Winter Thunder Slot Review: Online Slot Review & Free Demo
Winter Thunder is a highly volatile Christmas slot released by Belatra to celebrate the 2024 holidays. The slot brings winter to the American West with animal symbols, four fixed jackpots that vary based on bet size, and a snowy background. This game has “Las Vegas videoslot” written all over it.
Key Takeaways
- The game has an option to double your bet size to increase the chances of free games and the Hold-and-Win bonus feature.
- Wild symbols always occupy two positions on the reels, allowing for a bigger win potential when they appear.
- The Hold-and-Win round brings big wins alongside it thanks to multiplier symbols and “Jackpot” symbols that unlock one of the game’s fixed jackpots.
Winter Thunder Gameplay: What to Expect?
Experienced players may have a familiar feeling when opening Winter Thunder for the first time. This game is a Christmas spinoff of Wolf Thunder, a game that hasn’t reached the popularity heights of Belatra’s Richy Hog or Mummyland Treasures, but that still stands out for its highly volatile gameplay and highly attractive max jackpot of €200,000.
Winter Thunder Pros & Cons
In our opinion, this is a really good online slot, although it’s not perfect. These are some of the game’s biggest pros and most important cons to take into consideration before playing it.
Winter Thunder Pros
- There’s great synergy between the game’s various features
- Free spins come with a guaranteed multiplier
- Hold-and-Win rounds allow for multiple fixed jackpots to be won at once
- The “Bonus Buy” feature displays the expected RTP of each bonus round
Winter Thunder Cons
- Hold-and-Win rounds can be extremely frustrating if no money symbols land
- Hot Mode is very difficult to trigger
What Makes Winter Thunder Unique?
Winter Thunder may seem like a standard American wilderness slot game, but it manages to combine multiple features to provide unique gameplay. Wilds that occupy two reel positions, plus the “Hot Mode” that increases the base game’s payout limit, are two of our favorite mechanics. Combined with a Hold-and-Win bonus, this slot gives us multiple ways to win. In our experience, that makes it stand out from other animal-themed slots.
We also asked Sergey Chernyavski, CCO of Belatra Games, what sets Winter Thunder apart from its competitors. He shared:
This is the perfect time of year to invite players into the enchanting tundra with our holiday hit, Winter Thunder. The game adds a festive twist to the wild American wilderness, where lynxes, eagles, bears, and, of course, the mighty wolf take center stage.
Sergey Chernyavski, CCO of Belatra Games
Bonus Features, Bonus Gameplay & Special Features
Wild Thunder combines classic letter symbols with American animal symbols and offers scatters, wilds, and Hold-and-Win “money” symbols. Like we said, the combination of these elements and the features that they unlock gives players plenty of ways to win. Apart from the animal high-paying symbols and the letter low-paying symbols, these are the other symbols present in the game:
- Wilds: the wolf is this game’s wild symbol, and it always occupies the positions on the reels whenever it appears. It substitutes all animal and letter symbols in the game.
- Scatters: the mountain scatter allows players to enter “Hot Mode” or earn free spins based on the number of symbols that land on the reels. Their position doesn’t matter.
- Money symbols: The winter Christmas Tree balls are money symbols. When six or more of these appear on the reels, you’ll enter the Hold-and-Win round.
Scatter Symbol Bonuses: Free Spins & “Hot Mode”
Collecting three scatter symbols unlocks the free spins round, while collecting five of them brings the game into “Hot Mode”.
Free Spins
The position of the scatter symbols will determine the number of free spins earned. The higher they are on the reels, the more free spins you’ll earn. This round begins with a global win multiplier equal to the number of free spins that you collect. So, if you begin the round with 10 free spins, a multiplier of 10x will be applied during the spins.
Collecting additional scatter symbols adds to the total number of free spins and increases the global multiplier alongside it. This and the Hold-and-Win round are the most profitable facets of the game.
In this image, 4 free spins are awarded
Hot Mode
If you collect five scatter symbols on a single spin, the game will enter Hot Mode. This is a special free spins round which works just like the one we just mentioned, but with one exception: big wins are hit much more frequently during Hot Mode.
We tested Hot Mode three times and almost every spin of the reels had us winning prizes that would trigger a special animation. Often, we won 100 times our bet, or even more.
Hold-and-Win Round
Although scatter symbols can lead to huge payouts, the Hold-and-Win round is what we liked the most about this slot. To trigger this round, six money symbols (Christmas tree balls) must land on the reels at the same time.
