Lone Rider XtraWays

Lone Rider XtraWays Overview

You may not have heard of the designer that created this new game. However, Swintt, based in Malta, has been quietly gaining momentum over the last few years and has a handful of decent releases. They were even nominated in this year's EGR B2B Awards in the Rising Star category. Their latest game takes us (like many a slot game these days) to the Wild West, where thanks to the XtraWays playing dynamic, players can expand the existing reels giving you a huge maximum of 262,144 ways to play. Features for this game include the eponymous bonus – the XtraWays, which change the number of available pay lines available on each spin. However, unlike other similar features, XtraWays has a display that tells you how many new symbols will be added on the next spin. This can lead to players playing on 262,144 pay lines. This game also has a regular wild bonus which is a symbol that can substitute for other symbols helping to form more wins. Finally, there is also a free spins game. All features will be explained in more detail later in this review.

Theme and Symbols

The theme for Lone Rider XtraWays is a pretty straightforward Wild West theme, set in a Western frontier town. The reels are populated by all the typical Wild West iconography, from cowboy hats to horseshoes and gun holsters. Unlike many other Wild West themes developed for the online slot industry, this theme has no real edge or criminal element. The Wild West that we see in this game is the one that is portrayed to young children (minus perhaps the guns). The background for Lone Rider XtraWays is, as quickly mentioned, a frontier town somewhere out in the American West. The streets have been created to look like a cartoon version of one of the classic towns that you might find Dirty Harry. To the right of the playing board is a saloon bar, where no doubt good for nothing varmints hang out waiting for a confrontation. To the left is the town's bank which is good town planning from the point of view of the drinkers.

The board has been created to look like an old wooden sign that advertises some wares at the local market or maybe a whiskey bar. Either way, the quality on the animation is actually pretty high. The symbols for this game are split into low-paying, high-paying and special symbols. The low-paying symbols are comprised of the cowboy boot, the Stetson, the whiskey barrel and the horseshoe. The higher paying symbols are the gun belt, a sack of gold and the backpack. The most valuable symbols in this game are the female and male cowpokes. The specials for this game are the sheriff's badge representing the wild and the XtraWays expanding symbols that come in numbers from 1 to 5. There is also the free spins scatter, which is the wild mustang horse.

Game Play

Lone Rider XtraWays is played initially on a 6-reel, 3-row game board with a maximum of 729 pay lines. However, this changes with the influence of the Xtraways dynamic, leading to the reels expanding and the pay lines growing to a maximum of 262,144. To create winners in this game, players must match 3 or more symbols in combination from left to right on the reels. The betting range for Lone Rider XtraWays is 50p to as much as £100 per spin. To change your betting level per spin, use the bet adjuster tool located at the bottom of the playing window. Further information regarding the slot, including a display of the paytable, can be accessed by clicking on the settings menu. The spin button is located to the right of the reels. You can set up auto spins in the game's menu. The volatility of Lone Rider XtraWays is very high. The return to player percentage Lone Rider XtraWays is 94.02%, which is pretty low. The biggest payout that players can win on one spin is 1,541x your total stake.

Features

There are 3 main features in this free slot machine. The first of which is the wild symbol bonus. The wild symbol in this game is the sheriff's badge; it can substitute for other symbols barring specials, to help score more frequent wins. The main feature in this game, however, is the XtraWays gaming dynamic. Above each reel, in this game, an XtraWays counter displays a number between 3 and 8. This number indicates the number of symbols that will appear on the respective reel on the next spin. The base game begins with all the reel displays indicating 3. Special bonus symbols then land on the reels, which add either 1,2,3,4 or 5 to the symbol display above their respective reel. The maximum you can have on one reel display is 8. For every spin that does not land a special symbol, the XtraWay count above will go down by one, dropping to a minimum of 3. The final bonus for this slot is the free spins game triggered by landing 3 or more scatters on the reels. The more scatters that you land, the more free spins the game will grant you going into the round. Unlike in the base game, the XtraWays count does not reduce and instead holds or adds to their value as the feature progresses.

Conclusion

This is a solid game by the new kids on the block Swintt and a game made infinitely more exciting and lucrative by the XtraWays dynamic. The RTP, however, is relatively poor, and the theme could probably do with a little more work if it's going to compete at the top levels. This being said, considering this game is from a relatively small studio, they have done well to get it to a level of quality such as this.