kind win exists on a five-reel grid. High 5 Games have built a 5×4, 243-ways slot on that seascape, running at 96% RTP.

The feature set is one free games round with a generous retrigger, and that’s the lot. It’s a narrower game than Valkyrie Queen 2 or Da Vinci DeluxeWays, and it’s all the better focused for it. One bonus round, one wild doing unusual work, and a paytable that leans on a single top symbol. The longship, at least, isn’t going anywhere.

Ways, Wilds and the King’s Paytable

There are no paylines here. Nordic Kings plays 243 ways across its five reels and four rows, so matching symbols on adjacent reels count wherever they sit. A symbol doesn’t need to line up on a specific row; it just needs neighbours on the reels to its left.

With four rows on every reel, that adds up quickly. Three positions per reel times five reels gives the 243 combinations. Because wins pay per way rather than per line, a screen full of the same symbol can pay several ways at once. All credit wins are shown without any bet modifiers applied.

The ways count matters more here than it does on most grids, and the reason is the top symbol. Nordic Kings pays the King up to ten of a kind, so a full screen isn’t wasted space: every extra King position on a reel multiplies the number of ways the win can be built. Few slots give you a reason to want four rows.

The symbol roster is compact. The old King himself tops it, and he’s the only symbol worth chasing, paying in credits as follows:

• King: 20 credits for three
• King: 30 credits for four
• King: 50 credits for five
• King: 75 credits for six
• King: 100 credits for seven
• King: 150 credits for eight
• King: 250 credits for nine
• King: 500 credits for ten
• A, K, Q (a teal diamond) and J (a purple circle): 2 credits for three, 6 for four, 20 for five

That ten-step King ladder is the spine of the whole game. Most slots stop counting at five of a kind; Nordic Kings keeps going to ten, which only makes sense because of how its wild behaves.

The treasure-chest wild fills in for every paying symbol on the grid, with one exception it can’t touch: the scatter. Its substitutions are weighted, and the weighting is everything:

• 1 wild counts as 2 King symbols
• 1 wild counts as 1 shield, axe, helmet, A, K, Q or J symbol
• The wild appears only on reels 2, 3, 4 and 5

That doubling is how a ten-of-a-kind King win can exist at all on a grid of twenty positions. Five reels with four rows each means the raw maximum is twenty symbols. With wilds standing in for pairs of Kings, a handful of chests alongside a few real Kings pushes the count past what’s physically on screen.

The absence on reel one is the other half of the design. Kings landing on the first reel count at face value only, so the ladder’s lower steps come from ordinary spins while its upper steps depend on chests turning up behind them. A ten-count King win always starts with real symbols and ends with wilds doing the heavy lifting.

When the King lands well, the ways stack up fast. A King win counted across two separate ways at once pays twice the base amount, with the K symbols lit up across the middle reels. Shields, axes and helmets fill out the rest of the reel set, and the wild stands in for one of each.

The spread between symbols is tight, though. Five royals pay 20 credits and five Kings pay 50, so the wins below the top symbol tend to look alike. Everything from three Kings to seven Kings sits between 20 and 100 credits, a range that a single extra wild can cross in one jump.

Free Games Bonus

One feature carries the whole game, and it’s a simple one to sum up:

• Trigger: 3 scatter symbols anywhere on reels 2, 3 and 4
• Award: 5 free games
• Retrigger: the same 3-scatter combination, awarding 5 additional free games
• End of round: 0 free games remaining, or 200 free games played

The Viking-ship BONUS scatter is the trigger, and it lives only on reels two, three and four. Because it appears nowhere else, every trigger and every retrigger needs all three of those reels to carry a ship at the same time. There’s no shortcut and no second route in.

Once the round starts, it plays through on its own counter. Each free game plays the full 243-ways grid with the same symbols and the same wild rules as the base game; nothing is added, removed or reweighted for the duration. The only thing that changes is the price of each spin.

Five free games sounds thin on paper. What changes the maths is that the retrigger is the identical combination, awarded during the round itself, with no stated limit on how many times it can repeat. Each retrigger adds five more games, and the round only closes when the counter runs dry or the 200-game ceiling is reached.

That ceiling deserves a moment. A round would need to retrigger from five games all the way up to two hundred played spins before it ended on the cap, which means the practical limit in almost any session is patience, not the rules. The bonus is built to run and run when the ships keep arriving.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7.7/10

Playing Nordic Kings means a lot of unremarkable spins punctuated by the sudden thought that any chest on the middle reels could turn into a ten-of-a-kind King win. That possibility, not the aurora, is why you’d pick it over prettier Norse slots, though the aurora is a nice bonus.

The Free Games Bonus is the best thing here: a round that starts with five spins and can keep refilling itself up to two hundred games, which is rarer than it sounds. The paytable underneath is the weakness. Almost every win that isn’t a fat King combination lands between 2 and 20 credits, so the middle of the game feels flat.

It suits somebody after one deep, patient bonus round rather than a menu of half-features. If you need a new mechanic every third spin, this isn’t your longship. For everyone else, it’s a handsome, slow sail worth taking.

Nordic Kings FAQs

• What is the RTP of Nordic Kings?

  Nordic Kings runs at 96% RTP.
• How many paylines does Nordic Kings have?

  It doesn’t use fixed paylines. Nordic Kings plays 243 ways across the reels.
• What is the grid size of Nordic Kings?

  The reels sit on a 5×4 grid, five reels and four rows.
• When is Nordic Kings released?

  Nordic Kings’ release date is 22 December 2023.
• Who makes Nordic Kings?

  High 5 Games make Nordic Kings.
• How do you trigger the Free Games Bonus in Nordic Kings?

  Three Viking-ship scatter symbols anywhere on reels two, three and four award five free games.
• Can the free games retrigger in Nordic Kings?

  Yes. The same three-scatter combination during the round awards five more free games, and the bonus only ends when none remain or once 200 free games have been played.
• What does the wild do in Nordic Kings?

  It’s a treasure chest that fills in for any paying symbol on reels two to five, though never the scatter. One wild counts as two King symbols, or one of any other paying symbol, which is how ten-of-a-kind King wins are possible.
• Does the Free Games Bonus change the reels in Nordic Kings?

  No. Free games play the same 243-ways grid with the same symbols and wild rules as the base game. The only difference is that each spin costs nothing, and three more scatters during the round add five more games.