Thunderstruck II

Microgaming announced to the world in January 2010 at the ICE show in London that the legendary Thunderstruck video slot was going to receive a sequel. 

Focusing on Norse mythology and the ancient city of Asgard (one that Avengers fans will appreciate), the video slot had a strong base to build upon. 

Somewhat unsurprisingly, given the huge popularity of the first iteration, Thunderstruck II was given a warm welcome into the industry, further strengthening Microgaming’s reputation for providing some of the very best slots in the game.   

How to play Thunderstruck II 

Logging on to any casino and hitting the Thunderstruck II slot can be a little daunting if you’ve not played the game before. 

With imposing characters, haunting music and a particularly cold feeling to the game, it can send chills up the lesser experienced slot-player’s spine. Okay maybe not, but if you’re not all that clued up on playing slots, you’re more than welcome to use this little cheat sheet to get up to speed nice and quickly. 

Betting options 

First up is the bet sizing, and it’s super easy to change the values of the wager that you want to place on the game. 

The +/- buttons will set the coin’s size, which in turn sets the number of coins to bet - these will form the total wager. The bet max option will shorten your way, letting you set the maximum wager permitted by a single click of the button. 

Ways to win 

Thunderstruck II is a 5 reel slot offering 243 different paylines for players to get excited over and with an RTP of 96.65%, it’s up there with some of the best odds a slot may have.

Players will find minimum coins per line of 1 and a maximum of 10 with minimum coin size of 0.01 and a maximum of 0.05. There’s a jackpot totaling 6,000 and with no option of a progressive, players will find the game one of the most rewarding slots. 

Where to play Thunderstruck II

Thunderstruck II can be played at any of the online casinos offering Microgaming video slots, and with so many scattered across the web, players shouldn’t find any difficulty. 

Bonuses available 

If there’s one thing that we love to check out when comparing slots, it’s the bonuses available and the features that players can expect to find when playing the game. 

Wildstorm 

The symbol of the Thunderstruck II logo is wild, meaning that it can substitute for all of the other symbols found on the reels (bar Thor’s hammer, nobody can move that). 

Whenever players see the logo pop up in winning combination, they can expect to see their wins doubled. During the Wildstorm free spins cannot be triggered, so don’t go expecting to receive countless spins after countless spins in a single feature. 

The Great Hall of Spins 

The main feature of Thunderstruck II is known as the “The Great Hall of Spins” and helps players unlock the multi-level free spins bonus features found in the game.

Players are required to find 3 or more of the Thor’s Hammer symbol in order to trigger the feature and enter the Great Hall. The more entries to the Great Hall a player receives, the further they will pave the path to further bonus features. 

Valkyrie bonus 

If players find themselves triggering the Great Hall of Spins bonus between their 1st and 4th bonus feature, they’ll enter the Valkyrie Bonus feature. 

In the Valkyrie feature, players will be awarded a total of 10 free spins in which all wins will be multiplied by 5, making it one of the more lucrative bonuses of the game. To make things even better, players are able to retrigger further free spins during the feature. 

Loki bonus 

Next up, the Loki bonus, a bonus triggered between the 5th and 9th bonus feature triggers. 

Further extending the Norse theme, the bonus round awards players a total of 15 free spins with a Wild Magic Feature. When the Wild Magic symbol appears on the reels, players will see further reels transform into additional wilds. 

Additionally, when looking at Thor’s Hammer, 2, 3, 4 or 5 symbols will transfer to 1, 2, 3 or 4 free spins (respectively). 

Odin bonus 

Moving onto the Odin bonus, players should expect to earn this bonus between the 10th and 14th trigger of the bonus feature. 

Players will see themselves rewarded with a total of 20 free spins thanks to the Wild Raven feature which can randomly transform symbols into both 2X and 3X multipliers. A 6X multiplier will be awarded if both of Odin’s Ravens are present on the reels at the same time. 

Thor’s bonus 

The final and most rewarding of all bonuses found within Thunderstruck II is Thor’s bonus, awarded as the 15th trigger of the bonus feature. 

This bonus will lead to a huge 25 free spins with a Rolling Reels feature, in which players can find consecutive wins increase the multiplier up to a maximum of 5X. The Rolling Reels discovered will have the ability to award multiple consecutive wins. 

Once all levels have been triggered, players are able to go back and choose whichever they please when triggering the Great Hall of Spins Feature. With an inbuilt memory in the game, you won’t have to grind through each level for hours before accessing the final features. You can leave it and come back at a later date to continue - invaluable for a game of this caliber. 

What do the players say? 

There’s no better place to look for recommendations than from those that put in the hours and play the games day-in and day-out, so it’s your opinion that matters to us the most. 

The pros

Starting with the good news first, we browsed the web to find what players really enjoyed about playing Thunderstruck II, and two of the player reviews stood head and shoulders above the rest. 

“Magnificent story design. Beautifully aligned symbols and kidnapping in the far past is a popular slot game on the planet. / And perhaps outside of it :) / The game often runs without a win and then suddenly encounters symbols that cause an explosion of joy. Or 3 or more of the hammers in the FS where the number of FS can be selected. I like this. Good work Microgaming.”

“I love the progression that's involved with Thunderstruck 2, when you hit the 3 to 5 hammers and get awarded a trip to the great hall, once you've played for a while, a player gets to choose their reward between the 4 free spin features. I can't forget to mention that wilds double your win as well, makes for some huge wins here and there.”

The cons

But it’s not all positive and in the interest of balance, it’s equally important to show what the players don’t like so much as well as what they did. 

“I really dislike the fourth bonus feature with Thor and the crumbling symbols after a win. I have played this game lots over the years and this feature included, but I almost never get rewarded with a winning spin that's higher than a base symbol, 10, J, Q, K, A. The other symbols almost never land, and when they do, it's not for any kind of win. For the fourth feature earned, showcasing the game’s main character, it sure does take away from the quality in this game.”

“I have to mention the "Wild Storm" feature here - this is available in ‘Immortal Romance’ and ‘Finer Reels of Life’ also, as well as in one of Playboys features, yet for some reason MG decided to make this version much tighter than the same feature in those games - I guess TS2 was always designed to be lower variance - still, in all the years I have been playing it, I have only ever seen 3 reels wild once - I'm well into double figures on Playboy and IR, and have even had 4 on TFROL.”

Bottom Line 

If you’ve been a fan of the original Thunderstruck, love the Norse mythology or even just appreciate a good video slot, chances are that Thunderstruck II is for you. 

The slot is of medium variance, showing a good balance with the potential to create some seriously big wins and with a 96.65% RTP, the slot gives one the best returns in the video slot lineup. There’s a large number of additional features and with fantastic visuals, sound effects and features - there are no complaints from us. 

It’s one of the best that Microgaming has produced, a fine follow-up to the original game.