Toro Shogun

Elk Studios sends its bull and matador pairing to Japan in Toro Shogun, a cartoon-styled setting of mountains, twisted trees and green turf, backed by a light Eastern-flavoured soundtrack. It follows earlier Toro releases from the studio, and it plays quite differently from them.

The reels start small and grow. Wins are formed by matching symbols running from the leftmost reel across neighbouring reels, connected horizontally or diagonally, and the fact sheet gives a range of 178 to 1,378 paylines as the grid changes size. Every winning symbol is removed and replaced by at least one wild plus symbols dropping in from above, and each winning reel gets taller by the number of symbols cleared from it, up to ten rows. When the wins stop, the reels return to their normal height. A five-of-a-kind win switches on Both Ways, so wins pay from either side until the round ends. A random Max Rows event can also stretch the reels to their full height.

Low pays are three dragon tiles, followed by an orange pierced by a dagger, a fan, a flower and the Shogun character at the top. Five of a kind pays 0.3x to 0.5x the stake on the low symbols and 0.75x to 10x on the high ones, and wilds substitute for any pay symbol.

Toro is a Walking Wild. When he lands he awards a respin and steps one position left with each respin or winning combination until he reaches the first reel. Two or more Matador symbols lock in place and trigger a Matador Respin, while a single Matador adds one more respin; the Matadors themselves carry no value. Toro Goes Wild fires when a Toro and Matadors are on screen together: Toro charges vertically and then horizontally, knocking each Matador away and leaving wilds along his route.

If all five reels reach ten positions, Shogun Mode begins. The low pays are removed for that spin and Both Ways is active. Three bonus symbols on reels 1, 3 and 5 start the bonus game with 7 free spins, and more bonus symbols in the round raise a bonus multiplier by 1, 2 or 3 depending on how many land, with three also adding 7 spins. That multiplier applies to every current and later win. Three bonus symbols during Shogun Mode start the Shogun Bonus, which is free spins played in permanent Shogun Mode.

The X-iter menu covers purchases: Bonus Hunt at 3x the bet raises the chance of the bonus game to more than triple, Toro Spin at 10x guarantees a Toro, Shogun Spin at 25x gives a ten-row grid with Shogun Mode and Both Ways, Buy Bonus costs 100x, and the Shogun Bonus costs 500x.

The RTP is 94%, and it stays there in the buy modes too. Volatility is medium to high (7 out of 10), hit frequency is 25.1%, the maximum win is 25,000x the stake, and bets run from 0.20 to 100. The game was released in June 2023.