Niagara Falls Slot Review

Niagara Falls is a video slot from Northern Lights Gaming developed for Yggdrasil’s YGS Masters initiative. The slot has 5 reels and 20 paylines and was released in June 2019. You’ll be able to play this game at online casinos such as Mr Green, Guts or Casumo.

Theme and basic information

Niagara Falls was the very first slot to come out of the YGS Masters initiative. That makes it somewhat special and the theme we get here is certainly different. We’re looking at a slot machine like they might have been around in the 1930’s – definitely pre-war. The setup is oddly charming. The reels clutter along, there’s saloon music in the background and it all looks properly classic.

And somehow it works. The background is decorated in Art Deco elements, which looks great and even though there’s something deceptively simple about this game, the attention to detail here is lovely and commendable. They could have just given us any old classic-looking slot, but this is more sophisticated than you might guess at a glance.

As such, we also get the classic reels symbols in this slot. Lucky 7s in blue and red, a BAR symbol, a bell, plums, oranges and cherries. There’s also a little postcard picture of the Niagara Falls, which is the highest value symbol and pays out 10x our stake for 5 on a payline. The wild symbol would pay as much but only if you get 5 on a payline as well. Otherwise it simply replaces any other symbol with its regular value.

The red lucky 7 is worth 8x our stake for such a win and the blue 7 still pays out 5x our stake. The other symbols pay between 1x and 3x our stake for 5 on a payline.

You can play this game from 0.20 per spin to 100.00 per spin.

Lucky coin drop and cash falls

The main feature in the base game is the Lucky Coin Drop. On reel 5, a golden coin may land randomly on any spin. When it does, it will be added to a slot above the reels, where it then drops down along the reels, leaving a trail. It’ll drop into a slot at the bottom of one of the five reels, where it may trigger one of the following:

• Wilds: Symbols highlighted by the coin’s trail will turn wild
• Shake: A shake bonus is added to the shake counter, which is useful in the cash fall feature
• Stacked Spins: You get a re-spin with stacked symbols on the reels
• Multiplier: Your current win is multiplied between 2x and 5x
• Free Spins: The free spin feature is triggered

Alas, the coin may also drop in an empty spot and you get nothing. Since this feature is triggered fairly often, this is likely going to be the case.

The already mentioned Cash Falls is the second random feature in the base game. Here coins will simply fall down the reels and drop into slots at the bottom of the reels that have a coin value assigned. A super coin can add more value in the end. Plus, any shakes collected will now be added at the end of the coin fall, hopefully dropping more coins into the slots.

Niagara Falls free spins

The free spins are either triggered by the lucky coin or by the barrel landing on reels 1, 3 and 5. During the free spins, you’re hoping that ‘Wild’ is written below the reels as that means that a stacked Wild landing here will become sticky and be held there for the remainder of the free spins.

Often, you are likely to get just 1 or 2 wilds reels, but you can get all five reels with a stacked wild on it, which looks funny because the wilds show us daring men in barrels rushing down the falls. Either way, here the top payout would be 200x your bet.

Conclusion: A charming slot that doesn’t manage to excite

The theoretical RTP (Return to Player) of Niagara Falls is 96.2%, which is decent enough. The slot offers medium volatility, which means you’ll win often enough that it doesn’t feel as if the game is robbing you blind.

The problem is, however, that there are no big wins to be had. Like, ever. The top win is the mere 200x our stake, which is simply sad. Add to that the somewhat sluggish gameplay and you wonder why you should play this game.

Niagara Falls has a charming theme and features that are good enough. But the wins are insignificant and the whole gameplay lacks any sort of excitement. It’s a slot suitable for beginners or those looking for a relaxed gameplay. Everyone else will be looking for more fun elsewhere.