Hugo Carts

Theme and Design

Fans of Hugo Will Love This Gold Mining Adventure

Hugo has achieved fame in European gaming circles, though perhaps not as much in the UK. He is a troll-like character who always appears with his wife, Hugolina on various adventures. This time they are on the hunt for gold and we are in a subterranean world of mining carts and perilous cart tracks (a bit like Temple of Doom).

The artwork is quality, a continuation of the style from previous Hugo slots and igaming products and there are plenty of fun animations, including Hugo’s happy face smiling whenever he lands. If you enjoyed previous Hugo games like Hugo Goal and Hugo Legacy you will enjoy this one too.

RTP and Variance

Hugo Carts will come run at one of 5 RTP settings provided by Play n Go to casino operators. Which you play at is at their discretion. The 5 settings are 96.23%, 94.24%, 91.24%, 87.19% or 84.18%.  Few, if any, casinos will run Hugo Carts at the lowest settings, however, many will run at 94.24% or 91.24% which is not ideal. I checked the RTP at 4 online slot sites we regularly use to test game. This is what I found:

• Barz Casino (White Hat Gaming) – 94.24% RTP
• Casumo (Independent) – 94.24% RTP
• BacanaPlay (Skill on Net) – 91.24% RTP
• Vegasland (Aspire Global) – 87.19%

None of these sites run the game at the optimum RTP. That is unusual to find. I would choose form Casumo or Barz Casino from this list to give yourself the best chance of winning on this game. If you play elsewhere, always check the RTP on the info screen to be sure you are playing at a comfortable level.

This is also a high variance slot with a lot of potential which we will find out can best be unlocked with a combination of multipliers and free spins.

Maximum Win

The top win in Hugo Carts is 25,000x which is impressive and up there with some of Play n Go’s highest max win games. I also recommend Raging Rex 2 (30,000x) and The Last Sundown (36,000x) if you like high potential.

Symbols and Paytable

We are working with a 5 reel and 4 row reel set here and the classic Win Ways mechanic where wins are triggered by landing identical symbols on adjacent reels from left to right, regardless of the row they sit on. That means you have 1,024 win ways on each spin (4x4x4x4x4).

Initially you won’t be blown away by the values on the paytable but re-spins, wilds, mystery symbols and multipliers are all going to help you to power-up those wins.

The low value symbols are the cards, 10 through to Ace. These are valued at from 0.1x for 3 10s up to 1.5x for 5 Aces. The premiums are the spade, pick axe, lantern and helmet, valued at from 0.5x for 3 spades up to 3x for 5 helmets.

There are also wilds to help you complete win ways and they come with their own valuation, which is nice. That is 3x, 5x or 10x for 3, 4 or 5.

Features and Gameplay

Landing Character Symbols Triggers Re-Spins With Powerful Modifiers

In Hugo Carts you will be looking for the characters to land always, because they trigger re-spins, and the scatters, which trigger free spins. There is a good mix of modifiers here, which is needed to get more from those mediocre symbol values on the paytable.

We start with the characters – Hugo, Hugolina and Scylla – each of which has their own special power. First, you need to know that when any of them land, or a combination of the three, then a re-spin is triggered.

First, Hugolina appears only on reel 2 only. She will drop between 2 and 5 symbol multipliers worth up to 10x onto the reels before the re-spin.

Next, Hugo appears only on reel 3 to launch from 2 to 5 extra nugget Wilds across the reels before the re-spin.

Finally, Scylla appears on reel 4 and creates Mystery Symbols, which transform into matching symbols when the reels stop after the re-spin.

Free Spins With GUARANTEED Character Features And Re-Triggers

Moving onto the free spins round, and this is where things get really interesting.

The dynamite is the Scatter symbol and at least 3 of these are needed. The round has 7, 9 or 11 Free Spins up for grabs, depending on how many Scatters triggered the round – 3, 4 or 5.

But there is help at hand too from Don Croco the evil crocodile who can also appear on the reels randomly in the base game to add 2 scatters.

The extra power in this phase of the game is from guaranteed character features. One of the three characters is randomly selected at the start and their respective Modifier is activated for ALL of the round.

And, if you land 3 more scatters then the another round of free spins will be added with another character selected. This can happen twice. Once all 3 characters have had their turn then the round ends. This way you can finish with all THREE characters activated on every spin for the last round.