Hit It Big (ELK Studios): Review

Hit It Big is basically the “This is Fine” meme turned into an online slot – except instead of calmly ignoring the fire, you’re expected to keep your composure while a barrage of wildly intense neon blocks hits you in fast, heart-thumping sequences that, at first, seem to make no sense whatsoever.

At heart, Hit It Big is an extremely volatile, retro gameshow-themed slot from Swedish provider ELK Studios. It runs on a classic 5×3 reel set with 5 paylines, plus a set of Feature Buttons positioned above and below the reels that activate when they align. The main attraction is the Hit It Big Bonus game, a 3-level pick-style bonus offering cash prizes of up to 1000 times your stake.

As an ELK classic-series release, it definitely brings on a sense of deja vu in the visuals, and it may remind you of other ELK titles like Ivanhoe and Route 777. Set inside a gameshow TV studio, the game plays subtle coughing, chatter, and audience murmurs when left idle, which then get swallowed up by the hypnotic reel sounds once you press spin. Bursting with colour, Hit It Big leans into a retro vibe with a neon-lit wall in the background. Reel symbols include 3 different low-value Bar icons and 4 mid-to-high value lucky sevens, with the crowned lucky seven as the top payer, awarding 50 times your stake for 5 across a payline.

The gold crown acts as the wild and does what you’d expect, substituting for all symbols except the scatter.

Hit It Big (ELK Studios): Features

Feature-wise, the base game revolves around the Reel Game feature. Above and below the reels you’ll see neon feature buttons showing different options that can create fresh combinations on each spin. If a button matches up on a reel between the lower and upper rows, that specific feature is activated and then spotlighted on the huge jumbotron above the reels. As unlikely as it may be, this setup means you can technically hit up to 5 features in a single spin. Here’s what’s available:

• Locked Wilds – fills the 1st and 5th reel with stacked wilds, locks them in place, and then plays 3 respins.
• Stacked Wilds – turns an entire reel into wilds for the current spin.
• Respin – grants a respin on all reels.
• Multipliers – awards a multiplier of between 2x to 50x for the corresponding payline.

Hit 3 scatter symbols on the middle reels to enter the Bonus Game and take a run at some more meaningful wins. The bonus is essentially a 3-level picking game where you’re prompted to press stop while a selection marker moves randomly across different stake multipliers, presented as quirky “prizes” like roller-skates, motorcycles, and yachts. After you win, that prize icon is replaced by a Bandit symbol, which will end the bonus round if the marker lands on it during any later pick.

You’ll also see arrows pointing both inwards and outwards. Landing the inwards arrow upgrades you to the next level with bigger cash prizes, while landing the outwards arrow drops you back down to the lower level. If you make it to the top level, you’ll get a shot at the headline reward – you receive one spin with a guaranteed cash prize of 100x, 200x, 300x, 500x or 1000x.

Hit It Big (ELK Studios): Verdict

Our main complaint with Hit It Big is the maximum win of 2500 times your stake, which feels surprisingly small given how big the title talks. It’s a highly volatile slot with a bonus frequency of 1 in 248 spins, so you’re taking on plenty of risk for comparatively modest upside versus what’s popular in the market right now. The bonus is tough to reach, and the game can chew through your balance unless the Reel Game features step in – and for us, they rarely did. Honestly, those feature buttons can feel like magnets pushing each other away.

Even so, there’s something undeniably engaging about Hit It Big that’s difficult to put your finger on. The presentation isn’t especially complex, yet it hits on a psychological level. It looks entertaining and sparks that gambling impulse the moment you see it. Hit It Big comes across as refreshing, and while we’re not usually keen on picking bonuses, it’s handled well here, with the inner and outer arrows adding extra depth and a sense of uncertainty.

All in all, Hit It Big is a charming slot with a tense bonus, and it would have impressed us even more if the win potential had been pushed up to at least 5000x.