Lace-up your skates, grab a gum-guard and get your helmet on, you’re in for some chilling winning with Break Away Deluxe online slot by Microgaming and Stormcraft Studios The slot is set against the backdrop of a bird’s eye view of an ice hockey rink with a simple 5x5 reel grid squarely in the centre. The reels feature ice hockey players and objects that have a slightly retro feel. The music is sparsely distributed, but lively event-triggered sound effects bring up the pace. The gameplay centres on the familiar rolling reels mechanism and your ability to select the number of active paylines. You will have free spins, stacked wilds, random wilds, and multipliers on your side to help you score the winning goal.

Game Symbols

The slot's low-value symbols are represented by a helmet, ice skates and a Zamboni.
The higher-value symbols are 4 different hockey players and a referee.
The wild is the game logo and can appear as a 5-symbol stack on the 3 central reels and stands in for any other regular symbols.
The scatter is a burning hockey puck that triggers free spins.

Bonus Features

Free Spins

Free spins are triggered by landing at least 3 puck scatters on the reels. The game awards you 12, 20, or 25 free spins for 3, 4 or 5 scatters respectively. A multiplier counter appears to the left of the reels and if you get 5 consecutive winning combos while free spins are active, you can ramp your multiplier value all the way up to 8x.

Rolling Reels

Rolling reels is a well-known mechanic where any symbols involved in a winning combo will disappear with new symbols falling in their place to create a potential string of consecutive wins. This mechanic works particularly well with the growing wilds special feature.

Growing wilds

The wild symbol can only appear on reels 3 to 5 in the base came and reels 2 to 5 during free spins. This symbol appears as a super-stack and will grow by 1 symbol with each consecutive winning combo.

Smashing wilds

Smashing Wilds is a randomly triggered feature where two hockey players appear out of nowhere and crash into one of the 3 central reels, turning them into a wild reel for a guaranteed winning combo. This reel will stay in place for any following spins.

Our Verdict

Break Away Deluxe slot is an adequate spiritual successor to its roots, but landing the maximum win may prove a daunting task. Players who enjoyed the original 2012 Break Away slot by Microgaming will be happy to see that the spirit of the original has been retained, albeit with updated graphics and sound. The look of the game may not be impressive to new players but does hold some nostalgia value.

On the positive side, you can manage the game’s RTP up to 96.88% by adjusting the number of active paylines, allowing you to inject some strategy into the game. The base game offers decent potential with the combination of rolling reels, random smashing wilds, and growing, stacked wilds. If you are chasing the maximum 3200x your stake, you will need to reach the top multiplier value during free spins which is improbable, and a shame, considering the relatively low maximum win amount. This title has something to offer for fans of the original and nostalgia nerds but may come off as too basic and unrewarding for newbies and high-rollers.