Totem Lightning slot

Totem Lightning is decent edition from our latter day developers Red Tiger and we leave the Oriental theme for once to muster up the power of the original inhabitants of North America, the Indians and their worship of the event of lightning. We also depart from their standard set-up to have a 'cascade' game whereby winning symbols are replaced by new ones cascading from above, like with the South American-themed relative Gonzo's Quest slot. The cascades take place over a view of the Great Plain with mountains in the background, which transforms to night after a win occurs and you have soothing tribal pipe music as they fall. So will Totem Lightning turn out to be Totem Treasures for you?

On the poles...

We start off with 40 pay lines and 5 reels but we have four rows instead of the usual three. The symbols can appear stacked although that's only because the tiles all fall individually and separately so can be duplicated on each vertical column. Naturally the various representations carved on to the Totem Pole feature here and make the best pays. Now I said we had left the Oriental theme for this game but we do have the Chinese lucky 8's in play here, as the top-paying 5-of-a-kind is the Eagle at 888 coins or 22.2x bet as it costs 40 coins to play. The Puma, Wolf and Crab pay 10 down to 3x bet respectively. The remaining icons are the card values 2x bet to 0.33x bet for Ace down to Ten but these actually have a vital role as we shall see. There are no Wilds here but we don't really need them as you will see!

Lightning strike

Whenever you win on Totem Lightning it will usually be with the card icons due to their frequency and there is a carving on the right of the reels with A, K, Q, J and 10 shown. Each card icon win consisting of those icons will strike them off and remove them from the reels and continue to do so, possibly until they are all removed and you are playing after 5 cascades with solely the premium Totem symbols and bonus icons. Randomly the Lightning Spirit will answer the Indian call and assist you by striking some losing tiles to create a win and thus help your cascade. This can occur on any cascade or play so may happen after the third successive one for example, when you think the run is over. When the card tiles are all removed is when big wins are most likely, in theory you could get in excess of 800x bet. You are equally more likely to see 3 or more of the Yellow Head Feathers bonus symbols when the card icons are removed although they can drop in anywhere as soon as you play a spin.

Totem treasure climb

Three or more Yellow bonus scatters will trigger a potentially lucrative trail bonus. You simply select one of 6 Peace Pipes and when you do it will puff out a smoke signal containing a number, which moves you up the trail by that amount of places. Certain positions such as 15x or 20x will also be an automatic 'collect' too but if you get to 100x you pick a final time which may have enough to get you to the top of the Totem Pole and win a massive 1000x bet top prize! It is actually the same bonus as Red Tiger's Lucky Easter slot has, with different graphics.

Our View...

Totem Lightning slot is added to the ever-increasing catalogue of cascade games out there already and some players find them slow and unrewarding unless multipliers are included for successive wins or in the free games. Red Tiger have tried to be different here with symbol removal instead and thrown in some random assistance to boot. And it works - the game is entertaining and maintains interest with the potential of large pays without getting the bonus. The feature is a volatile one though so be prepared for a few sub-20x bet trails before the big ones occur. The RTP is a creditable 95.53% and the graphics and music very gentle on your eyes and ears too. I like Reg Tiger slots, Puss'n Boots is enjoyable, equally Lion Dance and this game is no exception. The Chief has offered me the peace pipe and I will certainly smoke it with him...