Slots review Yggdrasil Gaming Nitro Circus

Nitro Circus Introduction

If you haven’t heard of Nitro Circus, that’s fine. It’s one of those very American phenomena, a bit like Wrestling or Baseball, so there’s no reason to feel out of the loop. Anyone who does recognise it probably saw the series during its four-season run on MTV from 2012 to 2014.

Nitro Circus is an “action sports collective” fronted by Travis Pastrana. The show follows him and his crew as they travel worldwide riding dirtbikes, base jumping, and pulling off stunts. In some ways it resembles Jackass, just with a heavier emphasis on skill. For reasons that aren’t entirely obvious, Yggdrasil Gaming chose Nitro Circus as the theme for their first branded slot.

With branded slots, only one developer has really managed to deliver consistently over time: Microgaming. NetEnt has also released a few solid branded titles, including Guns n’ Roses, South Park (now removed from the market) and Creature from the Black Lagoon, though their newer branded releases have been very underwhelming (Planet of the Apes being a prime example).

It could be coincidence, but branded slots often disappoint because of weak payouts, and it’s entirely plausible that studios smooth out variance or reduce the RTP so players effectively fund the pricey licensing deal.

Nitro Circus is a 5-reel, 4-row, 25 payline slot with a bet range between 0.10 – 125. This high-octane game showcases some of Nitro Circus’s biggest names, wildest stunts, and most outrageous vehicles. It includes a free spins mode and the Nitro Jump bonus game, where players soar through the air on 1 of 7 vehicles and pick up multipliers, coin prizes, and other bonuses along the route to boost winnings. Bonus features can be reached via both scatters and collections, and players can also select from three different risk levels.

Nitro Circus Paytable

The slot contains 7 standard symbols. On the reels you’ll see three low-value symbols as helmet icons—skate helmets, air force helmets, and motocross helmets—alongside four high-value symbols featuring the cast from the show. The main character, Travis Pastrana, is the premium symbol and pays 20 times the stake when he lands across a full payline.

In addition to the regular symbols, there’s a Wild, a Nitro Bomb symbol, and the N I T R O letters, which we’ll explain further below. Note that no symbols come stacked, and both the Nitro Bomb and NITRO letter symbols can help you—but they can also hinder you by acting as blockers.

Nitro-Blast Minigame

Hit exactly 2 Nitro Bomb symbols in the base game to start the Nitro-Blast minigame. Here, players pick 1 of 5 bombs to uncover one of the rewards listed below.

Free Spin mode – With 10-30 Free Spins
Add 1 Vehicle to the player’s collection – Add a couch, wheelchair, toy car or bathtub
Nitro Wild – When you return to the main game, the Nitro Bomb symbols detonate and convert 2-9 positions within the blast radius into wilds.
Free Spin Multiplier – increase the total Free Spin multiplier by 1,2 or 3. (only available in Free Spins)
Extra Free Spins – +1,+2,+3 Free Spins(only available in Free Spins)

Nitro Free Spins

Land 3+ Nitro Bomb symbols in the base game to activate Nitro Free Spins plus the Nitro-Blast minigame, granting 1-3 feature picks.

Landing 3 Nitro Bombs awards: 10 symbols + 1 Feature pick
Landing 4 Nitro Bombs awards: 20 symbols + 2 Feature pick
Landing 5 Nitro Bombs awards: 30 symbols + 3 Feature pick

Vehicle Collection

Gather 5 identical vehicles to trigger the Nitro Jump Feature using that collected vehicle. Vehicles can appear in the Nitro minigame and also within the Nitro Jump feature. Each vehicle (Bath Tub, Armchair, Toy Car, Rocking Horse) comes with its own feature set and advantages (tricks, size and boost).

Improved tricks earn more coins from the judges during the first 3 jumps.
Bigger vehicles scoop up more coins while airborne.
Extra boost results in a larger multiplier on the final jump.

The Nitro Jump Feature

The Nitro Jump feature can be triggered by collecting 5 vehicles as mentioned above, or by landing all the ‘N I T R O’ letters in a single spin. If the feature starts via collecting NITRO, the player may then select one of these vehicles – FMX Bike, BMW Bike or Kick Bike.

The Nitro Jump feature consists of 3 stunt jumps followed by 1 final Boost Jump.
The 3 stunt jumps are judged and pay out 5-625 coins depending on the tricks completed. During these 3 stunt jumps, players may also collect 0-6 of the following extras.

25 coin prize
Speed boost for the final jump
Final Jump Multiplier
10 Free Spins

Once the 3 stunt jumps are finished, the rider lines up for the final Nitro Boost jump. On the run-up, players can apply manual speed boost to improve the landing multiplier. However, using manual boost raises the risk of the rider crashing and wiping out all multipliers. The vehicle’s built-in boost and any boost collected during the 3 stunts do not affect the chance of successfully landing the final Jump.

Nitro Circus Conclusion

Nitro Circus is clearly a bold concept and a huge effort. That said, Yggdrasil may have made things a bit too complex. Before you learn how everything works—which can take a few sessions plus some reading—the game can feel somewhat chaotic, and we’re not sure many players will want to invest the time. To be fair, describing it here probably makes it sound even more complicated than it plays.

We also get that, like the show itself, it’s meant to be loud, frantic, and packed with action—but as an online slot it ends up feeling more stressful than fun. The constant activity may suit fans of the brand, but for everyone else it can become irritating. And the Nitro Jump feature in particular raises a question: is this meant to be a video game or an online slot? It’s hard to say. Some players may enjoy it, but it didn’t work for us. We generally prefer slots that feel geared toward adults rather than kids.

It’s easy to see that Yggdrasil aimed to capture the over-the-top, All-American entertainment vibe that Nitro Circus represents, and in that respect they delivered. But as a slot experience, it still comes across as scattered, confusing, and overly complicated, which ultimately puts us off.

The game offers a 2000 times the stake maximum win potential, achievable by stacking multipliers and retriggers in the free spins or by getting an exceptional run in the Nitro Jump feature. While the free spins seemed tougher to activate, the Nitro Jump feature appeared quite frequently for us during testing. The payouts, however, were terrible.