North Storm (Rabcat): Overview

Rabcat is a rising game studio from Austria that collaborates with industry heavyweights Microgaming and Yggdrasil. The team clearly has a soft spot for myth and fantasy slots, as their back catalogue shows. You can see it in the gods of Legend of Olympus, the fantasy vibe of Dragons Myth and Forsaken Kingdom, and more besides. Their newer release North Storm continues in the same vein, drawing noticeable inspiration from familiar slots and even popular TV.

Let’s be blunt: the game looks a lot like NetEnt’s Asgardian Stones. It even leans on a comparable mechanic, called the Rolling Reels feature here. The backdrop also raises eyebrows—could that be the Fist of the First Men where the Night’s Watch battled the Army of the Dead? Maybe it’s just chance, but the wild feels eerily close to House Stark’s emblem, and the scatter resembles a White Walker. Either way, set that aside for now. Visually, it’s undeniably impressive, and Rabcat nails the atmosphere, audio, and overall fantasy tone. If you’re into the theme, there’s plenty of gritty appeal.

To start with the basics – players get 25 fixed paylines across 5 reels and 3 rows. Stakes begin at 0.25 p/c and climb to $/€50 per spin. It’s not exactly legendary, but it’s ample for most daring players to get going. With a solid RTP of 96.13% and medium volatility, anyone who prefers steadier, more regular returns could feel at home. The underlying mechanic also allows wins to build via multipliers, keeping spins lively. That said, it doesn’t really hide how derivative the game feels—if anything, it draws attention to it.

The paytable delivers respectable value across the board. At the low end are runic 10, J, Q and K symbols paying from 0.2x to 4x the stake. The top three base game symbols are Celtic patterns, ranging from 0.8x up to 100x the wager. The dire wolf acts as the wild, substituting for any paying symbol. It also pays 100x the bet for a 5-of-a-kind win. Add in the Bonus Falls feature and payouts can stack into pleasing totals. Still, with a top reward of roughly 500-1000x per spin in the bonus, jackpot hunters may want richer territory if they’re chasing huge hits.

North Storm (Rabcat): Features

Bonus Falls is the feature you’ll encounter most often. Whenever a winning combination hits, those symbols break apart so existing or fresh symbols can drop into the empty spaces. This can trigger additional wins from a single spin, and continue from there. To make it even better, back-to-back wins receive a multiplier that steps up by x1, reaching a maximum of x4 as each win lands.

The glowing-eyed villain serves as the scatter and connects directly to the Bonus Falls feature. Landing 3 on a payline awards 8 Free Spins. If more appear on other paylines during that same spin, or on consecutive Bonus Falls spins, they add 2 extra free spins – capped at 20. In both the base game and free spins, the multiplier progresses as follows:

• Default – x1 during bonus game, x2 during free spins.
• 1st Cascade – x2 during bonus game, x4 during free spins.
• 2nd Cascade – x3 during bonus game, x6 during free spins.
• 3rd Cascade – x4 during the bonus game, x8 during free spins.

As with plenty of modern releases, North Storm really hits its stride when these add-ons link together in that way.

North Storm: Verdict

If imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery, North Storm is going to have a few creators blushing. Beyond Asgardian Stones, it also borrows gameplay ideas straight from Jungle Jim, and if you trace things back further, you can even sense the shadow of Gonzo’s Quest. That’s not shocking—entertainment is full of shared ideas and inspiration. As long as a new release isn’t a direct clone in legal terms, and it adds enough of its own twist, it’s something we can accept.

Even so, while copying can be flattering, it seldom produces something truly exceptional. What North Storm offers is a fun slot with fair potential, but it’s not going to redefine the genre or earn praise for originality. To be fair to Rabcat, it probably wasn’t designed to do either. Instead, it comes across as a jump onto a theme and a mechanic that are both extremely popular right now.

Some will view that as a calculated cash-in, yet Rabcat’s earlier releases suggest they genuinely enjoy building fantasy-themed slots. That makes it easier to soften the criticism a little, but this is still the slots market, and players want value for money. With everything considered, North Storm checks plenty of boxes on the positive side. The visuals are excellent, symbol payouts are decent, and the fast-moving Bonus Falls action is explosive when it chains together. All in all, it’s a striking game with strong theme appeal, though seasoned gamblers and long-time punters may be tougher to win over.