Icy Wonders Pokie Machine
With a shared progressive jackpot, free spins and a chance for some big coin wins in a pick-a-penguin round, the Icy Wonders video pokie from Net Ent could send a shiver down the spine of anyone scooping the big prizes on offer. Played out over 5 reels and with 30 paylines, it’s a cartoon-style game set in the frozen north, where Eskimo people and some of the local wildlife are joined by igloos and ice-encased playing card symbols.
There’s more ice surrounding the reels and even the dividing lines between individual reels are made up of the stuff. The title is above them and using the standard Net Ent control panel below, players are able to adjust their stakes from a minimum of 0.10 per spin all the way to a high limit of 60.00, winning multiples of the line bet when 3 or more of the same symbol stop across a payline on sequential reels from the left side. Free Icy Wonders video pokies can also be played by those who like to test their games out first.
Playing Icy Wonders
Icy images of the J, Q, K and A will pay out the lower value wins and higher up the scale we see an igloo that returns 10, 50 or 125x the line bet when landing on 3, 4 or 5 reels respectively. A walrus is worth 15, 75 or 250x and the Huskey dog pays out 20, 100 or 500x. The top paying regular symbol is a happy-looking polar bear with a fish in his paws and when it lands across a payline, there’s wins of 50, 100 or 1000x to be claimed.
The biggest wins come from another happy creature, this time a shark who only needs to land on reels 1 and 2 across a line to be worth 5x, while a full run across the reels will pay 7500x. This is also the wild symbol of the game and when it’s in the right places to fill in the gaps in a run of matching symbols, it will substitute for others and players still get paid for a win.
Icy Wonders
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Bonus Features
Yet more cheerful wildlife can appear in this polar pokie, and when the bonus penguin stops on 3 consecutive reels a simple, yet fun mini-game begins. Players will see 12 penguins lined up on the ice and it’s a simple matter of clicking them in any order to reveal coin wins, carrying on until a fish skeleton is revealed which ends the round.
A beautiful Eskimo girl can appear in any places, not just on a payline to return wins that are multiples of the total bet per spin rather than the line stake. If she appears in 2 places at once, a win of 2x the bet is awarded, while 3, 4 or 5 of this symbol pays out 4, 50 or 400x. She will also award 10 free spins when landing in 3 places, 20 for 4 symbols and if 5 appeared at once, on top of the big prize, there’s 30 free spins.
Any winnings during the bonus games are doubled in value and if any 3 or more Eskimo girl scatter symbols appear in a free spin, more games are added on to the end.
Progressive Jackpots
There’s 2 high-paying progressive jackpot prizes up for grabs in this game, although they are both shared with the Tiki Wonders and Geisha Wonders pokie games so can be won by punters spinning the reels on these as well. The Wonder Jackpot is claimed when 4 star symbols land across an active payline and if a full run of 5 stars appears, then the larger Mega Wonder Jackpot is awarded.
The amount of each is always displayed above the reels and while they are rarely massive amounts, getting a progressive win of any size is going to make someone’s day.
The Verdict
Net Ent have a reputation for giving their online casino pokies some extra special bonus rounds and that’s exactly what we have here. Even though it isn’t the newest of games and in fact has been around for a number of years, Icy Wonders still has enough going for it to make the snow-covered reels well worth visiting.
Because it’s quite old, it isn’t mobile-optimised, but that’s about all we can think of to complain about. The images are all nicely done in a fun style, the animations are smooth and reliable, and of course there’s always the chance for gamblers to scoop a progressive jackpot prize in a single spin.