Hammerblaze

Hammerblaze: Slot Overview

It's hard to visualise, but there is apparently evidence of hammer use going back over 3 million years when heavy rocks were used by early humans to break bones, shells, and shape stone into tools. Fast forward to the modern day, and hammers remain a simple yet effective tool, for amongst other things, hitting stuff. In Hammerblaze, an online slot designed by software provider Thunderkick, the humble hammer can pound individual cell multipliers onto the gaming grid, quite effectively, too, which is good since the slot functions as an uncomplicated multiplier-driven, cluster paying hitting device.

Thunderkick has a track record of designing distinctive-looking mythology-type slots, such as Midas Golden Touch or Second Thunder, and Hammerblaze sits comfortably alongside those. It doesn't put anything overly extravagant on the screen, but it has a simple yet muscular look, like a well-crafted hammer, that might not be sophisticated, but which can be counted on to beat metal into shape. It wasn't mentioned anywhere at the time of review, but at a guess, it would seem that players are joined by a Hephaestus-type character, perhaps it's the smithing god himself working metal at a fiery forge on the volcanic island of Lemnos. Perhaps not. Feel free to pretend either way.

Hammerblaze is a cluster pays slot that lands winning combinations when 5 or more matching symbols are connected to each other. The winning symbols vanish, and symbols drop down from the top to refill the reels. If a new win is formed after the symbols drop, then the Avalanche feature triggers again. The hammering takes place on a 7x7 grid powered by a highly volatile math model generating a 94.13% RTP. Click the bet button, and players can choose a wager from $/€0.10 to $/€100.

Just six pay symbols land on the grid. They are bows, swords, shields, helmets, chest armour, and a character symbol. The largest cluster size is 25+ OAK, and when these hit, they are worth 10x to 100x the stake.

Hammerblaze: Slot Features

Hammerblaze adds position multipliers to its grid courtesy of the Exploding Wild symbol, which is available in the base game and in free spins. Its other extras are Bet+ ante bets and a feature buy.

Exploding Wild Symbol

The Exploding Wild symbol can randomly land and explode during a spin or Avalanche sequence, or it can be generated and explode in a cluster pay area. The Exploding Wild removes all symbols in a 3x3 Multiplier Grid around and under the symbol, causing an Avalanche. Wilds substitute for all symbols except the scatter.

Multiplier Grid

Each position in a Multiplier Grid gets a multiplier with an initial value of x2. If new Exploding Wilds land and explode on top of an existing Multiplier Grid, the multiplier values double, up to x128, on the grid positions that overlap. Multiplier values are additive when part of the same cluster pay.

Bonus Game

The bonus game is triggered (or retriggered) by landing 3 scatters, which awards 10 free spins. Multiplier Grids activated in the base game reset when the bonus game starts. But any Multiplier Grids formed during the bonus are sticky and remain on the reels till the round ends.

Bet+ & Feature Buy

The two Bet+ options are the Bonus Boost at 1.3x and the Bonus Boost Plus at 2.2x, which make each spin 2 and 5 times more likely to trigger free spins, respectively. The sole feature buy is a round of free spins triggered for 100x the stake.

Hammerblaze: Slot Verdict

Hammerblaze keeps things simple, and that's a major part of the attraction. For a cluster paying, cascading slot, it doesn't try to overwhelm players with flashy gimmicks or layers of complexity. Instead, it lines up the thing it wants to hit, raises its beating instrument, then proceeds to swing it down at full velocity before making contact. Or missing, since this is a Thunderkick piece with a lower-than-usual RTP, so there are no guarantees it is going to be anything other than crushing. However, the charm of Hammerblaze lies in its focused aggression. Where many cluster paying slots bury players under a feast of features, charge meters, modifiers, and so on, Hammerblaze has a narrower focus.

The Exploding Wild is the gateway, and these appeared quite frequently, either landed or generated within winning cluster areas. They then go on to create Multiplier Grids, which hopefully will go on to host more Exploding Wilds, so they layer over each other to spread some increasing multiplier goodness across the grid. This is helped by persistent Multiplier Grids in free spins. It's a solid system that is good for hammering out wins up to a 10,000x win cap. Hammerblaze does shed some cool points due to the fact that it is a reskin of Hot Potato!, just with more betting options and a lower max RTP, so a seen-it-all-before emotion did taint the overall enjoyment.

However, whether you're pounding hot metal or roasting potatoes, the thrill remains the same: watching multipliers stack up during successful avalanche/free spins runs. So, delete memories of Hot Potato! (and Hot Turkey), and Hammerblaze is a quintessential Thunderkick compact nugget of a game that looks nice, runs simply, but which is technically capable of knocking out a chunky result when its components are pounding.