Aldo’s Journey slot review (Yggdrasil)

With Aldo’s Journey, Yggdrasil released an everything but standard out-of-the-shelf video slot

Our absolute star of the slot is an adventurous explorer named Aldo. He is cheerful and outgoing and more than keen to explore the world.

His appearance is similar to Columbus, Marco polo, and Vasco de Gama, to name a few.

But this guy, Aldo, is a real friend and helps you get some massive wins.

Aldo moves around in several countries; your bonus feature depends on which country he explores.

Original? Yes, we think so!

Bets start from as little as $€ 0.10, and the maximum bet is $€ 100 per spin.

What are the theoretical RTP, the variance and the maximum win of Aldo’s Journey?

The theoretical payout percentage is 96.10%, which is not too bad. It is around the RTP of the average online slot.

The maximum win is equal to 3,000x the bet. Please note that this is the maximum win. We expect that the top wins are in the 500x to 1,000x the bet range.

The maximum stake is $€100, which indicates that we are talking about a medium variance slot.

Gameplay and features of Aldo’s Journey slot

Aldo’s Journey looks like a grid slot, but it’s not. Instead, it has 65 fixed paylines, which is quite unusual. The “grid” has 5 reels with 5 rows of symbols.

The symbols’ payouts are meager: the most lucrative symbols yield a win of a mere 2x the total bet for a 5-of-a-kind.

In this slot, it’s all about the wilds, multipliers, and retriggers to get the monstrous payouts.

Is Aldo in a Wild mode?

Aldo is not standing still as he’s traveling. After each spin, he moves one step up, down, sideways or one step diagonally.

You hope that Aldo is willing to step in the middle of the screen (the middle square of the playing field), as this gets you 3 to 9 extra wilds. What’s more, all wins are in that case multiplied by x 2, x 3 or x 4.

This feature can help you to make a good amount of money. Still, it can also be very frustrating, especially if Aldo keeps on dancing and jumping around that lucrative spot but never actually decides to get there.

Free Spins Bonus

If you manage to land three scatters, you have won the free spins bonus: 7 free spins.

Dependent on where Aldo is hanging around, you win one of the following five free spins bonuses:

Italy: You start with an x2 multiplier, which is increased by +1 after each spin.

Mongolia: after each spin, a symbol disappears from the reels, so your chances of getting good payouts increase. All prizes double in your last free spin.

Persia: With this bonus, you get, for every spin, an extra sticky wild on the reels.

China: you get an x2 multiplier and a series of wilds for each round.

Journey: you receive an x2 multiplier and one of the bonuses above.

Like in the base game, Aldo may also end up in the playing field’s middle square. If he does, you get between 3 and 9 extra wilds and, on top of that, a multiplier of +1, +2 or +3.

This extra multiplier will remain active for the remaining free spins, so if you manage to convince Aldo to move on the centre spot at the beginning, that helps!

If you’re playing Journey spins, Aldo also earns you +3 free spins if he lands in the middle.

Our verdict on Aldo’s Journey

It is indeed an unusual Yggdrasil slot.

The slot looks fantastic, has all kinds of surprising bonus features, and the celebration dances are quite funny.

The game has sufficient features, and as there are five different types of free spins, it is far from a boring game.

Aldo’s Journey is a medium variance slot. Even after a long wait for the free spins, the result is that the wins are usually well below 100x the bet.

Only on rare occasions will you get a thrilling win that makes the world turn around.

3.5 out of 5 stars.