Wild North: Demo and Similar Play’n GO Slots

Wild North is Play’n GO’s five-reel, four-row slot with 40 fixed paylines and seven different bonus features. Three Northern Lights scatters activate a wheel that randomly awards one of them. Some use large symbols, others hold wilds for respins, and Savage Bear applies a multiplier to a single spin. Those differences matter more than the woodland artwork when choosing a similar game. The original Wild North and Wild North Radiant Skies GO Collect share several animals, but their bonus triggers and feature rules are different.

Wild North casinos

Play Wild North slot game at these top casinos.

Reviewed by Brian Taylor
Published: May 2020

The animal matters to the bonus

The Lynx is the ordinary wild and substitutes for other symbols except the Northern Lights scatter. Three scatters trigger the bonus wheel. You do not choose which animal feature it awards, so recognising the selected feature is the first step to understanding what happens next. Bonus scatters do not appear during the original game’s free-spin features.

If you want large symbols, compare the symbol size and the reels it occupies. If it is the respin you want, use the sticky-wilds guide to distinguish a wild held for another spin from one held throughout a bonus. Those are different features even when both are described as sticky. The animal-by-animal rules are listed by Play’n GO for Wild North.

The seven Wild North bonus features

Large symbols and wild reels

The Great Wilderness awards three spins with four-by-four mega symbols on reels two to five. Wild Lynx also awards three spins, but covers one or two whole reels with wilds. A large matching-symbol block and a wild reel solve different parts of a payline: the wild can substitute, while the mega symbol supplies copies of one symbol.

The three respin features

Running Reindeer starts with one spin and stacked reindeer on the middle three reels. A three-by-three block, or complete reindeer coverage of those reels, awards a respin with the reindeer held. Wolf Pack begins with four sticky wild wolves; further wolves award a respin. Eyes of the Owl uses two two-by-two owls, holding them through respins until a winning combination occurs.

These are distinct conditions. The reindeer needs a particular arrangement, the wolf responds to another wolf landing, and the owl looks for a win. A symbol remaining on screen therefore does not mean the same thing in all three features. Check the feature name before deciding whether another spin is due.

Savage Bear and the Explorer picks

Savage Bear awards one spin with a multiplier between 5x and 30x applied to its prize. For example, a £2 win with a 10x multiplier pays £20. The multiplier changes a winning prize; it is not a cash award on its own.

Wild North Explorer presents 20 tiles hiding cash or other features. Picking continues until an X, The Great Wilderness or Wild Lynx is revealed. The latter two award their feature before the Explorer round ends. The number of tiles is the size of the picking board, not a promise of 20 prizes. The published Wild North rules also distinguish feature winnings from ordinary payline wins.

Original Wild North or Radiant Skies GO Collect?

Radiant Skies is the closest comparison when you want the same animals with a different route into their features. Its Footprint Overlays build through four charge stages, and overlays can randomly activate the Northern Lights Wheel at any stage. A fully charged display is not an instruction that the next spin must trigger a bonus. The original instead uses three Northern Lights scatters.

Radiant Skies has five wheel outcomes. Its Savage Bear awards three spins with multipliers up to 10x, compared with one spin and up to 30x in the original. Its Wilderness Reindeer uses expanding wilds moving left, whereas the original Running Reindeer needs a qualifying block or full middle-reel coverage for its sticky respin.

The comparison is therefore about more than the name. Choose which feature you want to understand first: the original’s seven separate awards, or the newer game’s footprint collection and revised animal bonuses. Play’n GO describes the collection system in its Radiant Skies introduction and the individual awards in its game feature guide.

Games like Wild North

Wild North has several matching slots including Teddy Bears Picnic, Ted, Kgb Bears and Grizzly Gold.

