Hugo Goal

Soccer or football, depending on where you're from, is the biggest sport in the world. The Hugo Goal slot, available at Play'n Go online casinos, takes on this sport as its theme while using Hugo, a character that this game provider has developed over the course of several games, as the goal keeper and the main star of the metaphorical show. While this is a classic slot, the gameplay is more along the lines of what video slot fans would be more likely to expect. Along these lines, we think that players should give this game a bit more of a chance than maybe they'll be initially inclined to.

Format and Layout

The basic layout here is pretty much what every modern three-reel game is about. There are three horizontal rows of symbols, and you'll find the typical five paylines with three being horizontal and two being diagonal. There are no vertical paylines at all, and they wouldn't really work out well on this game anyway because so much of the gameplay centers around stacked symbols. For how the betting goes, you can wager coins that are worth between $0.01 and $20 on each payline, and that leads to total bet sizes that run between $0.05 and $100 per spin.

Stacked Symbols

A critical component of the gameplay in this title is that all of the symbols show up stacked. This lends itself to clusters of wins that can happen at the same time, and it's also a key component of how features are triggered. It's important to keep this in mind as well because of how it can affect the volatility of the slot. If you're not sure of how it's going to go, then you might want to play with smaller bet sizes than you normally would until you get the hang of it.

Action Replay Feature

If you're able to fill up two reels with the same character symbol, then you'll activate the Action Replay feature. The third reel, the one that's mismatched with the other two, will spin over and over again until it gives you a win. In terms of functionality, this is much like certain nudge features that you see in three-reel games at times, but the overall result is extra wins that you wouldn't have received without this feature, and we think that's something that all players can get behind.

Free Kick Bonus Feature

There's another feature that's similar to the action replay that gives you an extra chance at winning as well. If you have a spin without any wins, but two of the reels are completely full of an item symbol (not a character), then that third reel will re-spin once for free to give you an extra opportunity to get paid. There is no guaranteed win here, but players will always be happy to get an extra chance to pick up some wins that they would have missed out on otherwise.

Penalty Shoot-out Bonus Round

Filling every symbol spot with the same symbol activated the penalty shoot-out. Hugo will be standing in front of a goal, and you'll be trying to block soccer balls being kicked his way to get multipliers on your total win. You can score up to 10x worth their original value paid on all five paylines in this way if you can block all five balls. This is a fun bonus feature that makes it easy to rack up even bigger payouts than you would have gotten by lining up the same symbol on all five paylines.

Wins and Payouts

The wild hugo symbol shows up on all reels and pays 16x for three of a kind. You can pick up 5x for three of the evil woman ref or 4x for three of the alligator. The gazelle symbol gets you 3x for three of a kind as well.

The ball and whistle symbols pay out 1.2x and 1x for three each, and you can also score 0.8x for three of the cleats. Finally, wins of 0.6x and 0.4x are yours for three of a kind of the watch and flags, respectively.

In Summary

We like what the Hugo Goal slot brings to the table. It steps out of the bounds of the usual video slot format while still incorporating features that drive a tremendous amount of action. If you like fast-paced games, then make sure to give this title a shot.