Tiger’s Glory Ultra

Tiger’s Glory Ultra from Quickspin relives the glory of the original Tiger’s Glory adding a lovely volatility twist to an already volatile game. If you think you’re ready to confront the Enraged Tiger in the Colosseum for the second time, think again, for this time you know the Tiger will always be victorious. Not so good for a gladiator but excellent news for a slot player looking for wins of epic proportions!

Read on for the full review.

SLOT FEATURES	Free Games, Sticky Wilds
RELEASE DATE	27th July 2021
GAME PROVIDER	QUICKSPIN
SLOT TYPE	Video Slot
THEME	Gladiator
REELS, ROWS, PAYLINES	6 reels, 4 rows, 4096 Ways
BET LEVELS	0.20 – 100.00
MAXIMUM WIN	32,464x Your Stake
SCATTER SYMBOL	Yes: BONUS
WILD SYMBOL	Yes: WILD
BONUS GAME	No
FREE SPINS	Yes
RESPINS	No
MULTIPLIERS	No
JACKPOT	No
RETURN TO PLAYER	96.75% Ultra 96.51% Classic
VOLATILITY	Very High

Features

Wild Symbol

• Wild symbol substitutes for all symbols, except Bonus Scatter symbol and Enraged Tiger symbol.
• Wild symbol only appears in base game.

Enraged Tiger Free Spins Bonus

3 or more Bonus Scatter symbols trigger the Enraged Tiger Free Spins Bonus.

• 3 Bonus Scatter symbols award 7 free spins.
• 4 Bonus Scatter symbols award 10 free spins.
• 5 Bonus Scatter symbols award 15 free spins.
• 6 Bonus Scatter symbols award 20 free spins.

Enraged Tiger symbol appears during Free Spins Bonus only. These battle the Gladiator and if Enraged Tiger wins, the symbol locks in position until end of Free Spins Bonus. In Ultra Mode the Tiger always wins.

The first Enraged Tiger on each reel that wins a battle awards one extra free spin. Up to 6 extra free spins can be awarded.

Tiger symbols pay anywhere during the Free Spins Bonus. Tiger symbol wins do not need to start from the leftmost reel, do not need to be on consecutive reel.
Free Games cannot be retriggered

Buy Bonus*

• Buy Bonus can be activated in Base Game only.
• For a cost you can buy entry into Free Games.
  • 200x buys between 3 – 6 Bonus symbols
  • 400x buys between 4 – 6 Bonus symbols
  • 1,000x buys between 5 – 6 Bonus symbols
• * Buy Bonus may not be available in all markets.

Playability

Playability is excellent. Quickspin’s ability to deliver a significantly more volatile game with a tripled max win while maintaining almost every aspect of the original’s gameplay is astounding.

There’s only one thing you need to know about Tiger’s Glory Ultra… the Tiger always wins! For those players familiar with the original Tiger’s Glory, you know exactly what this means. With no real cosmetic changes from the original aside from the intense red backgrounds, Tiger’s Glory Ultra lifts the already high volatility to new heights. Mostly, (almost in its entirely to be precise) Tiger’s Glory Ultra mechanics remain unchanged from the original except for one distinct aspect. In the Tiger Battle during free games, now the Enraged Tigers always win. A seemingly minor change BUT if you consider those tigers are what you’re chasing it’s a massive value add over the original.

Because they’re ALL held, each Enraged Tiger adds value to the remaining spins. Land a few Enraged Tigers early on in the Free Games and their value escalates per spin as they contribute to all remaining spins.

There’s no difference to the paytable, there’s no difference to the bet levels, there’s no difference to the number of Free Games won. So, what did Quickspin compromise to offer such a valuable proposition in the free games? Win and feature hit rates are now increased. It now takes more spins on average to land any win; small wins, wins of 15x, wins of 40x and wins of 70x. However, the change in behaviour of the tigers in Free Games makes it more likely to hit wins of 100x or more in Ultra mode.

The result in gameplay is a reduced distribution of pays in the base game, with the balance of pays transferred to Free Games to afford the cost (and value) of the 100% tiger’s win in the Tiger Battle. The RTP split between base and free game remains similar (Classic 59/37 vs Ultra 60/36) indicating the feature hit rate in Ultra mode is considerably higher leaving players in the base game longer. How much longer? From Quickspin’s documentation, the feature hit rate has gone from 1 in 200 spins up to 1 in 500spins; a 2.5x increase. This is the price to pay for the increased volatility while maintaining the paytable and bet. Typically, when developers add a benefit to a game, its cost is balanced with an ante bet to fund it. Quickspin has done the same without added cost but reduced occurrence.

Another indication of the value of the Enraged Tigers in the Ultra version over the original is the buy bonus cost. As the Classic mode in the Ultra version now includes a buy bonus (where the original version did not) we can compare expected average wins. Bonus entry cost options are 200/400/1000x in Ultra mode compared to 80/150/300x in Classic mode. The average win in Ultra mode therefore is 2.5x-3.3x higher than Classic mode.

Being a collectibles Free Game feature, you’re after more of the collectible symbols, being the Enraged Tiger. On the flipside, the more tigers held the less likely standard wins become.

While the original version is included to choose to play upon loading and nice to have, it feels as though it’s not really necessary as we’re here to play the Ultra version.

Paytable Review

A typically volatile game with 33% of prizes at or below bet. We don’t often see this ratio so low in a high ways game where there are increased coinciding wins. It is unlikely to win anything below your bet.

The Glory Spin

32,464x the bet! Certainly, a glorious number to hope to achieve and up from the Classic version’s 13,830x. Please note though the max win value was observed in a simulation run of 880 billion spins so don’t hold your breath.

Delights and Surprises

• High production quality
• Powerful anticipation and salivation during Free Games
• Addition of the Buy Feature option (for jurisdictions where it’s allowed)
• The ability to win the maximum trigger of 6 scatters from the minimum buy option

Shortcomings

• The intense red coloured overlay used in the base and free game backgrounds are nowhere near as pleasant as the original and quite grating on the senses over time.
• There is a mismatch between Quickspin’s theoretical RTP of 96.72% quoted in-game, and the independent test results of eCogra who calculated the game to run at 96.16%. While not a significant difference but any RTP mismatch between game and Accredited Testing Facility has an impact on the game’s integrity.

Conclusion

How awesome is it for a developer to tweak the math and completely change the personality of a game while using the same art and audio assets? It’s almost as though Quickspin along with NetEnt, and their Starburst XXXTreme, have had secret discussions behind the scenes. In both games, the only visible difference is a hue change in the game’s background (and both have gone red) while the math driving them boost a single element of the original game.

Playing Tiger’s Glory Ultra is thoroughly enjoyable and the build quality is excellent, scoring high in most areas. Integrity scored low due to the mismatch in RTP between Quickspin and testers, and, zero effort was made to distinguish a massive math upgrade other than a cheap red transparency over the base and free game backgrounds.

Will we be seeing more and more of this effective cost cutting from other suppliers? I think so.

Tiger’s Glory Ultra gets 81 Spins out of 100 based on the following ratings:

PLAYABILITY	90
ORIGINALITY	85
BUILD QUALITY	90
MARRIAGE	85
IMMERSION	85
RUN FOR MONEY	80
INTEGRITY	50
TOTAL	81