Wild Robo Factory (Yggdrasil Gaming): Review

If we had to sum up Yggdrasil Gaming’s first half of 2019, “disappointment” would be the word. With the exception of Cazino Cosmos, most releases have been average at best and have received a fairly muted reaction from us and, judging by the lack of enthusiasm, from the wider gambling community too. Even more concerning is the decision to mirror Microgaming by teaming up with smaller, lesser-known studios to shoulder part of the workload. Given how poorly that approach has played out for Microgaming, we can only hope Yggdrasil holds itself to a higher standard. Unfortunately, with competition getting tougher and more developers battling for attention, providers often seem pushed into a quantity-over-quality sprint.

In Yggdrasil’s newest release, we’re invited into the Wild Robo Factory, where 12 mechanical workers are made to toil under the rule of sinister robots. With stakes ranging from 5 cents up to 125€ per spin, this medium variance slot features 5 reels, 4 rows and 25 paylines. It’s loaded with mechanics, including multiple wild variants and Respins. During the Free Spins round, you’re sent down into the gloomy basement, where the System Overload feature and symbol transformations take over.

As is typical for Yggdrasil, the presentation is top-notch and intriguing enough to draw you in. The setting is a steamy factory backed by a futuristic video game-style soundtrack, and the reels show card suit symbols alongside 4 different robotic parts. The best-paying standard symbol is the robot cyclops, awarding you 15 times your stake for 5 of a kind. The yellow robot acts as the wild and appears in several forms: standard wilds, multi-reel wilds that can span 2 reels, pattern wilds, and x2 multiplier Robo Wilds. Robo Wild symbols don’t land directly on the reels; instead, they travel along the conveyor belt beneath the reels, overlapping the reel symbols as they pass.

Wild Robo Factory (Yggdrasil Gaming): Features

The Wild Robo Factory is a hectic environment—here’s a breakdown of what it offers. To start, there’s the Symbol Transformation feature. When it triggers at random, every instance of one low-paying symbol is upgraded into its matching premium symbol. For instance, blue low-value symbols would change into blue high-value symbols.

After that comes the Robo Respin feature, which is also activated randomly—a Robo Wild is positioned beneath reels 3, 4 or 5 and shifts one spot to the left with each spin. Respins keep going for as long as a Robo remains active on the conveyor belt.

Lastly, there’s the Robo Free Spins feature. It activates when 3, 4 or 5 Free Spin Robo symbols land anywhere on the screen, awarding 5, 10 or 15 spins respectively. The Free Spin Robo can also swoop onto any row and then travel with the conveyor belt, moving one position left per spin to boost your odds of setting off the Free Spins.

In this mode, rather than receiving traditional free spins, you’ll instead gain Robos placed on the belt 1 to 3 positions apart. As in the base game, the wild robots enter from the right and advance one position to the left each spin. Once a robo moves past the leftmost reel (reel 1), it counts as one spin being used. On top of that, the Symbol Transformation feature is active here too, along with the System Overload feature. When System Overload kicks in, the conveyor belt reverses direction, pushing all Robos back by 1 to 9 positions—naturally creating extra free spins. This feature, which can deliver a max win of around 3000 times your stake, ends only when every Robo has moved beyond the leftmost reel.

Wild Robo Factory (Yggdrasil Gaming): Verdict

Even though it plays far more simply than it reads, we still feel Wild Robo Factory comes across as somewhat chaotic. The old “less is more” idea applies here—because in this case, adding more seems to achieve less. Features do trigger often, with robos appearing from all over (and sometimes you’re not even sure what just happened), but the payouts tend to be so erratic that the novelty can wear off.

Casual players will likely be won over by the likeable robots, but seasoned punters will quickly look past the bells and whistles. Also, since the RTP is spread across numerous mechanics, you shouldn’t expect one huge standout hit. Instead, the focus is on building wins during the bonus with help from the wilds (and despite the feature-heavy base game, you generally won’t land anything massive there). We’re also not particularly keen on the 5×4, 25-payline setup, as we think this expanded layout works better for win all ways slots.

If we have to highlight a plus for Wild Robo Factory, it’s the fun backstory, excellent visuals, and the Egg-O-Matic-inspired engine that brings all those cool robots to life. We’ll probably give it a couple of spins when it launches, then ride the conveyor belt and hope it carries us somewhere better.