Our slots vs the big studios: a side-by-side comparison

Most Nocturn Play slots have an obvious rival from a bigger studio. Rather than pretend otherwise, we put them next to each other. Specs for the other games are the ones their studios publish.

Updated 13 October 2026

The full table

A dash means we don't quote that spec for the rival here. Several of our games have no famous rival to stand next to: Gridiron Noir drives an American football down the field on 4,096 ways, Noir Prism bounces a moonbeam through mirrors onto a table of 36 gems, and Neon Ronin sticks its expanding fox wilds in place for the free spins.

Viking Raid vs Wolf Gold

Wolf Gold made the coin respin famous, and its Money Respin is still a great feature. Viking Raid keeps the idea (coins lock, the rest respins) but pays it differently: instead of adding up coin values one by one, The Raid pays each completed row its rune prize, makes later coins worth double or triple once rows are complete, and adds the Grand Loot when all twenty cells fill. Around it, the game itself is a different animal: 625 ways on a 4×5 grid instead of 25 lines, a longship that turns its whole row wild, and a second bonus, The Storm, where the free spins multiplier climbs to ×12. Both bonuses can be bought.

Where Wolf Gold wins: medium volatility and a decade of player habit. Viking Raid is a high-volatility game; players who like long, calm sessions may prefer Wolf Gold.

Black Jaguar Temple vs Reactoonz

Both are cluster games: five or more matching symbols touching side by side make a win, the cluster bursts and new symbols fall in. Reactoonz plays it on a fixed 7×7 grid and charges a meter that fires random features (the Gargantoon, the Implosion and others), with no free spins round. Black Jaguar Temple starts small, on a 3×3 grid, and the temple itself grows: every winning drop adds a row or a column, with golden cells that multiply the clusters landing on them. Fill all 7×7 and the black jaguar wakes up, multiplying the whole round and every winning drop after it.

Where Reactoonz wins: the chaotic random features are great fun, and it has a very large fan base. Where ours wins: a board you watch expanding round after round, a real free spins round that the jade masks open (and that you can buy), and a 10,000× ceiling.

Obsidian Pharaoh vs Book of Dead

This is the closest pairing on the page, and we built it that way on purpose. Book of Dead set the template: a 5×3 grid, 10 lines, 10 free spins with one symbol that expands over the reels, and a 5,000× top prize. Obsidian Pharaoh follows the same core rule, with a few changes. An obsidian pyramid is the wild, and three or more sacred books start the bonus. You choose from 1 to 20 lines instead of playing a fixed 10. And more books in the bonus add 10 spins at a time, up to 60.

Where Book of Dead wins: it is the original, players know it by heart, and ten fixed lines leave nothing to set up. Where ours wins: line choice for players who want to control their stake, twice the maximum line count, and a clearly stated retrigger ceiling. Same 5,000× max on both, so no one gets to boast there.

Golden Abysses vs Big Bass Bonanza

Big Bass Bonanza turned "fish with money on them" into a whole genre. In Pragmatic Play's game, a fisherman wild on a 5×3, 10-line grid collects fish money symbols during free spins, with a top prize of 2,100×. Golden Abysses keeps the collector idea and moves it: our diver collects golden fish in the base game too, on 5 reels × 4 rows with 1,024 ways. The bonus is a Hold & Win rather than free spins, with four jackpots paid by completed rows and a 5,000× ceiling. You can also buy it for 71× the bet.

Where Big Bass Bonanza wins: a design anyone understands in one spin, and an enormous following. Where ours wins: collecting outside the bonus, jackpots, and a ceiling more than twice as high.

Why compare at all?

Because operators ask, and players should know what they're clicking on. A studio that only shows its games next to nothing has something to hide. Casinos, platforms and aggregators can add all four of our compared titles by integrating the studio directly, as set out on the partners page.