Hoot Loot Slot Machine

Developed by High 5 Games and licensed by IGT, Hoot Loot is a 5 reel, 20 pay line slot machine that’s available in land based and online casinos.

High 5 has a talent for making slot machines that are completely different from each other. And Hoot Loot fits this mold by featuring a different background and theme than we’ve see from any oftheir other slots games.

In fact, Hoot Loot is unique from any slot in the industry with its talking owl and Hoot Loot bonus feature.

How does the Hoot Loot bonus work? And what else can you expect from this game other than a talking owl?

Find out as we cover Hoot Loot’s atmosphere, music, animations, pay table, bonuses, and betting options. We’ll also compare this slot to another owl themed game called Owl Eyes.

Hoot Loot Slot Machines Overview

Atmosphere / Background

Unsurprisingly, Hoot Loot takes place in a forest during the nighttime, which is an owl’s favorite time to hunt.

The background features evergreen trees, a crescent moon, a nighttime sky, and a hollow log underneath the reels.

The atmosphere is very cartoonish, and it perfectly complements the symbols that you’ll see on the reels.

Music and Sound Effects

When you spin the reels, you’ll hear a fast paced tune that matches the light hearted nature of this game.

You’ll also hear plenty of sound effects during winning payouts. Sound effects include: the eagle soaring around its nest, a snapping sound when the porcupine flips over, a bird chirping, and ashow tune when you form a Hoot Line win.

Animations

One of the best parts of Hoot Loot is all of the animations that you’ll see during winning payouts.

Animations during wins include: the moose running with a bird on its back, the fox running around in circles until its dizzy, the bear digging in a pot of honey while swatting bees away, theeagle flying above its nest, the porcupine flipping over and rolling around in the grass, and the owl poking its head out of the Hoot Loot icon.

You’ll see more animations any time that you form a Hoot Loot bonus win. These include the owl grabbing a cane and dancing on the reels, and the owl yelling that you’re a big winner.

Hoot Loot Pay Table and Graphics

Hoot Loot’s symbols and payouts include the following:

  • Hoot Loot Icon Wild

    The game icon is wild and substitutes for everything except the bonus symbol. The icon also pays 20,000 credits for 5 symbols, 500 for 4 symbols, 100 for 3, and 20 for 2. As you can see, thisgame offers a really big top prize.

  • Hoo’s Safe Bonus

    Appearing only on reels 1, 3, and 5, the safe is a scatter payout that offers 5x to 25x your triggering bet.

  • Eagle

    The eagle pays 500 credits for 5 symbols, 200 for 4 symbols, 50 for 3, and 5 for 2.

  • Bear

    The bear offers 500 credits for 5 symbols, 200 for 4 symbols, 25 for 3, and 2 for 2.

  • Moose and Bird

    These two buddies pay 500 credits for 5 symbols, 100 for 4 symbols, 25 for 3, and 2 for 2.

  • Fox

    The fox pays 500 credits for 5 symbols, 100 for 4 and 20 for 3.

  • Porcupine

    The porcupine offers 500 credits for 5 symbols, 50 for 4, and 20 for 3.

  • Eagle Eggs, Paw Print

    These two symbols pay the same, offering 200 credits for 5 symbols, 20 for 4, and 10 for 3.

  • Leaves, Mushrooms, Strawberries

    These 3 symbols pay 100 credits for 5 symbols, 20 for 4, and 10 for 3.

Symbol Graphics

Hoot Loot’s symbols are presented in a comical, cartoonish fashion. This blends well with the animations, which show the goofy side of the animals.

The detail in the symbols is above average, with the best looking symbols being the bear, eagle eggs, fox, mushrooms, and porcupine. Other symbols like the eagle, leaves, and strawberries don’tlook as good, but they’re still solid in comparison to other slot machines.

The owl beneath the reels is of much lower quality than the symbols on the reels. We imagine this is because the owl has to perform more sophisticated animations, like jumping around and dancingduring Hoot Line wins.

Hoot Loot Slot Bonus Features

This game offers two bonuses, including Hoot Line wins and Hoo’s Safe Bonus. As you’ll see below, Hoot Line is a very unique bonus that occurs during the main game, while Hoo’s Safe Bonus is asimple pick me round.

Hoot Line Wins

When the reels come to a stop, you’ll see various symbols marked with the owl in the lower right hand corner. This indicates that these are Hoot Line symbols, and they occur randomly on everyspin.

Hoot Line symbols act as scatters and can form wins when you get matching symbols going from left to right.

