hold the joker
Free Spins Wilds RTP: 94.05%
Game Description:
Step right up and get ready for the show of a lifetime in “Hold The Joker” – where the thrills are wilder than ever before! Feel the excitement as you enter the big top, spinning the reels of chance with every pull, and experiencing the dazzling spectacle of the circus! Watch as the Wilds leave the Sticky Frames, locking in your wins as you navigate through the twists and turns of the ring. Keep an eye out for the Joker, who could flip the script on your fortune in the blink of an eye! Venture deeper into the circus tent and unlock the thrilling Free Spins bonus, featuring the “Bonus Boost” upgrade, where Free Spins get a boost by selecting one of the Jokers special cards! Hold The Joker also offers the Top Hat Jackpot Bonus, with a chance to win up to x5000 your bet! Take a seat for our greatest Free Spins game yet, with an upgrade trail, modifiers, and persistent Sticky Frames, you’ll be spinning for circus gold in no time! Hold The Joker promises non-stop excitement and incredible rewards as you step into the circus ring, face the challenges, and discover the hidden treasures that await. It’s time to take center stage and see if you have the skill and daring to land the grandest prize of them all!
Game Rules:
Produced and released by Northern Lights Gaming in April 2025, the Hold the Joker slot is an impressive, multi-layered release that draws thematic inspiration from some old-school fruit machines. Although the imagery and symbols that could appear across the screen are often seen in more retro online slot games, the gameplay blueprint is the complete opposite. Coming with a handful of fixed jackpots, progressive multipliers, and sticky symbols, the bonuses featured in the Hold the Joker slot are so varied.


Hold the Joker Game Background 


Before getting into any of the dynamic nuances in the Hold the Joker slot, we must break down the design of gameplay. Sitting inside a curved golden frame in the centre of the screen is the main playtable, with this having a standard 5x4 layout that has 20 total paylines spanning across it. To the left of play, the Mini, Minor, Major, and Grand prize multiplier boxes can be seen, something which makes Hold the Joker one of Northern Lights’ jackpot slot games. Underneath these multipliers is a jester holding a glowing top hat, and directly above the reels, a fillable metre can be seen, but more on that later.

A large stage serves as the backdrop in the Hold the Joker slot, similar to titles like Destiny Joker Megaways and The Great Albini 2. Two giant golden pillars can be seen on the borders of the screen here, in between which some large red curtains inject even more colour to this game. All game buttons on the right side of the reels are presented as white icons, contrasting with the bold red colour palette used across the majority of this release.

Hold the Joker Slot Symbols 


In regard to the symbols, most of these in the Hold the Joker slot have been taken from fruit machines and other retro titles. The lower-valued ones depict different fruits, with the higher-valued icons instead being some other imagery typically found in old-school slots. These are all extremely vibrant in their design, matching the bold artwork seen across the rest of this game.

Lower Value Symbols:

  • Cherry
  • Lemon
  • Watermelon
  • Rasberry
  • Grapes

Medium Value Symbols:

  • Purple Dice
  • Golden Bell
Higher Value Symbols:

  • Red Sevens (777)
  • Diamond
Considering the nuanced gameplay blueprint, there is a wide variety of bonus symbols also included in the Hold the Joker slot. These include the Jack in the Box wilds, the Joker trigger symbols, the jester hat scatters, and the glowing orbs, which may land attached to base game icons.

Hold the Joker Bonus Features


Being wild, the Jack in the Box symbols in the Hold the Joker slot could potentially substitute in place of all base game fruit machine symbols that make up the paytable. If one of these lands, however, this will leave behind a sticky frame that has a multiplier of 1x. If any additional wilds proceed to land within that frame, it could upgrade the multiplier value by +1. Should a Joker symbol appear anywhere across the playgrid, this could cause any sticky frames to convert back into wilds.

During base gameplay, if 2 jester hat scatters land in the same spin, these are collected by the fillable metre located directly above the main playtable. Should there be 3, 4, or 5 of these scatters that land at once, though, this may trigger 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. At the start of this round, a progress meter is added to the top of the screen, similar to the one seen in Fishin’ Frenzy. If any Jokers are landed on the reels, they are collected by the same metre. For every 3 Jokers added to it, this may trigger an extra +5 free spins, as well as a multiplier of 2x, 3x, 5x, or 10x.

Depending on how full the fillable metre is when the free spins trigger, some additional modifiers could potentially be added to this Hold the Joker bonus round. Some of these are as follows:

Boost Modifier: Could unlock the first level of the progress meter at the start of the free spins, starting the round with a 2x multiplier.
2+ Spins Modifier: Could add an extra +2 free spins to the player’s count.
Frames Modifier: Could add a random number of sticky frames to the reels.
Wilds Modifier: Could add more Jack in the Box wilds to the reels.
Joker Modifier: Could add more Jokers to the reels.

As we briefly touched upon earlier, glowing orbs could land attached to base game symbols in this Hold the Joker slot. If this happens, these are collected by the glowing top hat the Joker holds to the left of the playgrid. At random, this may trigger a pick’em round in which players could select from different top hats to reveal jackpot names. The name of the jackpot revealed 3 times first could potentially be triggered, similar to the round seen in Cash N Riches Megaways.


Hold the Joker Mobile Play


No different from most of the Northern Lights Gaming creations on our BoyleSports online casino, the Hold the Joker slot is optimised fully for cross-device accessibility. As long as the player’s tablet, laptop, smartphone, or desktop is connected to the internet, the quality of this release stays the same across all these device types.

Play Hold the Joker at BoyleSports


Taking the variety of bonuses and gameplay mechanics into consideration, as well as the modernised fruit machine imagery, the Hold the Joker slot is an extremely dynamic and unique addition to the classic genre.

Northern Lights Gaming has also produced games such as Divine Diamonds and Bison Moon Megaways, if the innovative nature of this Hold the Joker slot impresses you. 

Responsible Gambling


Please remember to always gamble responsibly, this is a real money gambling site.