ELK Studios Software Review

A Bit of History

ELK Studios was established in 2013 with a firm vision in mind. Its studio heads and employees wanted to step away from mass-produced games in favour of titles that would push the medium forward. As such, their pokies were different right from the get-go. While some titles had familiar themes and features, there was always something a little different about them that made us curious about this developer.

It didn’t take long for ELK Studios to snatch its first success, scoring Game of the Year for its Wild Toro pokie in 2017. This only encouraged the company to stay its course, leading to more innovative titles. By the end of 2020, ELK was among Sweden’s top 40 fastest-growing companies, something that would only speed up with the inclusion of the X-iter feature.

The addition of X-iter modes was so successful it got the team the Game Innovation of the Year award at the 2021 5 Star Starlet Awards. Because of that, the developer decided to include this feature in all of its pokies in the future. ELK Studios also celebrated in 2024, as its Pirots 2 pokie won Game of the Year at the Casinobeats Game Developer awards.

Frequent Themes and Bonus Features

ELK Studios has done a great job so far, offering unique pokie machines to NZ players with excellent graphics and compelling themes.

One of the things to watch out for is the volatility of their pokies. They don’t target beginners, so their collection has no low-volatility games. Some have medium volatility, including popular pokies like Taco Brothers, Electric Sam, or Nitropolis 2. Overall, they prefer launching medium-high or high-volatility content, so we recommend them to experienced players.

The game area is the same in most of their more popular pokie machines. The game area usually offers 4,096 ways to win initially, but the reels often expand and allow for as many as 262,144 ways. There are exceptions, like the Book of Toro, which has 10 active lines.

Besides fantastic graphics, ELK Studios has also delivered a lot of exciting stories through its pokies. Some are based on ancient civilizations or inspired by the jungle and wildlife. Still, many titles bring new topics to the table. Check out the Nitropolis series (post-apocalyptic with gangs of dogs ruling the streets), the fun Toro slots (with a bull and a matador as its heroes), Propaganda, Platooners, or history-themed titles (Poltava, Ivanhoe).

We’ve always appreciated developers who pay close attention to detail, and ELK Studios is one of them. You can see it in how they approach games, the fun features they include, the high quality of the designs, and the mechanics involved.

ELK Studios has received multiple awards for systems like X-iter and some of the pokie machines they’ve released.

• ELK Compete: This system allows an operator to set up a multiplayer tournament. It can also be used to set up challenges for individuals and is integrated into their pokies as overlays. There are also themes available for certain holidays, so players can take part in tournaments centered around Christmas, Oktoberfest, Halloween, or Easter.

Our Thoughts on ELK Studios

ELK Studios is a developer we can firmly put in the above-average category. Compared with other pokie machine creators available right now, their games will look better than most in almost every respect.

While they might’ve put less effort into some of their themes (we’re not big fans of the Cygnus series), we can still appreciate the design behind and on the reels. Excellent graphics can do a lot to make an online pokie fun, especially when everything else works just as well.

ELK Studios pokies offer a range of features, including free spins, multipliers, expanding reels, the Avalanche mechanic, and more. Overall, they’re very well made, have unique math models, and offer plenty of ways to boost prizes and expand the reels.

ELK Studios has built a reputation as a high-quality supplier, and we believe the company deserves it.