Punk Rocker 3

Punk Rocker 3: Slot Overview

It's kind of hard to picture now, but there was a time when Nolimit City was a mild-mannered studio that released mild-mannered slots like Gaelic Gold and Manhattan Goes Wild. Then something happened, as if the studio took peyote and walked into the desert, and came back blazing with an urge not to just make slots, but to entertain gamblers with slots which were the equivalent of a middle finger to mainstream mediocrity. None of the studio's earlier releases said that quite as loud and brashly as Punk Rocker did. It was a game that captured a grungy, London punk rock spirit, before a New York-themed sequel vied for attention, and now the developer is rocking one of the great bastions of continental cool, Berlin, in the threequel, Punk Rocker 3.

Like beauty, art is in the eye of the beholder, but Punk Rocker 3 initially stood out as a more visually appealing piece of work than Punk Rocker 2, though about on a par with the original British version, which blasted its way into the slot world like a well-hocked loogie. Despite, or perhaps because of, a certain scrappiness, Punk Rocker 3 has an appealing artistic look, achingly Berlin cool, with its simplistic, expressive doodle art to the left and neo-expressionist street art to the right. Apologies art historians if these references are way off the mark, but hey, this is punk rock, man, just go with it, which is easy to do in Punk Rocker 3, due to its rocking soundtrack and celebration of the fall of the Wall, heck the fall of societal norms, political authority, the establishment and all the rest of it.

Plastered to the Wall is Punk Rocker 3's 6x3 reelset, giving players 729 ways to win. It is possible to wager $/€0.20 to $/€100 per spin, and Nolimit City has laid on a host of optional betting extras. Like before, we're talking about a highly volatile machine, this one producing a maximum RTP of 96.04%, while two lower return models have also been designed.

Ten pay symbols hit on the reels. They are boots, brass knuckles, Molotov cocktails, guitar pedals, and anarchy signs as the low pays, then five character symbols as the highs. Hitting 6 OAK winning combinations pays 0.5x-0.9x for the low pays and 1.1x-2.5x for the premium symbols. Wilds are present on all six reels. As well as substituting regular paying symbols, they award 2.5x when 6 wilds create a winning way. An avalanche mechanic is in play, removing and replacing winning symbols with a symbol drop, repeating till no new wins appear.

Punk Rocker 3: Slot Features

Punk Rockers' features include a few surprises and are made up of the Wild Queue, wild multipliers, xWays, Crew Call, Fraternal Kiss, Enhancer Train Enhancers, three free spins rounds, Nolimit Boosters, and feature buys.

Features

• Wilds & Wild Queue - At the start of a new spin, up to 3 wilds with a random multiplier of x1 to x1,000 may appear in the Wild Queue below the reels. Wild symbols that take part in a win are stored in the Wild Queue during an avalanche. One wild from the Wild Queue is added to the reels during an avalanche. Up to 10 wilds can be stored in the Wild Queue. If another wild is to be added, its multiplier is added to the tenth wild multiplier.
• xWays - An xWays symbol can have 2-4 instances of the same symbol within it. All xWays symbols show the same symbol.
• Crew Call - The Crew Call adds 3 wilds with a random multiplier of x1-x1,000 to the Wild Queue, and is removed after triggering, letting a new symbol fall in.
• Fraternal Kiss - The Fraternal Kiss triggers when there are no more avalanches and at least one wild on the reel or in the Wild Queue. When triggered, all regular pay symbols and wilds on the reels and in the queue are removed, then a wild with the sum of all removed wild multipliers is added to the reels.

