Nyjah Huston

Introducing Nyjah Huston - Skate for Gold

I can imagine that your first reaction to this slot could be, “Who is Nyjah?” I have to be honest I thought exactly the same and if you are not au fait with skateboarding you would not know that Nyjah Huston has racked up more in winnings than any other professional skate boarder on the entire planet. As if that is not enough, he has also brokered a deal with the Swedish developers at Play ‘n’ Go so that they can use his name and imagery in this latest slot. This slot does not only use his name as an animated character of Nyjah pops up all over the place as well as being integrated into several features.

Design & Theme

Nyjah comes from Southern California and it is here that is used as a setting for the slot. The 5-reel, 10 pay line game features a gaming area that is bordered by sunny images which could be the skate park in Venice Beach or somewhere similar at the end of a long, hot summers day. The stunning LA sunset lights up the right side of your game screen, whilst a pop skater tune is playing in the background. This slot is simple and a pleasing environment to either spin your reels or give skateboarding a try!

How to Play & Symbols

If you were hardcore back in the day you may have lived by the mind set of “Skate or Die” but the name Skate for Gold does not have the credence without Nyjah. The slot is complete with some old school styled fluorescence on the graffiti symbols. At first glance you could mistake the cards as the royal playing cards, but they are cards with the letters A, E, K, T and S. After these come the higher paying symbols which are five individual Nyjah symbols four are trick symbols and the other a face shot, it is the face shot that is the most valuable and landing five of these on one pay line to provide you with a win that is equal to 25x your stake.

Nyjah the slot is relatively tame in comparison to some of the releases from Play ‘n’ Go and has a volatility rating for 4/10 which is very tame by the developers’ standards. The other statistics on offer are a solid return to player default of 96.2%. You should keep in mind that the return to player can be set lower if the operator chooses therefore it is wise to check this before committing to play. When you are ready to drop in you need to choose your bet range from 10p per spin to a maximum of £100 per spin.

Main features

The key to most of the features is being able to get Nyjah to do his own thing; and the features include the Wild Board Re-spins, Combo Meter Tricks, and the Skate free spins. The Combo Meter can become active in the base game spins and the meter will show up above your reels showing a trick. If you then land the same trick symbol anywhere on your reels and the Wild Board Re-spin feature becomes active.

Once you are in the Wild Board Re-spin round, you have two wilds and one expanded wild which will cover your entire reel are added to help you land a win or two. The expanded wild can turn into the special gold wild board which will brings a x2, x3, x5, or x10 multiplier (which covers a full reel) is added to help hit a winner or two. The wilds can substitute for all the symbol apart from the golden Skate symbol and a line of five wilds will reward you with 40x your stake.

The last feature you will come across is the free spins and as well as the standard S, K, A, T, E symbols there are some gold versions. If you land the gold versions to spell out the word Skate over your 5 reels you will be rewarded with 12 free spins. The combo meter is active in the free spins for every single spin and it also displays three separate tricks. The aim for you is to land the trick symbols from left to right on any of your reels in any position. If you manage to do this the Wild board re-spin is activated and you will be rewarded with a further two free spins, the current tricks then reset and you are ready to go all over again. You can activate the Skate free spins and the Wild Board re-spin on the same spin and if you get that lucky the Wild Board re-spin takes preference and pays out prior to the free spins.

Final Thoughts

Using a subject such as skateboarding runs the risk when the corporates start to champion it, maybe not so much these days as little is sacred anymore. The risk really comes from risk that you are merely cashing in on a pastime which for many should remain more private and for themselves. This brings me on to whether Nyjah Huston – Skate for Gold is just a slot that has been grabbed by some high ranking men in the boardroom who are doing their best to become trendy or a harmless bit if fun, I will let you decide on it and I will carry on with the merits this great game has to offer.

You will come across some moments in this slot but in my opinion the slot is never far from the corporate stamp, and whilst a competent game some may feel that it stands at just about average and could have been truly outstanding if the concept was worked on with some time and passion, this does not mean that the slot is not great, all I am saying is that I think it could have been better.

You may choose to see the high frequency in this slot as equating to a lower quality standard and this is proven by Play ‘n’ Go who continue to produce some rock-solid gaming. I wonder whether Nyjah Huston would have been better served by a harden skating fanatic, but when it comes to action sports slots Nyjah Huston comes out on top.
Once again Play ‘n’ Go have dazzled with their prowess in producing and offering yet another worthy playable slot with excellent features and good win potential. I think that Nyjah Huston is unlikely to appeal to core gamblers as it is not high enough on the volatility scale, but it is a perfect slot for a skate/Nyjah Huston fans.