The events that took place on the 7th December, 1941, continue to haunt Americans today – and it’s one of the deadliest military attacks in history, when Japan bombed the Pearl Harbor military base in Hawaii. This was the incident that caused the USA to officially enter World War II – although they’d finally get their comeuppance against the Japanese four years later, when they surrendered.
In 2001, we saw the hit blockbuster film – of the same name – starring Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale take the world by storm – and now, Nolimit City is trying to get in on the action, with their latest release also called, simple – Pearl Harbor.
The video slot is built around a 7×7 grid layout, and it uses a “Cluster Pays” mechanic. This means paylines are a thing of the past here; simply matching a cluster of symbols is enough to form a win. The hit frequency is quite low, compared to other games – just 19.41% – but this is more than made up for by the game’s massive max win, coming in at a whopping 41,127x your stake.
The game scores 10/10 on the software provider’s in-house volatility scale, so you can expect some big swings. The minimum bet is 0.20 credits, and the maximum bet can be set as high as 100 credits, depending on the online casino or bingo sites you’re playing at. The standard RTP of the game is 96.06%, although casinos can also request a lower setting; this can drop to as little as 92.01%.
In this slot review we’re going to be showing you exactly what the game is all about. We’ll look at the theme, the symbols, and the bonuses and features – and finish up by giving you our honest thoughts, and what we think works, and what doesn’t.
Pearl Harbor Slot: Theme, Design, and Layout
The game is played on a 7×7 grid, and wins are formed by matching a cluster of five or more identical symbols together. This is nothing new; it’s something we’ve seen from lots of other game developers, and Nolimit City has also started utilizing a cluster-pays mechanic in the last few months in other games.
Graphically, we feel the game leaves quite a lot to be desired graphically; the reels are set on a giant target – but other than that, there’s not much going on during the base game. Thankfully, the bonus round is more visually engaging – as you’ll see shortly.
Special Symbols, Bonus Features, and Gameplay
The video slot has a total of nine paying symbols; as noted earlier, in order to form a win, you need to land a cluster of five or more symbols, horizontally or vertically. Once you form a winning combo, the symbols involved with the win are removed from the screen, and new ones drop down to take their place. This process continues until no new winning combos appear on screen.
The game uses playing card values, including 10, jack, queen, king, and ace to represent the low-value icons, which pay between 0.15x and 1x your stake for a 5-of-a-kind cluster. The premium symbols include Japanese writing-style icons, and these can pay up to 625x your stake if you manage to match a cluster big enough.
Pearl Harbor Slot: Bonus Features
As we’ve come to expect from most of Nolimit City’s video slots, Pearl Harbor offers an extensive selection of bonuses and features. Firstly, you have the xBet Banzai – an optional side bet that increases your stake by 50%. If you choose to activate this side bet, the chances of triggering the Dog Fight bonus increase by three. If you choose to increase your stake by 100%, you’re guaranteed to land two scatter symbols on each spin – making it significantly easier to trigger the main bonus round, which we’ll talk about below.
During the base game, xBomb Wild Multipliers can appear; when they land, they will blow away up to ten surrounding symbols. They will also increase the size of the grid if they’re in the corner, or located on one of the border edges.
If you manage to land three of the scatter symbols you will trigger the Dogfight Bonus. You will then be awarded three spins, at which point you’ll be transported to an aircraft cockpit. Here, you’ll want to land multipliers and + values. If you can fill up a column, you’ll trigger the Dogfight Attack bonus, which adds everything together and gives you a chance of winning it. If you fill a horizontal row, the multipliers multiply against one another.
If you manage to land four of the scatter symbols during the base game, you’ll trigger the Tora! Tora! Tora! bonus round. This is the same as the Dogfight Bonus, but the Midway Pop feature also becomes active; when a multiplier lands on a dial on the middle row, it will automatically fill the spot above it – increasing your chances of filling a column with symbols.
Like many of the game developer’s video slots, Pearl Harbor also offers a bonus buy feature. This lets you pay 60x to trigger the Dogfight Bonus, or 712x to trigger the Tora! Tora! Tora! bonus round.
Conclusion
The Japanese theme is a unique one – and while Nolimit City is no stranger to war-inspired video slots (remember Das xBoot slot), Pearl Harbor slot has a pretty unique look and feel to it. If you can get past the bland – almost basic – design of the base game, you’ll soon see that gameplay is action-packed, fast-paced, and fun – and there’s some great win potential during the bonuses and features.
However, be warned that the base game itself can be pretty costly; large clusters are very hard to form, and this means your balance can get decimated quite fast. Perhaps consider playing at a lower stake than you normally would to compensate for this.
If you prefer games with a darker theme, then Serial slot from the same provider will do the trick, while Rock Bottom slot is another alternative that can lead to huge wins.
