Spirit Of The River Slot Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Spirit Of The River Review

Developer Light and Wonder reskins its older slot, Yanaha's Rite, and presents Spirit of the River, which builds on the same features and mechanics. Both games are pretty similar except for the theme, as the developers have switched the setting from Indians to the Aztec Empire. Apart from that, everything has remained quite the same, and players will benefit from the innovative Dual Ways Pays system, scatter collection, and Free Spins with 4 different reel modifiers that pay up to 5,000x the stake.

Spirit of the River - Slot Outlook

Even though the setting has changed greatly, the overall look hasn't undergone a lot of changes. We still get a mystic host on the left, an Aztec priestess, in this case, casting her spells to summon reel modifiers, and there's a scatter collection tower on the right, displaying our progress on entering the bonus. However, the game feels much prettier than its predecessor with a more vivid color scheme and a serene waterfall in the background. An ambient soundtrack immerses you in the action, plus we see mighty Aztec step pyramids in the distance that add a final touch to the magical atmosphere.

Spirit Of The River Slot - Reel Screen

It all plays out on an unorthodox 4x6 grid, and you can score wins both horizontally and vertically. That's called the Dual Ways Pays system that makes adjacent symbols pay from left to right and from top to bottom.

To step into the action you'll need to place bets from $0.2 to $50 per spin. Spirit of the River is powered by a medium-high volatile math model, and the RTP is solid above the average at 96.7%, so wins should occur fairly often. Speaking of wins, the cap is $250,000 on a single spin, so the potential makes 5,000x the stake.

The symbol collection in the Spirit of the River slot includes 10 regular symbols that are split into highs, mids, and lows. The pay symbols start at the low end with four patterned stones, and next are the three mid-pays also presented by Aztec hieroglyphs. The premiums have much more personality and are made up of a priestess, an Aztec chief, and a warrior.

There's also a Wild symbol that helps you form winning combinations by substituting for any other regular symbol, yet it's available in the Free Spins only. Reel expansions take place in the Free Spins also, and 8-of-a-kind symbol wins are worth 1.25x to 20x the stake.

Spirit of the River - Bonus Features

Look out for water drop symbols in the base game. Those are Scatters, and whenever one appears in view, it's added to the Spirit Tower to the right of the reels and lits one of the four segments on the meter. You have a cycle of 20 spins to collect three more and fill the Spirit Tower. If you fail to do so, then 2 segments will be removed, taking you two steps back in the progress. If you manage to collect 4 Scatters within 20 spins, the Free Spins feature will be triggered. If more than four are collected, those will be carried over to the bonus game. However, keep in mind that the Spirit Tower collection progress is individual for each stake level.

Filling the Spirit Tower awards 8 free spins to start, and you can get additional free games by filling the tower once again.

Thus, collecting 4 more Scatters adds +5 extra spins, and you can retrigger the feature with no limits. On each spin during the bonus, one of the four animal spirit modifiers comes into play, randomly awarding the corresponding features:

• Turtle - expands random rows on the grid up to 8 symbols wide. Rows remain expanded for the duration of the bonus. Scatters cannot appear in the extra symbol positions.
• Frog - adds a random number of Mystery Symbols to the reels that reveal the same regular-paying symbol.
• Dolphin - adds a random number of Wild symbols to the reels.
• Octopus - multiplies the current spin win by a random value of either 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, or 10x.

Spirit of the River - Slot Verdict

Everything's on spot in the Spirit of the River slot, from an outstanding design to the innovative Dual Ways Pays system and exciting Free Spins feature with random reel modifiers. Well, some may find the theme a bit cliched, but the way Light and Wonder plays with animations and sounds is just perfection. However, the downside is that you can't skip through Spirit Modifier animations.

They add a touch of life to the gameplay and are fun to watch at first, yet within a couple of triggers, you won't be excited too much, given they last for like 10 seconds each.

Gameplay-wise, Spirit of the River is highly enjoyable. You get to land more wins thanks to the Dual Ways Pays system, and the process of entering the bonus works in a somewhat different and unique way. Once in, each spin is likely to bring a tasty win as Spirit Modifiers come into play and produce reel expansions as well as add new bonus symbols to the grid. Light and Wonder has also done the balancing just right, and you can rely on the decent stats of Spirit of the River.

All up, Spirit of the River is surely a slot worth trying. While the theme is something you get to see every day, the gameplay is not, and the magnificent Free Spins round is bound to be enjoyed by slotters. All that said, those into the theme and Aztec thing shouldn't miss this one out. 

Pros

• Nice take on the Aztec theme
• Dual Ways Pays system
• 4 different reel modifiers in Free Spins

Cons

• Copy of Light and Wonder's previous slot