Rise of the Mountain King: Overview

Following a five-month break, SG Digital developer NextGen Gaming is back with Rise of the Mountain King, a slot that takes cues from several places, including titles from its own catalogue like 300 Shields Extreme and Pillars of Asgard. The closest rival in terms of theme is In the Hall of the Mountain King, released last year by Quickspin. While the two games play very differently, they do have a few clear similarities. Chief among them is the epic soundtrack, built around In the Hall of the Mountain King by Norwegian compose Edvard Grieg. You may not know the name, but once it starts playing, you’ll recognise it immediately.

On the presentation side, the game delivers a top-tier audio-visual package. The style is cartoon-like, with transparent reels set beside a path that disappears into mist toward a distant, mysterious fortress. It’s a striking look, although the visuals still take a back seat to the music. In the base game, you get a sweeping, full-orchestra style score based on Edvard’s composition. It’s an excellent piece, and the bonus round ramps things up even further. At that point, it’s as if the classical theme has been handed to Slayer and reworked with guitars and pounding drums. The mix stays bass-heavy throughout, and it’s best enjoyed with quality headphones or speakers.

To begin the ascent toward the Mountain King’s fortress, players set their wager using the plus and minus coin buttons, with stakes ranging from 30 p/c up to $/€15 per spin. The headline potential comes from ultra high volatility and an RTP of 96.31% – 96.84% (with Buy Pass). In many ways, Return of the Mountain King feels a touch darker and more foreboding than its Asgard-themed predecessor. It also opts for a simpler framework: 5 reels, 3 rows, and if Asgard’s million ways felt excessive, Mountain King keeps it grounded with 30 fixed paylines. That said, it’s not a basic slot at all, thanks to multiple added features that keep gameplay varied.

Starting with the fundamentals, the paytable includes 10 standard symbols – 6 low and 4 high. The lower values are heavy-metal styled 9-A royals, while the premium set features a battle-axe, shield, troll, and damsel. The damsel is the highest paying regular symbol, awarding 13.3 times the stake for a line win. Landing five wilds pays a bit more at 16.7 times the stake. The king acts as the wild and, among other functions, substitutes for any regular paying symbol. He looks tough enough, though he might seem more intimidating without quite so much eyeliner. Either way, he becomes extremely useful once the features kick in.

Rise of the Mountain King: Features

One key way the wild influences play is that when 3 or more appear on the reels, they activate the King’s Respin feature. When this triggers, any wins are paid out first, and then 1 respin is granted. If the triggering spin also contains scatters, those scatters are converted into wilds as well. During the respin, all wilds lock in place while every other position re-spins. Any additional wilds that land also stick, and another respin follows. This repeats until no new wilds appear or every position has become wild. At that point, the resulting wins are evaluated and paid.

The scatter symbol is required to start the Rise of the Multiplier feature – landing 3, 4 or 5 scatters awards 8, 9, or 10 Free Spins, along with a payout of x5, x20, or x250 respectively. In this mode, a collect meter shows above the reels, and the wild begins with an x5 multiplier. Each time a scatter lands, it’s added to the collect meter and also grants 1 extra free spin to the remaining count. For every 3 scatters collected, the wild multipliers step up to x10, x15, x25, x50, and x100 – whenever a wild forms part of a winning combination, its multiplier boosts the payout. Note that the King’s Respin feature can also trigger during free spins. Building up wild multipliers this way can lead to some truly massive results.

To maintain momentum in the base game, players can choose to risk any win using the Gamble feature. Here, you pick either the colour or the suit of a face-down card. A correct call doubles or quadruples the prize, while an incorrect guess loses the win entirely.

The last feature, where available, is the Buy Pass. If you want to bypass the base game, you can purchase direct entry to the bonus. This costs 100x the stake and awards 8 free spins starting with the x5 wild multiplier. As another option, you can pay 50x the stake to spin a wheel that’s split 50/50 red and green. Landing on green triggers the feature, while red means the gamble fails.

Rise of the Mountain King: Verdict

Rise of the Mountain King is a superb entry from NextGen Gaming, and it may even rank among their strongest releases so far. It isn’t quite as polished visually as Asgard, and the animations feel a bit less refined, but the towering soundtrack more than compensates for any graphical limitations. More importantly, the gameplay supports a monster of a slot, with volatility as fierce as the figures it depicts. NextGen Gaming’s trademark “go big” approach is fully present in Rise of the Mountain King.

Because the volatility is extreme, it can be a challenging game to get going, so proceed with caution. Still, with win potential reaching 50,000 times the stake, there’s a lot to look forward to once the bonus lands. That sky-high ceiling is driven by powerful multiplier action during free spins and respins.

Rise of the Mountain King runs on a math model that can flip between the kindness of a grateful damsel and the fury of an insulted troll. If you’re comfortable with that kind of swing, the game has plenty to deliver. It’s a strong fit for players who want a solid fantasy slot with engaging features and even stronger upside. In short, it’s one every online slots fan should try, and it has the potential to become a future classic.