Hoot Line wins don’t have to occur in adjacent reels, but you must get the same symbol, wild symbols count, going from right to left. If you land a combination of symbols, then you won’t get aHoot Line payout.

If you need help identifying your Hoot Lint wins, you can look at the black box underneath the reels, which displays your current Hoot Line combination.

If you’re playing less than 20 pay lines, then your Hoot Line Multiplier will be equal to your total bet. When you play all 20 pay lines, the Hoot Line Multiplier is 22x your bet per line.

Most of your spins won’t result in Hoot Line payouts, but it’s still fun watching for these wins on every turn.

Hoot Safe Bonus

When you trigger the Hoot Safe Bonus by landing safes on reels 1, 3, and 5, the triggering symbols will remain on the reels while all other symbols exit the screen.

You select one of the safes to reveal a prize that’s multiplied by your total bet.

The Hoot Safe Bonus payout is combined with any additional line payouts and Hoot Line wins.

Betting Options

You can change pay lines from 1 to 20, and pay line increments include 1, 5, 9, 15, and 20. Whenever you select the max number of pay lines, the owl will utter a phrase and flip over a sign thatreads Best Bet.

Some versions of this game offer an Auto play feature that allows you to keep the reels spinning automatically for between 5 and 25 spins.

Other Options

You can re watch any spin by clicking the Replay button. This is nice for times when you trigger a bonus or get a big payout and want to see it again.

Another option is the ability to turn sound on and off by using the speaker button in the lower right hand corner.

You can also access the pay table and game rules at any point by clicking the question mark icon next to the speaker.

Win Frequency

Hoot Loot’s win frequency is above average for a 20 pay line slot machine.

The Hoot Loot wild icon helps form plenty of wins, and you won’t experience many long lasting cold streaks.

Hoot Line wins don’t come very often, but you may not notice since you’ll be picking up lots of regular wins to sustain your bankroll.

The Hoot Safe Bonus isn’t triggered very often, and we only triggered it once after playing 20 lines for several hundred spins.

Return to Player RTP

RTP for Hoot Loot is 95.0%, which is average for an online slot. Considering that the win frequency is above average, you’ll feel like this is a higher paying slot than it actually is.

Game Rules

Aside from the Hoot Line feature, this game’s rules are standard for a 5 reel slot machine. Here’s a look at the main rules:

  • Pay line wins must appear on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost reel. The only exception is scatter wins, which can appear anywhere on the reels.
  • When 2 or more wins occur in the same pay line, only the highest payout is awarded.
  • Pay line wins are multiplied by the amount bet per line.
  • Hoot Line symbols act as scatters and will form wins with matching symbols anywhere on the reels. All Hoot Line symbols must match to form a win.
  • Malfunction voids all pays and plays.

Comparison to Owl Eyes Slot Machine

Owl Eyes

Created by NextGen, Owl Eyes is a 5 reel, 50 pay line slot machine that’s found in online casinos.

Like Hoot Loot, this game also revolves around an owl and the forest. But one notable difference is that Owl Eyes’ background has a fantasy feel, with neon fireflies floating around that looklike fairies.

The atmosphere also includes wilderness sounds, owls hooting, and chanting music when you spin the reels.

Symbols that you’ll see in this game include an owl, moon, tree, skunk, mushrooms, feather, letters, and numbers.

Owl Eyes is especially nice if you like Hoot Loot and want to get a different take on the owl genre.

Conclusion

Hoot Look is different than any other slot machine that we’ve played thanks to its bonus feature.

Hoot Loot bonus symbols are designated by an owl in the lower right hand corner, and matching 2 or more of these scatter symbols earns you a bonus win.

Another interesting aspect of this slot is the talking and dancing owl, which springs into action whenever you form Hoot Loot bonus wins. This adds an entertaining element that most slot machinesdon’t have.

Hoot Loot proves to be an all around good game by offering plenty of sound effects and animations during wins. The symbol graphics also look solid and complete this game’s cartoonish feel.

The main downside to Hoot Loot is that the bonus feature is hard to understand in the beginning. Even after reading the information about the Hoot Loot bonus, we had to play for a little while tofully understand the wins.

Another problem for some may be the theme, which will get old if you don’t like cartoonish games. We personally like Hoot Loot’s theme, but it’s not for everybody.

Beyond these minor drawbacks, Hoot Loot is a quality slot machine that’s worth trying. This is especially the case if you’re looking for a different kind of slot feature like the Hoot Loot bonusoffers.