Skate or Die

Skate or Die Game Overview

We played Tony Hawk games as kids and now play Skate or Die as adults. There’s more to life than skating, but it certainly has charm. So make sure your shoelaces are tightly tied, as we’re about to review Nolimit City’s grungy skating-themed game. We may collect a few nasty bruises along the way, but hopefully, not without some wins.

Pros

• Unique game theme
• Innovative features that can be quite rewarding
• 30,000x max win
• 96.03% RTP
• Bonus feature buy-in

Cons

• Very high volatility
• Some players may prefer less complicated features
• Graphic displays of blood and injuries

Skate or Die Slot Review

This game takes us back to the skating-obsessed era of the 1990s. As the name suggests, the primary themes are skating and dying, though there’s more between the two… such as breaking bones. We’re introduced to a carefree character, Chad, or Plantface, who naturally feels little pain or consumes many illegal painkillers. It’s hard to understand how such a guy can bring us any wins, but make no mistake, this extremely volatile game hides a fortune. Who dares win, after all.

 

Theme

The Skate or Die slot is set in a grimy, graffiti-covered, derelict area that bursts with a skater vibe. There’s an apparent humorous aspect to it, from the way Plantface is drawn to the cheesy comments we hear throughout the game, but there’s also another, darker touch to it. A cool, quirky skater game would be fine, but the Skate or Die slot comes from the creative geniuses of Nolimit City, and they just had to add another level of craziness to it. So, you’ll see blood, you’ll see injuries, you’ll see broken bones sticking out of the flesh. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Graphics, Sounds and Animations

The game is presented in a cartoonish style with a pastel color scheme. Graffiti is a significant part of its visual style, and many things throughout the Skate or Die slot are presented in such a manner. The game’s logo, the lower-paying symbols, the scatters, the free spins, and the Crasher Game are all like that. The grid looks like a rusty wire fence, which Plantface has to jump over to get to his preferred derelict skating spot. The game’s subtle animations don’t overwhelm the player’s attention.

The soundtrack is a 1990s grunge riff that slows down or intensifies depending on the game’s intensity. I gotta say, it is entirely on point for a skating theme.

RTP, Payout and Volatility

Once again, Nolimit City didn’t go easy on us with this one. The game’s volatility is classified as extreme, a 10 out of 10. The Skate or Die slot doesn’t pay quickly, so be prepared. Be ready to break a few bones before you hit something big, but when you do, you’ll smile wider than Plantface. The max win stands at 30,000x, which is not precisely mind-blowing but still juicy and better than most games.

There are nine regular symbols in Skate or Die, with multipliers ranging from 0.30x to 4x. The lower-paying five are graffiti letters, while the higher-paying four are Plantface’s body parts. His bruised knee, his bruised hand, his bruised elbow, and his silly face with surprisingly only a single missing tooth. Let’s be honest: how often do we see body parts as symbols in a slot game? It makes you wonder if the theme of this game is skating or, more precisely, skating injuries.

Gameplay

This is a high-volatility game, so I highly recommend you play the Skate or Die slot demo at one of the best new casinos we recommend before playing for real money. Before stepping on that skateboard, familiarize yourself with the game’s mechanics, features, and payouts.

The Skate or Die slot is played on a 5×3 grid with an additional top row called the Extra Sauce Row. The Extra Sauce Row randomly displays multipliers with 2x, 3x, 4x, 10x, or no multiplier at each spin. When an xZone Wild lands, the multiplier in its reel applies to every adjacent symbol in any direction. In case there are overlapping multipliers, they are summed together.

• Scatters: These are critical for unlocking free spins. In Skate or Die, landing three activate 10 Face Plant Spins, four activate 10 Dead Meat Spins, and five activate 10 Boneyard Spins.
• Extra Sauce Row: A row at the top of the grid with five potential multipliers of 2x, 3x, 4x, 10x, or no multiplier. When an xZone or xNudge lands, it connects to the multiplier in its reel. It’s active in regular and free spins, and the multipliers randomly update at each spin.

Features

As always, Nolimit City wasn’t short of inspiration when devising engaging new features. Let’s take a look at them.

Crasher Game

This unique feature comes crashing in when you least expect it. It covers the whole grid, awards a 30x, and allows you to gamble for a higher win—or nothing. Also, any win of 30x or higher allows you to play the Crasher Game. So, if you decide to play it, what happens is that Plantface starts falling out of nowhere in a wheelchair, and your job is to click STOP before it’s too late so that his parachute pops up. The multiplier keeps increasing until you hit that stop button, with a chance to reach the max win of 30,000x. On the other hand, if you click too late, Plantface crashes into a grave, and you lose everything. The end.

Free Spins

There are three different types of free spins in the Skate or Die slot, and they always come in quantities of 10. Which of them will be triggered depends on the number of Scatter symbols that land — 3x, 4x, and 5x will trigger Face Plant spins, Dead Meat spins, and Boneyard spins, respectively. It’s worth noting that a single Scatter symbol looks like a typical smiley emoji, but as more of them appear, each new one is greyer, and the yellow paint melts away until the last one reveals a skull. The devil is in the details.

• Face Plant Spins: 10 free spins with a guaranteed xZone Wild on each spin
• Dead Meat Spins: 10 free spins with two guaranteed xZone Wilds on each spin
• Boneyard Spins: 10 free spins with two guaranteed xZone Wilds on each spin and a possibility to land an xNudge Supreme

xNudge Wild

The xNudge Wild, which looks like a worn-out skateboard, always nudges its way until it’s fully visible on the reel. Every nudge increases its multiplier by 1, and if there’s more than one of them, their multipliers are added up to the total xNudge multiplier. If there’s an active multiplier in the Extra Sauce Row, it also adds up to the total. An xZone doesn’t directly affect it, but the multipliers it creates on the adjacent symbols also add up to it. In addition to the xNudge Wild, you can also land the xNudge Wild Supreme or the xZone Wild:

• xZone Wild: If there’s a multiplier in the Extra Sauce Row, the xZone Wild applies that multiplier to every adjacent symbol vertically, horizontally, and diagonally.
• xNudge Wild Supreme: Appears only in the Boneyard spins. It acts the same as the xNudge, but also adds up all the multipliers from the Extra Sauce Row to its own multiplier.