Pub Kings Slot Review

26/08/2023 | Categories: Pragmatic Play Slots | Published by: Joe | Last updated: 05/01/2024

It has been a minute since we reviewed a Pragmatic Play slot, right? Yes, it has, and diving into our records, we uncover that we have not looked at any reel spinner from this famed provider since April 2023. That is five months, which is a stretch for us. In that time, Pragmatic entered deep into the Brazilian and Argentinian markets, began supplying live games in Romania, and unleashed loads of new titles. Pub Kings is an August 1st release from Pragmatic Play that got worldwide distribution on the 8th of this month. Two weeks after this reel-spinning product hit the Web, it is doing fairly well in most territories, ranking around the 50-mark in the UK, and entering the top ten standings in New Zealand, Finland, and Canada. So, let us have a look-see and discover what about this game precisely draws players to it.

Theme & Design

Ah, Vikings. Who does not love these Scandinavian warriors, which pop culture has made famous? However, the reality is that these Northmen were a disruptive influence on Europe that raided and colonized many sections of the Old Continent, particularly between the ninth and eleventh centuries. In the online slot sphere, they get utilized by top providers as the basis for their games, without question, establishing themselves as one of the sector’s most exploited themes. There are around three hundred spinners boasting the Viking motif. At the time of writing, aside from this one, highly popular entries in this history sub-genre are Eric’s Big Catch by StakeLogic, Hacksaw’s Stormforged, and Asgardian Fire by Neon Valley.

Audio-visually, Pub Kings is about what you would expect from Pragmatic. The Malta-based company has its distinct style concerning slot presentation, and they do not seem keen on budging from it, as it has been utilized by its team for a few years now. If you have played any games from this provider, then you know that Pub Kings will greet you with colorful painterly graphics with a sense of depth. The reels here spin inside an ornamented wooden frame with dragon carvings at the top, reminiscent of those seen at the tip of Viking ships. The scene in this game is a clear day in a Viking village, with a stone house in the background and mountains behind it. It shocked us that we did not hear any music during the gameplay, as only sound effects were audible in the version we played. We assumed that this must be some kind of error in our game and looked up Pub Kings slot videos on YouTube to learn that this slot does have a soundtrack. It is one that fits the theme well and is light-hearted in nature. The effects implemented are the standard Pragmatic Play alarm ones.

As far as the button configuration goes, it is the same one incorporated in all Pragmatic releases for years. The spin functions and bet adjuster are in the bottom right corner, and in the bottom left, you will find the settings, info, and mute options.

Pub Kings Slot

Specs & Gameplay

What are the gameplay specs of Pub Kings? The RTP here, by default, is 96.08% but can range. The variance model is high, the max win stands at x5,000 (the hit probability for this prize is one in 1 in fourteen million), and the betting range moves from $0.2 to $240. Stunning, we know. Pub Kings utilizes a 5×4 layout with twenty paylines, and the reward combos here get constructed when three or more matching tokens land on one of the twenty defined paylines, which pay left to right. As almost always, only the top win pre-line gets paid out.

There is no wild in Pub Kings. But there is a golden scatter. It avoids the second and fourth reels, only landing on the first, third, and fifth ones. The regular pay symbols in this game divide into low-prize A, K, Q, J, and ten royals, providing wins of either x5 or x15 for five-of-a-kind combos. The premiums of Pub Kings are character symbols that yield rewards of x25 to x150 when they pop in on the grid on the same spin five times.

Bonus Features

Landing three golden scatters gives you ten on-the-house spins. During this round, each reel gets linked with one of the characters of Pub Kings, and after a spin gets concluded in this mode, instances on hit high-pay tokens get totaled on their linked reel. Pragmatic calls this a progressive feature. Gathering six or more such tokens activates random award level one on the appropriate reel, and snagging three more for each level boosts the reward tier up to ten. What are reward levels? These are tiers that feature specific bet multipliers for each game column. For example, the first reel has multipliers that go from x10 to x5,000, and the third has ones that start at x4 and end at x1,500. At the end of the free spin mode, the reel with the highest beer mug count gets awarded its displayed multiplier.

You can also activate the random reward feature when two scatters appear on a reel, and then a prize from level one to five can be won. The level will be arbitrarily chosen from a random reel.

GOSU Verdict

What do we think of Pub Kings? In our opinion, this is a slightly above-average release from Pragmatic Play. It has many of the usual specs featured in games released by this company, like the max win of x5,000 and the high variance paired with a run-of-the-mill RTP setting. The charm degree here is Okay, but nothing to get overly excited about, and the two bonus modes are decently engaging. We quite liked the random award feature. Note, it is not special enough to make us go out of our way and recommend this game to you solely on its merits, but it’s something interesting. Overall, we think this is a solid spinner for casual gamblers and should be entertaining for players who do not crave complex gameplay mechanics and just want to play something familiar and fun.