Knight Rider: Slot Overview

'Knight Rider, a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist. Michael Knight, a young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the powerless, the helpless in a world of criminals who operate above the law.' If this quote means nothing to you, get ready to uncover a bona fide 80s classic. If, on the other hand, it brings back fond memories of a young David Hasselhoff and his high-tech car KITT, then developer NetEnt has crafted just the online slot to stoke a bit of nostalgia.

The game is called Knight Rider, a branded slot based on the original TV series of the same name. This is the one with the talking car, who helped driver David Hasselhoff fight baddies before he went on to star in the lifeguard show Baywatch. For now, let's stick with Knight Rider, which originally aired between 1982 and 1986, becoming an instant hit. If you haven't seen the show, there is a good chance you may have heard its soundtrack, which has been remixed or worked into a number of modern EDM tracks since then.

The classic theme music plays in short bursts when the reels spin in the base game but is let loose to play freely during the bonus game. As well as the sweet sounds, including Michael Knight and KITT voiceovers, the graphics recreate the spirit of Knight Rider as well, especially the intro clip, which is pulled directly from the show to get you in the mood. From there, a 5-reel, 26 payline game panel appears to host the action, set in the middle of a moody desert, with KITT sitting just to the side.

Knight Rider is a highly volatile slot, which creates wins when three to five matching symbols land across one of the 26 fixed paylines, starting from the left-hand side. Paired with a couple of wild heavy features, the game produces a default return to player value of 96.07%. Knight Rider was released way before mobile phones were a twinkle in a tech's eye though no matter, the slot version is playable on anything, offering stakes of 20 p/c to $/€40 per spin.

Moving on to the symbol payout values, the lower section of the group is made up of 10 to A icons worth 0.5 to 1.5x the bet for five, or 2-4x the bet for five watches, steering wheels, trucks, KITT red lights, or Michael Knights. Wilds, in their most basic form, replace any pay symbols to complete wins but also come with multipliers attached, as we will see.

Knight Rider: Slot Features

The features in Knight Rider bear a very close resemblance to an earlier automobile-centric game from NetEnt called Drive: Multiplier Mayhem. Here players get walking multiplier wilds, a turbo boost, and free spins with a laser wild feature.

Walking Multiplier Wilds

When wilds hit, they have a multiplier that's the same value as the reel they land on. For example, a wild on the fourth reel has a multiplier value of x4. When wilds are used in a win, they move one position to the left for the next spin, increasing their multiplier accordingly.

Turbo Boost Feature

This side feature may randomly trigger in the main game, which adds 3-4 walking multiplier wilds to the reels when it is activated.

Free Spins and the Laser Wilds Feature

Landing 3 scatter symbols on reels 2, 3, and 4 in the main game activates 10 free spins. When special knight symbols land in free spins, they are collected. For every 3 collected, players move up a level. Each new level awards +2 additional spins along with +1 extra laser wild. At the start of each free spin, the current number of laser wilds are randomly added to the reels. Laser wilds are just walking multiplier wilds with a different name. Level 4 is as high as it is possible to go where 3 laser wilds are added on each spin. Lastly, if you don't care waiting for the bonus to drop organically, payers can buy free spins for the cost of 140 times the reference bet.

Knight Rider: Slot Verdict

For a blast of nostalgia, grab some popcorn, sit back, and enjoy the uber-cool antics of Michael Knight and his strangely personable car KITT as they tear up highways bringing baddies to justice. Much of the atmosphere is provided by the excellent soundtrack, which is a little frustrating when you only get short snippets of it during the base game but trigger free spins, and it's a different story. If you were a fan of the TV show, then playing Knight Rider the slot may well prompt a root around in the old VHS box looking for episodes you've taped off the telly. Or a YouTube search if that previous sentence didn't make any sense.

From a purely gaming perspective, Knight Rider follows very closely in the footsteps of Drive: Multiplier Mayhem. Your thoughts on NetEnt's classic older car game make a pretty accurate litmus test as to how you'll react to Knight Rider. What is different now is the multiplier wilds have the ability to walk across the reels when they win rather than just hit, and spin away. To help balance things up a bit mathematically, the symbol values are noticeably lower than they were in Drive.

Thrills-wise, the walking wild function can work really well with the laser wild feature. It's possible to have a few walking wild multipliers on the board already, then have extra wilds added at the start of a free spin. Since wilds multiply each other when more than one is involved in a win, the results can be pretty neat. If KITT kicks in the turbo boost wins as high as 7,000x the stake are possible.

Like a lot of branded slots, you don't have to be into the subject matter, but it doesn't hurt if you are. The reused older game engine suits the subject matter like a charm, and the new parts make sense, so there is plenty for fans to get stuck into. Or not, if The Hoff just doesn't do it for you, though he is famously popular in Germany. To borrow a Michael Knight quote, Knight Rider the slot is 'like buttermilk, KITT; either you like it, or you don't.'