Ted comes from Blueprint Gaming (Gauselmann Group). It is played across a 5×3 grid with 20 paylines. On the bonus side you get free spins, wheel bonus, colossal symbols and money collect feature. Look out for laser gun wilds feature, psychedelic super spin feature, beer streak feature and psychedelic colossal spin feature. Return to player sits at 95.80%, which is medium for the market. That figure is a long-term average rather than something to expect back each session. That is a little higher than Wild North, which returns 94.57%. Stakes run from £0.20 (varies by operator) up to £200 (varies by operator) a spin, so it suits both small and larger budgets. Volatility is medium-low, so wins land fairly regularly and tend to be modest, which keeps sessions steady. It also draws comparisons with Doubleup Ducks. Fans of Wild North should find plenty to like here.

Kgb Bears leans into a Detective theme. The reels form a 5×3 layout offering 50 paylines. On the bonus side you get free spins, autoplay and increasing multipliers. In play that shows up as scatter symbols and wild features. Stakes run from 0.05 up to 500 a spin, so it suits both small and larger budgets. Expect high volatility here, so bigger wins arrive less frequently, so expect some swing in your balance across a session. On return it edges out Wild North, which runs 94.57%. The RTP is 96.01%, placing it in the medium-high bracket. That figure is a long-term average rather than something to expect back each session. It is frequently grouped with Giant Grizzly. Fans of Wild North should find plenty to like here.

Grizzly Gold comes from Blueprint. You spin a 5×3 grid with 1024 ways to win in play. Bets start at 0.01 and reach 500 a spin, covering most bankrolls. It plays at medium volatility, which means you get a balanced pace, with wins that are neither tiny nor rare. That is a little higher than Wild North, which returns 94.57%. Headline features include free spins and increasing multipliers. Specific touches include multiplier ipto 27x and scatter symbol. The RTP is 96.00%, which is medium-high for the market. As ever, that is a theoretical average measured over a huge number of spins, so short sessions vary. It also draws comparisons with Ted Pub Fruit Series. It sits close to Wild North in feel, making it a natural follow-on.

More slots along the lines of Wild North

Wild North is largely an Bear themed online slot with slight hints towards Arctic themes.

Bear slots you might enjoy

Wild North is a Bear themed online slot game. Other Bear themed online slots include Bonus Bears, Ted Pub Fruit Series, Untamed Wilds and Kgb Bears.

Play’n GO slots like Wild North

Behind Wild North is Play’n GO. The studio has pledged not to sell bonus-buy features, on responsible-gambling grounds. Play’n GO was founded in 2005 in Växjö, Sweden, by Johan Törnqvist. New releases land almost weekly, with 350-plus titles to date. Its Rich Wilde series, led by Book of Dead, is a genre staple.

We’ve listed The top PlayNGo slots, these slots are all made by the same developer as Wild North, the online slots are Gift Shop, Mission Cash, Hugo and Xmas Joker.

Wild North at a glance

Here is a table of key information about Wild North.

Wild North screenshot

Slots with the same bonuses and features as Wild North

Wild North has similar slots with the bonus features: Free Spins and Collossal Symbols.

Games with Free Play Demo

The top slots with Free Spins are Cash Pump, Peter and the Lost Boys, Hitman and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Online slots with Collossal Symbols

Our Recommended slots with Collossal Symbols are Eagle Sun and Monopoly Megaways.

Wild North slot sites FAQs

Wild North Pros and Cons

A quick look at the main pros and cons of Wild North, based on its RTP, volatility, features, ranking and gameplay.

Pros

• A wide stake range (£0.2 to £100) for low and high rollers
• Sits nicely alongside Grizzly Gold, Kgb Bears and Ted
• Includes free spins to chase the bigger wins
• Up to 2,500x to chase
• Seven distinct wheel outcomes provide different combinations of large symbols, wilds, respins and picking prizes

Cons

• 94.57% RTP sits a little low
• The arctic and bear theme won’t be for everyone
• The bonus wheel selects the feature randomly, so you cannot choose Savage Bear or another preferred award