Hugo might just be the biggest video game character you’ve never heard of. For those who aren’t based in mainland Europe, Hugo is a fairly unknown little character, but for those on the continent, especially in Scandinavia, the little troll is the head of an iconic franchise. The character has featured heavily in video games and popular culture on the continent for the best part of three decades. His adventure into the world of online slots began when Play’n GO secured rights to the character, and Hugo Carts is yet another entry in the series. Does Hugo Carts online slot live up to the character’s legacy, though? Let’s take a look at this review and find out.

If you’re expecting a racing car-style game like Mario Kart, then you might have been a little misled by the name. The carts in question here refer to mining carts, with the slot taking place deep inside a cartoon mine. Hugo and several popular characters from the franchise make an appearance, with Play’n GO bringing a colorful and cartoonish feel to proceedings. The soundtrack is also upbeat and reminds us of playing on SNES and Megadrive games in the early 90s. There is plenty of charm in its simplicity, though, and you can easily waste chunks of time spinning the reels here.

The gameplay for Hugo Carts slot online is kept straightforward. The stake can be selected by clicking on the +/= bar at the bottom of the screen and scrolling through your options. The minimum stake available here is $0.10, while the maximum is $100, giving this a fairly healthy wagering range. The gameplay mechanics are kept basic, with the slot having five reels and three rows. Notably, however, there are 1,024 different ways to win.

The simple design of the Hugo Carts online slot lends itself perfectly to the smaller screen. Like most top online slots, the game has been adapted to work on mobile devices, and we had no latency issues when making the transition. The gameplay features are all the same, though we do recommend switching the phone to landscape mode in order to get the most out of your experience here.

Three of the main characters from the Hugo franchise are central in launching the bonus features in the game. Each character – Hugo, Hugolina, and Scylla, is on their own reel, and landing one of them or a combination of them will launch different bonus features and respins.

Hugo himself will launch a respin with extra Wilds added to the reels, Hugolina respins with extra Multipliers added, and Scylla adds between five and nine Mystery symbols that will help trigger winning combinations. As well as the respins, there is also a Free Spins Round. This is launched whenever you land three or more of the dynamite Scatter symbols.

Landing three, four, or five of them will launch 7, 9, or 11 free spins, respectively. At the start of the Free Spins Round, one of the bonus character symbols will also be added to the reels, and their bonus feature will be applied. You can also retrigger the Bonus Round and add a new character to the reels with each retrigger. If all of this isn’t enough, another character, Don Croco, can also appear at random and add extra Scatter symbols to the reels.

The maximum amount of money that can be won when playing Hugo Carts online slot is 25,000x your total stake. This is a nice payout and can be won during the Free Spins Round. The RTP of this highly volatile slot is set to 96.23%.

Falling back on slots based on popular culture can often lead to laziness, but Hugo Carts online slot is an efficient and well-designed game. The slot’s features all work really nicely, and the charming characters really help immerse you in a video-game-style environment. It’s not a game-changer by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a really solid outing from Play’n GO and a fine entry into the Hugo franchise. Meet Hugo at the new online casinos!