Hugo slot review

Hugo is a special troll who roams the forests and gets into all sorts of misadventures. He also happens to have a gold mine which might be hiding a large amount of treasure!

This game was developed by Play ‘n GO and released in 2016. The slot is based on a unique character created by this developer obviously called Hugo. I thought he was an interesting character even though he has a pretty simple design. Still, it fits the theme well plus he’s been brought to life by a voice actor and plenty of animations.

Apparently Play ‘n GO also loved Hugo because they created 3 more slots with him as the lead character: Hugo 2, Hugo’s Adventure and Hugo Goal. Meanwhile, some of the game elements reminded me of Enchanted Crystals, especially when it comes to the bonus game.

The game looks great and has a ton of special art and animations. Both the bonus game and the free spins mode have been adapted to the style of the slot, including special animations and unique features.

Hugo is set somewhere deep in the forest. When we’re in the base game we see the opening of a mine behind the 5-reel, 3-row playing field. The lower paying symbols are static but the higher-paying symbols and characters are animated, adding some life to the game. The slot has a total of 10 paylines.

The music is sort of what I expected, with a fairly innocuous cheery song playing throughout most of the game. What is unique is that Hugo has been given a real voice, using it quite frequently to talk to you. He’ll give encouragements or he’ll spur you on when you’re hesitating to make a choice.

Symbols

As usual with most slots, the game is divided into two sets of symbols: high-paying and low-paying. Where the low-paying symbols are regular card names, the high-paying symbols are based on Hugo and the gold mine he operates.

They are from highest to lowest:

• Hugo (Wild): Substitutes all other symbols in the game except Scatter and Bonus Symbols. Max. 2,000 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Afskylia (Scatter): Get 3 Scatter Symbols on the screen at the same time to trigger the Free Spins mode. Max. 150 coins with five-of-kind on a winning payline.
• Treasure Chest (Bonus): Get 3 Bonus Symbols on the screen at the same time to trigger the Bonus Game. Win up to 500x the total bet.
• Gold Nugget: Max. 750 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Bag of Gold: Max. 500 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Dynamite: Max. 250 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Pickaxe: Max. 250 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Ace: Max. 150 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• King: Max. 150 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Queen: Max. 100 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Jack: Max. 100 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• 10: Max. 100 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Hugoline: Only active during the Free Spins mode, worth between 50 and 150 coins per symbol depending on the number of free spins chosen.

I like how all the special symbols are animated, and ones like the dynamite even have their own sound effect! All showing off they put a lot of thought and effort into this slot, which I definitely appreciated.

Features

Hugo is a slot with quite a lot of features, each of them offering a rather new experience when playing!

The features are:

• Multiplier Wilds: The Hugo symbol counts as a wild, substituting all other symbols except the Scatter and Bonus symbol. When part of a win, it increases the multiplier by 1x for each Wild symbol on the screen.
• Free Spins: When you get 3 Scatter Symbols on the screen at the same time, it will trigger the Free Spins mode. You choose between 5, 10 and 15 free spins to play with, depending on the number of coins you get for getting a Hugoline symbol on the screen.
• Bonus Game: The Bonus Game triggers when there are 3 Bonus Symbols on the screen. The goal is to go down into the gold mine and try to get to the treasure by choosing between a diminishing number of doors each time.

The base game is mostly aimed at getting Hugo wilds because they act as multipliers for other wins on the screen. The more Wilds there are, the bigger the multiplier. Other than that, the base game is rather simple but it feels very lively thanks to the animated reels.

The Free Spins mode sees Hugo try to save Hugoline from saving the evil witch Afskylia. To do this, we choose to use either 5, 10 or 15 free spins. During the free spins, every time Hugoline shows up on the reels she will award a number of coins, depending on the number of free spins we chose. With 5 free spins, Hugoline is worth 150 coins, with 10 free spins she’s worth 100 coins and with 15 free spins, she’s worth 50 coins. After the free spins are done, she’s saved from her cage!

Meanwhile, the bonus game centres around Hugo diving into the gold mine, which is inhabited by dangerous crocodile Don Croco. We’re presented by a series of doors. Pick a door and we’ll either get nothing, get coins or get caught. When we get caught, the bonus game is over. If we get nothing or coins, we descend 1 level where we have to pick a door again. This happens 3 times before we enter the treasure room. Here, we pick 1 of the 2 chests and see if we found the treasure or if we get nothing!

This part of the game has a completely new background, a unique mechanic as well as a number of special animations. Being caught means Hugo is flung out against the screen while descending down the levels means a new setting each time. I was very impressed by how much time and effort has been spent on this.

In Conclusion

Hugo is the first in a series of slots based around this character, and they really went all out. It’s easy to see why Play ‘n GO decided to invest so much time and effort into creating more games with Hugo because this game set an excellent example.

There has been a lot of time spent on the look of the game, including the design of the characters, the animations and the different special features. I was particularly impressed with how many details are included in the bonus game, things that most people probably won’t even notice.

With its Medium Volatility, I was rewarded with a rather steady supply of wins in the base game. The bonus game and free spins triggered for me quite regularly, which helped a lot as well. You can choose to use the Autoplay function to even play those special modes for you if you’d like, although it’s more fun to play them yourself.

With the ability to choose a bet between $0.01 and $100, and a max. win of 10,000x your bet, Hugo definitely makes it possible to win big. If you’ve never played this slot before, I would definitely recommend it! His sequels don’t disappoint either!