If you’re familiar with Aurora Borealis, also known as the northern lights, it should come as no surprise that this company originates from Sweden. The country happens to be home to some of the most famous, biggest, and advanced casino companies to exist, especially when it comes to online gaming.
Therefore, it’s equally not surprising that the team behind the company is experienced, and the games are of high quality. Northern Lights Gaming isn’t quite in the situation to challenge those companies, but that is simply due to their relatively small size. The quality and popularity of the games has led to many of the industry-leading platforms to sign up for these slots, which explains why they are available in hundreds and hundreds of online casinos.
Let’s take a deeper look into the company’s history, the sort of games it develops, and where you can play them.
Some Background Information
The company is relatively new, having been established in 2017. That’s not to say there wouldn’t be plenty of experience in the team, as several members have decades of experience in the field. To read more about the team, check out our exclusive interview.
The history of Northern Lights Gaming isn’t an eventful one, at least by most standards. Given their size and form of operating this isn’t surprising at all. Due to this, the only news you hear about the company is a succession of partnerships. The first one to sign up the games to their platform was SG Digital in 2018. This was followed by Yggdrasil adding the games to their Master’s program. In 2019 Relax Gaming did the same, and in 2020 Microgaming signed up the company too.
This handful of partners has allowed the company to spread its games to hundreds of online casinos across the world.
Online Slots
The company seems to deliver a handful of slots each year, with a total catalogue of two dozen titles. Naturally, the count grows steadily, even if slowly. These slots mostly use a rather predictable set of themes, although here and there something unique and distinctive does stand out. Whatever the setting is, you can expect spectacular graphics and effects.
Popular Northern Lights Gaming Slots:
- Bison Moon
- Storm to Riches
- Monkey Bonanza
- 5 Star Knockout
- 4 Corners of Rome
- Timelines
- Aztec Falls
- Divine Diamonds
- Guardians of the Pyramid
- Electric Wilds
- Aurora
- Blast Off
- Prized Pets Gigablox
The games fare relatively well, and tend to trend towards the top rather than being forgotten soon after launch. And there are a couple of pretty good reasons for that. And whilst excellent graphics and popular themes do play a role in the overall entertainment these games provide, the real attraction comes from the gameplay itself. More and more operators are spotlighting these games as new releases, which is certainly helping the company along.
Something that is immediately obvious is the high win potential. And this seems to be regardless of variance. Whether the game itself is low, medium, or high volatility, the top win will always be in the thousands. And in quite a few games we go way beyond that. Especially the later releases tend to come with top wins some ten thousands times your bet, or even more.
But what is the way to riches? It’s obviously bonus features. And there are quite a few different ones in use here.
Special Features
Northern Lights Gaming isn’t afraid to borrow features that work from other game producers, or their partners. An example of this is the Link & Win, which they have developed further with their own titles. This is a very simple feature, which rewards the player when a certain symbol shows up more than you’d expect. Similar coin-based bonus games that yield either straight-up wins, or give access to fixed jackpots, are quite popular in these slots.
These sorts of respins are often accompanied by bonus spins. The extra spins can enjoy from a variety of modifiers, usually in the form of symbols that activate different features, or simply pay up more wins than is normal. The winning potential between normal rounds and bonus rounds can be quite staggering, which makes the specials always a welcome sight.
Ultraways
Most of the games are set in a grid of five reels of three symbols each. Very few games break away from this. The same applies to the ways the games calculate wins, which in most cases is done via paylines. Some games do use ways to win, and the company does have a few that use Ultraways. The latter can result in 60 million possible combinations on the screen, which makes this system the first serious competitor to the extremely popular Megaways system.
Not much information is available on the system itself, and as far as we can tell it’s only in use in Northern Lights Gaming slots at the moment. This system can be active either during the base game, or come into play whenever bonus spins come into play. The way it works is relatively simple: individual symbols can be split up to four parts, which quickly increases the possible number of combinations.
The Legal Side of Things
The company itself is licensed in the UK and Alderney. They’ve held these licences ever since the company started operating. Now, when it comes to worldwide distribution, which includes Canada and its territories, we trust in the fact that the company is partnered with the biggest platforms out there. This includes Games Global, who bought Microgaming’s Quickfire platform, and who also happens to hold a licence in Ontario.
The company is currently in a very good position to take the next step, and become a mid-sized game developer. Their games already offer all the quality you could hope for, with some unique ideas that look quite promising. Check out these slots in our suggested online casinos!