Toro 7s

Toro 7s: Slot Overview

Toro 7s from ELK Studios is the third and final stop on their Wild Toro World Tour, bringing to a close the studio's three-slot release celebrating 5 years of Wild Toro. Stop number one was sunny Spain for Wild Toro 2, before heading to Egypt for some Toro inspired 'book' action in Book of Toro, before landing in one of the world's major gambling hubs, Las Vegas for Toro 7s. Not only is Toro 7s part of the Wild Toro World Tour, but it also fits into the ELK Classic Series of slots, offering compact, retro-style gaming, packing plenty of modern surprises – with a Toro twist.

It's been some time since we've seen a new Classic Series slot from ELK, the last one being Knockout Diamonds, dropping about a year ago. Toro 7s brought back memories of a few of them, like Win Win and Ivanhoe, while its closest relation, at least aesthetically, has to be Route 777. Like that one, Toro 7s is a North American highway odyssey, on a road trip to Las Vegas, Nevada by convertible or motorbike. The game has plenty of open-top spirit, but it's arguably not as freewheeling as Route 777 was, not as strong on the desert atmosphere. The soundtrack, excellent as ever from ELK, has a big rock stadium feel, compared to the one in Route 777, which felt like a bar fight was about to break out at any moment.

The classic gaming is available to play on any device from 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin. Stats are classic ELK too, meaning a highly volatile math model churning out an RTP figure of 95%. As well as regular mode gambling, there is the X-iter menu offering 5 different ways of playing Toro 7s, each more potent and expensive the higher you move up the list.

While the features are extensive, at its core Toro 7s is indeed classic gaming occurring on a 3-reel, 3-row reelset with 17 connecting paylines. Symbols are old school, too, where the lower values include cherries, oranges, plums, and Bars worth 0.5 to 2.5x the bet, while high pays are green, blue, and red 7s worth 3.5 to 10x your stake. Two wilds appear in the game, a Matador on reel 2 and Toro on reel 3. Both replace any paying symbol to complete wins and trigger certain extra effects.

Toro 7s: Slot Features

ELK has wedged a surprising number of features into Toro 7s for a game that looks simple at first glance. As well as Nudging Wilds are free spins, a Lucky Sevens bonus game, and five X-iter game modes.

Nudging Wilds

When the Matador wild symbol lands, it triggers the Nudging Respins feature. The Matador awards respins in which he moves down a position on each respin until he falls out of view. Toro wilds come with x5 multipliers and also trigger respins when they land until they fall off the grid. If Toro and the Matador land at the same time, Toro locks in position until the Matador is nudged out of view, then he begins his nudging respins.

Free Spins

Landing 3 scatter symbols anywhere in view awards 10 free spins. During these regular free spins, the key change is all wins are multiplied by x5.

Lucky Sevens

If 3 scatter symbols land during free spins, they trigger the Lucky Sevens bonus game. Here you want to collect green 7s on reel 1, blue 7s on reel 2, and red 7s on reel 3. Doing so advances you through the Lucky Sevens paytable. Here, 3 spins are awarded, and any line win or landing the right seven symbol on its designated reel reset spins back to 3. Collecting 5 of each coloured 7 symbol awards the game's 10,000x maximum payout.

X-iter

Clicking the X-iter button, which is essentially a range of feature buy options, on the left side of the reels activates bonus mode, displaying five options along the bottom of the screen and their associated cost. Worth noting is that all X-iter game modes have the same return figure as the regular mode's value of 95%:

• Chili Spin – 5x the bet for 1 high volatility spin where the only pay symbols are cherries or sevens.
• Nudging Respins – 10x the bet for 1 spin with a guaranteed Matador or Toro.
• Nudging Chili Respins – 25x the bet for 1 Chili Spin plus a guaranteed Matador or Toro.
• Bonus – 100x the bet to guarantee access to free spins.
• Super Chili Bonus – 500x the bet to access a high volatility round of Chili free spins where the multiplier increases by one on every spin, respin nudge, or Lucky Sevens feature spin.

Toro 7s: Slot Verdict

Players might be in one of gambling's heartlands, but they're a long way from Toro and the Matador's home turf, which was a bit unsettling. There's less of a Spanish flavour making Toro 7s feel a bit unfamiliar at first. It doesn't help that the background imagery looks like a derelict patch of ground on the outskirts of a city, while the jumbotron above the game grid blasts a palm-lined ride into Las Vegas. It sort of comes together, sort of doesn't. Let's just say the slight confusion adds to the Toro mystique and just go with it.

Gaming wise, Toro 7s is solidly back on ELK Classic Series ground which in itself might be enough to separate the keen from the disinterested. As far as these sorts of games go, Toro 7s is a good one though being so close to Route 777 dilutes the effect. If Route 777 was like free riding through the desert on a beat-up old chopper staying at dive motels, rewriting the rules, Toro 7s is like Vegas after the conglomerates moved in. Glitzier, more comfortable, though lacking the untamed allure of the good old days.

Actually playing Toro 7s was a lot more exciting when the Bonus modes were activated. The low hit rate and comparatively lengthy wait between features made regular mode harder work by comparison. It's a shame Toro doesn't chase the Matador across the grid at any stage because the amusing interplay is gone. Also, the most fun came from Chili spins where only cherries or 7s are used. Since this is only possible from the X-iter menu, having to pay extra may rub some players up the wrong way. The RTP remains the same in all cases, but as always, the 500x Super Bonus costs a hefty chunk of change to trigger though it was by far the most thrilling way of tackling Toro 7s. However you manage it, the most you can win amounts to 10,000 times your stake.

And so concludes The Wild Toro World Tour, which proved to be hugely entertaining on the whole. ELK has managed to marry strong aspects of classical gaming throughout the trilogy with white-hot modern features. There's loads of good stuff for players to discover on the World Tour, though, in Toro 7s, it'll help if you're partial to old school gambling and don't mind upping the ante to access the best it has to offer.