Meet Elk Studios

Italians make the best pasta, the smelliest cheese originates from France, and the world’s coolest online games are made by Elk Studios and they come from Sweden. Fact. This wombat’s not sure why, but that’s just how it is.

First there was NetEnt, one of the most famous slot developers but in the past few years,  Swedish boutique games makers have been springing up all over the shop including Thunderkick, Yggdrasil and now, newbies on the block, Elk Studios.

So who are these fiendishly clever and creative slot wizards? Well, let’s get acquainted.

Elk Slots Studios was founded in 2012 and have quickly manages to set themselves apart from their slot competitors. They base their games on some seriously quirky topics like chaotic chemistry labs and taco stealing Mexican bandits that all come with razor sharp, HD graphics and unique bonus features like cascading symbols, sticky corners, free spins, running wilds and more. All of which that make their slots a lot of fun to play.

And they’ve only released a handful of games so far! (Well, compared to the big boys like Microgaming and NetEnt that is, but new ones- like the Birthday! slot– come out all the time. It’s definitely quality over quantity though…..

They are also trailblazers, as all of their games take a mobile first approach. Their symbols and the control buttons are large and often transparent, while the reels are full screen and designed for smart phone and tablet touch device gestures. Take the Platooners slot machine, for example. This is a sequel to an earlier game called Bloopers, and if you compare the two games you’ll get a good feeling as to where they are heading with the graphics. Onwards and upwards!

Betting Strategies

Elk’s slots also allow players to use betting strategies. You simply choose one of these different ways to play, and the game will automatically follow it:

Jumper: After a win the bet level will increase by x1, up to 4 levels above the original bet (that means x10). After a losing spin the bet level will reset. So for example if your original bet is €0.15 per spin, in case of 4 consecutive wins the bet will go to €0.30, €0.60, €0.90, up to €1.50

Booster: This is the opposite of Jumper. The bet level will increase by x1 after each loosing spin, up to 4 levels. After a winning spin the bet level will reset.

Leveller: The bet level will increase by x2 after 5 consecutive losing spins. It can happen twice. A winning round will reset to basic level.

Anyway! Enough of the nuts and bolts of the Elk Studios. Here’s a few of their biggest and best slots, so you can see for yourself…

Kaiju 

In this sci-fi slot there’s an epic futuristic battle between humanoids and a load of massive dragon creatures. Kaiju is an amazing-looking game that brings a futuristic oriental city to life with flashing neon lights, electronic billboards, smog, and flashing tracks that glimmer up and down its streets. We’ve not seen graphics like this before.

It’s also an expanding 5-reel slot, with a possible 7776 ways to win on offer! Which means you are almost guaranteed some serious payouts… and it’s been designed as a mobile first game too. Yes this slot is optimised to be played in portrait mode – which is why the reels expand upwards instead of sideways from left to right. And by creating vertical wins with the Vertical Laser Feature, these reels open up to offer you those absolutely huge 7,776 ways to win.

It’s an absolute cracker!

Wild Seas

Ooh arr me hearties! Set sail on the high seas with Anne Bonny and her pirate crew  as you negotiate the stormy waters and pillage some British merchant ships! You’ll also have 178 paylines on which to create those winning combos that could be as much as 178,000 coins.

But here at Wombat Towers, it’s the awesome and totally unique bonus feature that tickles our fancy. Your Free Spins begin with a 3-row-high convoy of ships acting as Wilds on the right-hand side of the reels, and with each spin, they’ll move one reel to the right until they disappear. But whenever a pirate ship lands on the 5th reel, it will aim to blow the convoy away with its ruddy big cannons! It takes 3x hits to sink a ship, and each sunken ship will become a sticky wild until the end of stage 1 of the bonus game.

In Stage 2, every time a treasure chest wild appears on the screen, it becomes a sticky wild when fired on by the pirate ship. But, if the cannon hits a barrel symbol, the feature is over.

It’s a great-looking slot with some unique gameplay that keeps this wombat going back for more time and time again.

Hong Kong Tower

Yes, you guessed right Wombat fans, Hong Kong is the location of this Elk Studios slot that features a whole load of night-time high-rise action. The city skyline is your backdrop and it’s stacked high with bonus features. It’s also high variance game, and the ability to create some chunky base game wins sets it apart from a lot of other competitors.

It’s the wheel-of-fortune style extra that really gets our paws a-tingling though. Here, 3 wheels will pop up on your screens once you’ve triggered off the feature – the first one will start spinning and dish out lots of different cash prizes, there’s also a Level Up arrow on the wheels. Landing on the Level Up will transport you to the next wheel (your goal is to go all the way to the 3rd wheel wombat fans, which is where you’ll find all the mahoosive prizes).

It’s an innovative multi level bonus round that blows your standard Free Spins games out of the water.

And with the payouts on wheel 3 going all the way up to 500x your bet, there’s no reason not to play this very nice-looking game! We like.

Hidden

Wombat fans, do you have what it takes to venture to Giza and uncover the secrets of the Ancient Egyptians? Then you need to play this slot. The game features the typical high-end ELK design and unusual game mechanics, as well as an epic intro that looks like something out of an animated movie!

The aim of the game is to help Egyptology Professor Taylor and his nephew Benjamin unearth long-forgotten hidden treasures from an old map. And it features vibrant and sharp graphics, along with cascading symbols that help to increase the odds of a win on each and every spin.

This wombat loves Hidden because it breathes life into the overdone slot theme of the Egyptians, and delivers a game that’s really fun to play and just as lucrative. The cool Flashback Respins feature sends you back in time to ancient Cairo, to get a glimpse of what the pyramids once looked like. And offers x3 Free Spins plus sticky wilds too!

Elk Studios at their best.