When this feature is triggered, all other symbols disappear from the reels and only money symbols, with different values, will land. You’ll get three respins to start with, and you’ll get three more every time a money symbol lands on the reels during this feature.
Only Hold-and-Win symbols show up while the bonus round is active.
You’ll get paid once the round ends depending on the symbols that you manage to collect.
There are four symbols that may appear during this feature:
- Empty: an empty space means that no symbols land. Three spins in a row filled with empty symbols only will end the round.
- Money: blue symbols add to the total amount of winnings collected during the round.
- Bonus: these yellow symbols multiply your winnings from 20x to up to 100x.
- Jackpot: Mini, Minor, Major and Grand symbols may appear, which unlock acces to one of the game’s four jackpots.
Random “bolts of lightning” may hit empty reels to turn them into Money, Bonus, or Jackpot symbols. This is completely random, but it has saved our lives more than once - it’s a great addition that adds to the classic Hold-and-Win excitement.
RTP, Hitting Frequency & Volatility
Winter Thunder features a standard return rate around the 96% mark, with a very low hit frequency and high volatility. High-paying rounds generally don’t come often, but when they do, you can expect massive payouts - especially during the game’s special rounds.
- RTP: 96.03%
- Hit Frequency: 13.83
- Volatility: Very High
Winter Thunder RTP Industry Comparison
RTP
Free Demo of Winter Thunder
We’ve spoken quite highly of this game, as we legitimately enjoyed playing it. Still, we recommend testing the game for free before wagering real money on it.
Available Bonuses to Play Winter Thunder for Real Money
Winter Thunder should be available in most online casinos with Belatra games. We have reviewed quite a few of them, many of which offer solid welcome bonuses that are mostly designed to be spent on slots. These are some of our top-rated casinos that offer good bonuses and Belatra games:
Ads disclosure
At The Casino Wizard we provide online casino offers through affiliate links. This means that we may receive a commission, at no extra cost to you, if you click through and make a deposit. This will not affect the bonus terms in any way. We always recommend that you play at a casino licensed by regulators such as UKGC, MGA, DGE, NZGC, CGA, or similar and urge visitors to abide by local gambling laws, which may vary and change. The Casino Wizard is not part of - or related to - any commercial online casino and doesn’t offer gambling facilities. We can’t be held responsible for third-party site activities, and don’t condone gambling where it’s prohibited.
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Best Winter Thunder Alternatives
Naturally, if you like this game, you’ll also like Wolf Thunder, as it’s basically the same game but without the Christmas spirit. However, if you’re looking for something slightly different, you can check the two following slots that we’ve reviewed in The Casino Wizard.
Mustang Gold
Mustang Gold, launched by Pragmatic Play in 2019, is another American Wilderness game that gives us that “Las Vegas” vibe that we talked about earlier in this review. The game also has four fixed jackpots, shares a max payout potential of 12,000x, and comes with a slightly higher RTP of 96.53%.
Money Train
At The Casino Wizard, we’re huge fans of Hold-and-Win games. Winter Thunder’s jackpot-packed Hold-and-Win round is one of our favorite elements of the game. If you like this feature too, then you have to play Money Train, its sequels, or the Money Cart spinoffs launched by Relax Gaming. Gameplay revolves around Hold-and-Win mechanics and max payouts exceed 15,000x.
8.5
8.5 / 10
Rating
Winter Thunder Verdict
Fans of highly volatile games with bonus features aplenty will love Winter Thunder as much as the original Wolf Thunder itself. The slot combines old school elements with innovative features that synergize fantastically between one another. Its Christmas theme makes it an ideal festive slot for old school gamers that love innovative features, which is why we've chosen this game as The Casino Wizard's December 2024 Slot of the Month.
- Winter Thunder Slot — Our December 2024 Slot of the Month
- Winter Thunder Slot Review: Online Slot Review & Free Demo
- Winter Thunder Gameplay: What to Expect?
- Winter Thunder Pros & Cons
- What Makes Winter Thunder Unique?
- Bonus Features, Bonus Gameplay & Special Features
- RTP, Hitting Frequency & Volatility
- Free Demo of Winter Thunder
- Available Bonuses to Play Winter Thunder for Real Money
- Best Winter Thunder Alternatives
- Winter Thunder Verdict