Enhancer Train and Enhancers

The Enhancer Train above the grid moves one position to the left on each avalanche. Enhancers are triggered when there is a wild in the same reel under them. The Enhancers are:

• Wild Adder - Triggers if there is a wild in the Wild Queue. It moves the wild from the Wild Queue onto the reel area. The number of wilds moved equals the number of wilds in the same reel.
• Multiplier - Reveals a value of x2-x10, which is added to each wild on the same reel.
• Wild Cloner - Adds a new wild to the queue with the same multiplier value as the wild below it, for each wild present on the reel.
• +1 Spin - Only appears during bonus rounds to grant an extra spin for each wild on the reel.
• xQuake - Can land only in Die Wende Spins and Mauerfall Spins, where it triggers once. It splits one regular pay symbol per reel into 2, 3, or 4, then becomes inactive. It doesn't split symbols on reels which have an xWays or already split symbol.
• Mega Multiplier - Can land only in Mauerfall Spins, revealing a value of x50 to x1,000, which is added to each wild on the same reel, then it becomes inactive.

Free Spins

In the base game, landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters triggers 6 Blitzkrieg Spins, 8 Die Wende Spins, or 10 Mauerfall Spins.

• Blitzkrieg Spins - All wilds on the reel area are stored in the Wild Queue at the end of each spin, including the triggering base game spin. One wild from the Wild Queue is moved to the reels on each spin. Scatters do not land in any of the bonus rounds.
• Die Wende Spins - The same as Blitzkrieg Spins, but the xQuake Enhancer may appear in the Enhancer Train.
• Mauerfall Spins - The same as Die Wende, but the Mega Multiplier enhancer may appear in the Enhancer Train.

Extra Spin

When a round ends, players may be able to buy an extra spin if the cost is equal to or less than the win. For the extra spin, all wilds on the reels are stored in the Wild Queue, all symbols except scatters are removed, causing a symbol drop, the Enhancer Train moves on space to the left, and if available, a wild from the Wild Queue is moved to the reels.

Nolimit Boosters & Nolimit Bonus Buys

Activating the Bonus Booster costs 3x and guarantees a scatter on the second reel. For 20x, 230x, or 1,989x the stake, players can buy Punk Spins x100, Punkier Spins x1,000, or Punkiest Spins x10,000, where at least one wild with a multiplier of x100, x1,000x, or x10,000 is in the Wild Queue, respectively. Up to three wilds can land. When it comes to buys, the options are 6 Blitzkrieg Spins, 8 Die Wende Spins, 10 Mauerfall Spins, or a lucky draw for 70x, 200x, 800x, or 285x the stake, respectively.

Punk Rocker 3: Slot Verdict

If similar in spirit to its ancestors, Punk Rocker 3 is quite different in practice. The bonus round for one has been completely rewired, so gone are the Jumping Wild symbols of parts one and two. That is quite a bold move, too, since Jumping Wilds were an exceptionally thrilling feature, and it must have been hard to let them go. Or not, this is punk rock after all, smash the state, let's all drink engine coolant and see what happens and all that (don't do that, please). Like a rockstar trashing their beloved guitar before setting it on fire as an offering to the music gods, Nolimit City has gutted out a lot of what made the previous Punk Rocker slots tick and rewritten the rule book, daring players back for a look.

The studio has brought back a lot of leftovers as well, though, Punk Rocker 3 isn't an entirely new experience. Enhancers from the train are still integral to the action, though they've been re-engineered to fit the new Wild Queue system and appear in the base game, evening out the ride, potentially. To put it lyrically, the shift represents a move from the roaming chaos of London and New York to a more industrial momentum for the Berlin setting. The removal of Jumping Wilds may disappoint returning players, and it was sad to see them go, but in their place, the Wild Queue can dispense some insane multiplier action, if you're lucky, and toying with Punkiest Spins, in demo mode, is one way of glimpsing the possibilities.

Nolimit City has even been thoughtful when it comes to winning potential, as the 19,089x cap (take out the zero) links directly to Die Wende (Peaceful Revolution) and the year of Mauerfall (Fall of the Berlin Wall), in its gambling homage to the German capital of cool. Just as 1989 marked a turning point in the country and the collapse of communist control of the East, Punk Rocker was one of Nolimit City's early turning points, and Punk Rocker 3 is a testament to the studio's continued highly creative and thoughtful approach to slot design.