IGT's Wolf Run slot has to be among the best known slot games ever to have graced land-casinos, certainly if you live in the USA anyway. Not seen it quite so much in the UK or Europe to be fair although the 50-payline version, named Wild Wolf, is more prevalent in Macau casinos I noticed on my last trip there. In fact, I didn't see one Wolf Run slot machine at all in the beautiful Venetian Casino - they were all Wild Wolfs.. or should that be wolves? Pfft!
Anyway, putting that aside, the Wolf Run slot itself features the now obligatory free spin feature - although to be fair this was one of the first IGT games in land-based casinos to really capitalise on the concept - and comes complete with Stacked Wilds. If you don't know Wolf Run but are familiar with other IGT slots like Lil’ Lady, Coyote Moon and Great Eagle, then essentially, they are all the same games but with themes based on different animals. Or birds! In fact, there are several Wolf Run slot clones to be found lurking in the darkened recesses of land-based casinos but as I write, the Coyote Moon, Lil’ Lady and Wolf Run slots are the only ones available for online play, plus the modified 50 pay-line Wild Wolf game of course.
The game is set in the wilderness, in a coniferous forest. The title is quite clever with a paw print replacing the ‘o’ in ‘wolf’. There are plenty of icons to fill up the reels; different breeds of wolves such as the black wolf and the white wolf, some sacred totems, along with playing card symbols A, K, Q, J, 10, 9. The wolf howling at the moon is the game’s Stacked Wild which replaces all symbols except for the Bonus icon. Three Bonuses will activate the illusive Stacked Wilds feature. When you win brace yourself to hear some spine-tingling howls.
Wolf Run is a 5x4 reel slot with 40 adjustable pay-lines. For maximum action I recommend you play all pay-lines. Regards payback and long term expected returns - or RTP as it is referred to - the online version of the Wolf Run slot is set 94.98% - which is likely to be far better than the land-based version, trust me! The minimum bet is 1 credit and the maximum bet is 50 credits, encouraging high rollers to play. However, the low to medium variance on this slot doesn’t support this kind of play really, which is disappointing.The best part of this free and real money slot is the Stacked Wilds feature. These Wilds appear on every reel with free spins being triggered when you land the Bonus symbol on reels 2, 3 and 4 simultaneously. During this feature, each reel in the base game is loaded with groups of four or more consecutive Wild symbols. You get rewarded with a measly-sounding 5 free spins.. but with extra stacked wilds thrown in for good measure. The reels in the Free Spins Bonus have a richer, more plentiful Stacked Wild feature than the base game reels. It's not like 50 Lions where more stacked wilds are added to the reels as the free spins progress however, although the potential for good hits is still there, if rarely seen! During the Free Spins Bonus, you can also retrigger the Bonus by getting three Bonus symbols anywhere on the centre three reels. Retriggering the Free Spins Bonus awards you with an additional five free spins. You can retrigger the Bonus multiple times, up to a maximum of 255 free spins per Bonus.
A final feature which happens to be new to IGT slots, is the graphics button, with which you can select the quality of the game. This is great for people playing on older devices or with slow internet connections. The Wolf Run slot's bonus feature isn't the most exciting to be fair and despite the potential for good wins with the Stacked Wilds and free spin retriggers, it's a game I've grown increasing bored of. But it remains a pretty popular game so what do I know! Horses for courses as they say.