[Slot review] Thunderstruck — Microgaming

Overview

Thunderstruck is a Norse-myth slot Microgaming released on 22 March 2012. The format is 5 reels and 9 lines, the published RTP is 96.10%, and volatility is listed as High. This catalogue carries four titles under the name, and this is where they start.

The other three are Thunderstruck II (5 November 2013), Thunderstruck Wild Lightning (5 August 2021) and Thunderstruck Stormchaser (23 November 2022). This review treats the original as the reference point and uses only published specifications to show what the series changed and what it left alone.

Layout and rules

Nine lines means winning combinations are counted only along nine fixed lines. Unlike a ways format, where a symbol anywhere on adjacent reels counts as a route, a line format needs the combination to sit exactly on a line. It was a common build for Microgaming in 2012, and in this catalogue Spring Break, Ladies Nite and Adventure Palace from the same year are all 5 reels and 9 lines as well.

The published bet range is 0.09 to 90. The 0.09 minimum does line up with the nine lines, but how the stake is divided per line is not in the published specification, so this review does not reconstruct it. Individual symbol payouts, feature entry conditions and free-spin counts are not published either.

Reading the numbers across the series

Line the four up and the first thing you see is what did not change. Volatility is High on all four, and three of them — the original, Wild Lightning and Stormchaser — share the same 96.10% RTP. The only exception is Thunderstruck II at 96.65%. Across a series that runs for more than ten years, a nearly fixed label and RTP suggest that, at the level of published specifications at least, the family was built on one reference point.

What changed is the format. The way combinations are counted widened from 9 lines to 243 ways (Thunderstruck II) and then to 1024 ways (Stormchaser). Wild Lightning is listed in the hub only as 'Video slot', so its reel and line layout is not published. A wider format does not by itself mean wins land more often or pay more; the paytables that would settle that are unpublished for all four.

Max win is blank in the hub for all four titles. The usual comparison — which entry has the highest cap — therefore cannot be made from this catalogue's published figures, and this review leaves that field as unpublished.

Presentation

The cover places a figure in a winged helmet inside a riveted round frame, with storm clouds behind. A golden beard spills out past the frame, and the title in red and blue lettering sits below. It is a flat, 2012-style lobby composition, and next to the later series covers it makes clear where this family's visual language began.

The demo is embedded on this page. With a short published specification, opening the rules screen to see the line layout and paytable yourself is the most reliable way to read this game.