Hugo Carts - Unless you grew up in Europe, you’ve probably never heard of Hugo. The Scandinavian folklore troll was introduced as a cartoon series in the early 90’s and has gone on to be a successful video game franchise across different platforms, but never really caught on outside of the EU.
The latest incarnation of the Hugo series comes as a coin slots game from Swedish developer Play’n GO.
Themed as an underground mining adventure, Hugo and his girlfriend are on a search for gold and diamonds while trying to avoid nemesis Scylla, who is trying to throw a wrench into their plans. The gameplay in Hugo Carts is fun once you pick up all of the nuances and rules, but at first it can seem overly complicated.
However, if you’re already a fan of the Hugo series, you’ll most likely enjoy this one.
Hugo Carts Gameplay
Hugo Carts is a five-reel, four-row slots board.
Hitting on three or more neighbouring matching symbols starting from the far left reel gives you a regular win. Symbols include the 10, J, Q, K, and A card letters as well as shovels, lamps, pickaxes, hard hats, and the wild Nugget Bags. The wildcard creates matches with any symbols except the Piggy Bank and Lucky Stars.
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There is also a Dynamite symbol which awards free spins, depending on how many you land in a scatter. As you spin, you hit on character actions and free spins, with the three characters rolling across the top of the screen in a mining cart.
Hugo Carts Character Actions and Free Spins
Hugo Carts has three characters that make their mark on the game. Landing a character triggers a respin with the corresponding action from that character as they ride the mining rails over the slots board:
- Hugolina tosses out symbol multipliers across the reels which can multiply a symbol’s value by up to ten times.
- Huge tosses out wild Nugget Bags across the reels.
- Scylla tosses magic potions across the reels which change the symbols they land on into a matching symbol.
The dynamite symbol doles out free spins with at least three landing in a scatter. Don Croco occasionally tosses these out as well. When you trigger free spins on a dynamite scatter, one character is selected with their corresponding action active on each spin.
It can be chaotic and confusing when you first start playing, but as time goes on you start to recognize the patterns and how wins and free spins are awarded.
Hits and Misses
Hugo can be a little grating. Unless you grew up with the lovable troll, you’ll probably find his shouts and whoops annoying and the cartoonish animations childish.
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The gameplay will leave you wondering what is going on until you figure out the scatters and respins and their character effects, but once you get that down, it’s engaging and quite fun. Hugo Carts is rated highly volatile with a default RTP of 96.23% with a top prize of 25,000 times your bet, which will keep experienced gamers engaged. More novice gamers may find the lower win rate a turnoff compared to other slots games.
Hugo Carts has a decent soundtrack and the graphics will definitely appeal to those who have an affinity for Hugo and the other characters from the series.
Concluding thoughts on Hugo Carts
Players may find the latest offering in the Hugo slots series from Play’n GO a tad complicated and somewhat annoying, but it does grow on you. Make sure you understand the gameplay and features before you give it a go so that you don’t get frustrated.
And unless you really love Hugo, you may want to use your own soundtrack for this one.