Toro Shogun (ELK Studios) Slot Review

Toro Shogun: Slot Overview

We get the strange feeling that there are two things the people at ELK Studios like. One of them is gold, and the other one is bulls. Okay, we see, we might need to be more specific about that. ELK Studios have two game series that have been going for years now. One of them is the Gold series, and the other one is the Toro series. In this online slot review we will be going over the addition of the latter one. This is ELK Studios’ Toro Shogun.

Playing Board

Toro Shogun is played on 5 reels with 4 to 10 rows. To determine wins, Toro Shogun uses so called Connected Lines/Ways, which means that a win is formed as long as at least 3 symbols are connected on adjacent reels eather horizontally or diagonally. So kind of a mix between Winning Lines and Ways. There are at least 178 Connected Lines, which can go up to 1,378 through certain game mechanics. In addition, Toro Shogun uses Tumbling Wins, in which symbols, that were part of a winning combination, are removed and new ones drop in. Bet sizes range from 0.20€ to 100€ (or equivalent), though this may vary depending on where you play.

Winning Symbols

In total, Toro Shogun will feature 7 different winning symbols, which is actually not that many. These can be divided into 3 lower paying, 3 medium paying and 1 higher paying symbol. Let’s start right off with the low-tier symbols. These will be represented by some kind of Mahjong stones, which show dragons on them. First up is the stone with blue dragons, paying you 0.3 times your bet size per full connected line. Next is the green dragon, paying you 0.4 times your bet size. And the last lower paying symbol will be the red dragon, coming in at 0.5 times your bet size per full connected line.

Now we will look at the medium paying symbols. These all have a very distinct touch to them, which perfectly resembles the shogun theme. So first you’ll find an orange with a shuriken sticking in it. This one will pay you 0.75 times per full connected line. Next in line is the fan with blades, which will net you 1.5 times your bet size. The last spot on the mid-tier section is occupied by a lotus flower, which clocks in at 3 times your bet size.

The final symbol, the highest tier and therefore our top symbol, will be the old shogun master himself, who will pay you a whopping 10 times your bet size per full connected line. While this doesn’t sound like that much at first, remember that you can acquire a lot of connected lines throughout the game.

Toro Shogun: Special Symbols and Stats

Wouldn’t be an ELK Studios game if it wasn’t loaded with special symbols, eh? Let’s take a look at what they came up with in Toro Shogun.

Scatter Symbol

The scatter symbol will be represented by a lava-stone sort-of heart, which feels a bit out of place, and the label „BONUS“ beneath it. These symbols can only land on reels 1, 3 and 5. Landing all 3 of these in the same spin will allow you access to either the Free Spins Feature or the Shogun Free Spins. What exactly they do will be covered later on in our Feature Overview section of our online slot review.

Wild Symbol

Wild symbols will be very important in Toro Shogun. These are displayed by an asian symbol, that kinda resembles the letter „W“ and the label „WILD“. These symbols will substitute for any winning symbol except scatter, Matador or Toro Wilds. Wild symbols cannot appear naturally. Instead, for every winning combination, they will be put randomly onto a random position of this combination on the playing board.

Toro Wild

The Toro wild symbol is basically the same like a normal wild symbol, in the sense that it will substitute for any winning symbol. But of course we wouldn’t mention it here if it wasn’t special in any kind of way. First of all, Toro wilds can only land on reel 5. Additionally, they will initiate respins, in which they will move one position to the left on each spin and with each winning combination it partakes.

Matador

The matador is an old „friend“ of Toro, and is now dressed accordingly to the theme, in a black ninja suit and armed with nunchakus. The matador itself is more or less a useless symbol. It needs another symbol to fully work. Don’t worry, we will cover this too later on.

Stats

While in this section we would usually gather stats about the game we’re reviewing, unfortunately, ELK Studios do not publish lots of stats about their games. Here’s what we can give you. Toro Shogun is played with an RTP of 94.00%. The maximum win possible is 25,000 times your bet size, which is actually achievable both in base game and the feature games. Toro Shogun received a volatility rating of 7 out of 10 by ELK Studios themselves. The hit frequency is set to 25.1%, which means that you will get a win round about every 4th spin.

