Esqueleto Explosivo 2: Will it blow up?

Slot Review: Esqueleto Explosivo 2 - Thunderkick

Fresh off the originality line at Thunderkick this week is a game i'm not sure anyone asked for, but is it something original in disguise? The follow-up to the first ever Thunderkick game has been out for a week or so as Exclusive on Casumo, so I did pop over and have a bash.

Being a Manchester United fan, I associated the words "Thunderkick" with Eric Cantona for a very long time. Glad to see my views have changed.

At first glance the game looks identical. As a remake of the first game you have to envision that the provider will have made some changes, and luckily for everyone they have. This isn't just a re-skin of the same game that 50% of the providers seem to be pumping out every week recently.

The main issue with the original is the simplicity gets old. It was a 17 line (The worlds only 17 line?) slot, without a bonus feature or free spins. The saving grace of this game was the incredible soundtrack of singing mariachi skulls. If I ever go to Mexico and this is not a ritual I can see, the world will be a much sadder place. To this day, and even on the new game, I have no idea what they are saying, but I would like to think its phrases about Love, Tequila, Richard Hammond and the benefits of safe mining companies.

The new version, EE2 for now, uses the same style of sounds, with nice and crisper graphics. The reels are increased to 99 connecting pay ways, again not many slots I can think of with this aside from Jack Hammer 2 and a couple more. The multiplier is there still, increasing the wins by double on each additional win. The golden wild who is literally the most cool symbol I can think of on a slot game sticks around, and they also added a new symbol, who looks a lot like Miley Cyrus if she made better life choices... but with no skin. I'm sure she has had worse.

The better part about EE2 is it now comes with a bonus round. Scatters award spins as usual from 10-14 depending on number of scatter symbols in the trigger spin. The bonus game plays the same as the base game really, but each Golden Wild skull adds to a collector, and 3 skulls removes the lowest multiplier, gives you an extra spin, and you begin the next collection of skulls with a guaranteed higher base win. This goes up to 64x stake, so each spin if you reach that level could pay some serious cash. Not a bad bonus, mine paid 66x and 105x during a real money test. Profit!

Legal stuff - Max win 5,000x (Nice!), RTP is 96.13%. Game is available in most jurisdictions.

Score - I like Thunderkick games. I find them original, mostly volatile, very well designed, and they perform well for our casinos and brands also. That being said that doesn't guarantee a good score. EE2 is a clever update on an old game, but something that brings it more to today's market. It takes a game that launched a provider and recreates it to be playable vs releases from others. The sound effects on this game were, and still are, the most fun for a while on a game, until you start to hate it and mute the site. The gameplay is good, the bonus is fun, but as always on Thunderkick slots once you get to a high multiplier or high number of premium symbols (Pink Elephants pay attention), the wins vanish and you are left wondering why slots hate you for 6 dead spins in a row with a 32x multiplier. The best part is its different from other releases, its not a simple reskin, and they made a not-great game very good. 8/10.

#unphiltered