Arctic Valor (Crazy Tooth Studio): Review

Arctic Valor is a Microgaming powered slot created by Crazy Tooth Studio, an independent Nevada-based software developer that seems to have focused largely on producing slots for the American market. We tried to dig up more background info but found very little, and Microgaming still hasn’t properly introduced Crazy Tooth Studio. Still, with a motto like “Quality Always Wins“, what could possibly go wrong?

To be fair, this is a smaller studio, and it wouldn’t be reasonable to measure them against the long-established heavyweights we usually cover on Bigwinboard. We also get the impression they’re extremely proud of what they make, so we’ll tread lightly—despite the fact that we don’t think very highly of Microgaming, a company that seems to have drifted far from what players actually want. On that note, it was both bleak and bizarre watching Microgaming at the recent London iGaming conference, trying to drum up excitement for titles that would have struggled to stand out 10 years ago, never mind in 2019. Anyways…

Arctic Valor is a 6 reel, 4096 ways slot with a stake range of 0.15€ to 150€ a spin on all compatible devices. It uses adjacent pays mechanics, meaning wins can land anywhere on the reel set as long as you hit 3 or more matching symbols on adjacent reels. For instance, if matching symbols connect on reels 4, 5 and 6, the payout is yours.

Here, you set off on an arctic quest featuring a randomly triggered Icicle feature and Arctic Valor free spins. Much like ELK Studios 2018 release Valkyrie, the game leans into a Norse mythology vibe. The action takes place in a celestial arctic temple, with the northern lights animating in the background while snowflakes drift down over the reels. On the cracked-ice reel set you’ll find fully stacked low-value pink, blue and snow crystals, alongside mid-tier shields, winged helmets, crossbows and swords. The premium symbols are 4 valkyrie warriors—each worth the same—paying 0.66 times your stake for 6 across a payline. There are no special symbols apart from the wild, which substitutes for all symbols except the scatter.

Arctic Valor (Crazy Tooth Studio): Features

During the base game, the Icicle feature can randomly activate on any spin. One or more icicles drop onto the reels and may appear up to 3 symbols high on each reel. You then click the icicles to uncover cash prizes or wild symbols. It triggers fairly often, although it can also appear to tease without fully kicking in.

Landing 3 or more scatter symbols anywhere on the reels triggers the Arctic Valor bonus, awarding 7 free spins. In the bonus round, the Icicle feature activates on every spin to grant wild symbols. A set of Valkyrie symbols is also added here, appearing 3 symbols high. When Valkyrie symbols land, the Icicles will specifically focus on them.

Arctic Valor (Crazy Tooth Studio): Verdict

While Arctic Valor does bring a few positives—like the 6-reel setup, the 4096 win all ways system, and fully stacked symbols—it ultimately feels underwhelming thanks to its noticeably dated visuals and the stubbornly low payouts. That said, the game does offer a max win potential of 2700x per single spin if you manage to hit a full screen of the top symbol. But when 38x wins are being hailed as a “huge win”, it gives you a pretty clear sense of what to expect.

Beyond the slightly jerky spin flow and the less-than-stellar graphics (the intro is the one part that actually looks quite good), we also ran into a minor irritation. Whenever the Icicle feature triggers, you must click the icicles yourself to reveal the rewards, which makes auto spin feel largely pointless since the feature shows up so frequently.

The free spins setup is also a bit puzzling. The fully stacked Valkyrie symbols are taken out and replaced with Valkyries that are only 3 symbols high. On top of that, it’s unclear why the Icicles are programmed to automatically target the Valkyrie stacks, when targeting the neighboring reels would seemingly do more to boost the chance of landing bigger wins. As it stands, it mostly just piles premiums onto premiums (feel free to correct us if we’ve misunderstood).

Microgaming appears to have turned supporting independent studios into a core mission. Whether that’s generosity, convenience, or simply a way to profit from them is hard to pin down—but as gamblers, we don’t really care. What we want are solid games that don’t rinse our bankroll and still deliver that excitement of potentially landing massive wins, something Microgaming and its network of studios repeatedly struggle to provide.