Toro Shogun: Feature Overview

We’ve gone through all of the special symbols, now we will see how we can utilize them in the various different features.

Matador Respin & Toro Goes Wild

As we have told you, the matador on its own is pretty useless. What the matador can do tough, is initiating a respin. Getting 2 or more matador symbols in the same spin will grant you a respin once no more winning combination is possible. During this respin, the Both Ways feature is active, allowing for wins to form from left to right and from right to left.

The matador is key to the Toro Goes Wild feature. Whenever matadors are present, and a Toro wild will land on reel 5, Toro will charge towards any matadors on the playing board. On its way it will leave behind regular wild symbols.

Max Rows

In Toro Shogun, reels can have up to 10 rows. But how do you actually gain rows? This is rather simple. For every symbol, that was part of a winning combination, another symbol is added to the respective reel. So for example, you start with 4 rows and reel 1 has 2 winning symbols that are part of a winning combination. For the next tumble, you will have 6 rows/symbols on reel 1. Rows are reset in-between spins.

In addition, Toro Shogun has something called the Max Rows feature. On any spin, you will have the chance to trigger this feature. You will recognize it by glowing reels. What happens now, is that the game will go through all of the reels and upgrade any amount to the maximum height. We’re not entirely sure if it is possible that no reel can be upgraded during this feature.

Shogun Mode

The Shogun Mode can be triggered by getting all reels to the maximum height of 10. During this mode, all lower paying symbols, so all of the Mahjong stones, will be removed and only higher paying symbols are available.

Free Spins Feature

As we have already mentioned, landing all 3 scatter symbols in the same spin will allow you to enter the free spins feature. You will be granted 7 free spins. In its core, the free spins feature works exactly like the base game, with one major twist. Scatter symbols can land during this feature. Every scatter symbol that lands will increase the global multiplier by +1. This multiplier will apply to every winning combination and is not reset between free spins.

Landing 3 scatter symbols in the same spin will increase your multiplier by +3 and grant you another 7 free spins. The feature will end once you have used all of your available free spins or the max win potential of 25,000 times your bet size has been reached.

Shogun Free Spins

The Shogun free spins are the super bonus of Toro Shogun. The big difference to many other ELK Studios games is, that this one can actually be triggered through the base game. Landing 3 scatter symbols during the Shogun Mode will let you enter the Shogun Free Spin and grant you 7 free spins as well. This feature is the exact same like the normal free spins feature, but the Shogun mode will consistently be active during the whole feature. As a reminder, this means that you will always have max rows on all reels and lower paying symbols are completely removed.

Just like the normal free spins feature, this one can be retriggered with 3 scatter symbols in the same spin, granting you a +3 mutliplier and another 7 free spins.

X-iter

If you have ever played and ELK Studios game before, you probably know what X-iters are. For those of you who don’t know: X-iters are the bonus buy options in pretty much every modern ELK Studios game. You will usually have 4 to 5 different options available to buy, each coming with their own unique features and prices. Here’s a list of all of the options:

All X-iters will be played with the base RTP of 94.00%.

Toro Shogun: Conclusion

ELK Studios have done it once again. They have created a very pleasant online slot game with lots of interesting features that allow for quite a fun time. Anyone who had fun with previous releases from ELK Studios, will definitely have lots of fun with Toro Shogun.

But of course there are some negative things we need to talk about. First of all, the thing we don’t like is the lower-than-average RTP of 94.00%. As some of you might know, the average RTP of online slot games is around 96.00%. Having 2% less RTP doesn’t sound like a lot, but in the long run it definitely is.

The other thing we need to mention are the features. While most of the features are really good and exciting, one of these features, namely the Max Rows feature, is complicated. In its core, this feature is great, but most of the encounters with this feature are a waste of time, to say the least. Often this feature ends in no notable win, but the time it takes to go through all the reels is way too long.

But other than that, if you don’t care about these things, you will have a fun time with Toro Shogun. We definitely had a blast testing this game for you.