With October now well underway, sit back and relax as we guide you through a selection of the industry’s latest slot releases. This week’s round up includes a boxing bout from AvatarUX, Yggdrasil’s animal diner, and an East Asian samurai showdown from Bulletproof Games.
Donkey & the GOATS – AvatarUX
Step into the ring as AvatarUX hosts a night of fights in its latest 6×4 reel slot that offers 117,649-ways to win and a maximum win of x20,000 the player’s bet. While using an additional top horizontal reel, the game has an RTP of 96 per cent.
Nicola Longmuir, CEO at AvatarUX, commented: “With Donkey & the GOATS we introduce something different to players with the unique feature set offering unparalleled wins and thrill.
“With the success of our PopWins mechanic, we are now excited to rollout a new type of game, jam-packed with features and win potential, that showcases the innovation and diversity that AvatarUX can offer.”
Throughout the game, the studio’s ZapReel mechanic causes a top horizontal reel to sit above the base game grid. This ZapReel adds an extra symbol to each reel and can present special uppercut symbols that cause full reels of wilds to appear beneath them when activated by a payline win.
Cascading wins also occur throughout the game, with winning symbols disappearing after providing their payout to make way for new symbols that drop in and increase the win potential.
When cascading wins occur with winning symbols appearing on the top ZapReel, these symbols will disappear and the other ZapReel symbols will cascade from right to left.
Additionally, the game has a Vegas Reel feature which presents a new multiplier on every spin. If three cascading wins occur on a single spin, these multipliers will become active and apply themselves to all wins that have occurred on that spin.
When donkey symbols drop into play, they will award one of three features; synced reels, wild bombs or low-value symbol removals.
Each of these features will also come with a number between one and three, representing the number of subsequent spins that these features will occur on.
When active, synced reels will cause two or more reels to reveal the same set up of identical symbols, wild bombs will place a random spread of wilds across the board and low-value removals will take all low-value symbols out of play.
During the free spins feature, the Vegas Reel cascading wins counter will not reset in between spins. This creates a higher chance of gaining multiplied wins.
Fatz’s Diner GigaBlox – Yggdrasil
Yggdrasil has released another GigaBlox title to place giant symbols on the reels in its latest title, a 5×5 reel slot with 40-paylines and a maximum win of x9,052 the player’s bet. This slot has high volatility with an RTP of 96 per cent.
Mark McGinley, Chief Gaming Officer at Yggdrasil, stated: “If you’re hungry for the prosperous age of 1950s America then I urge you to head down to Fatz’s Diner where you’ll find a thrill a minute.
“We have built a strong name for ourselves on the back of our legendary GEMs, and GigaBlox is a firm favourite amongst fans. We’re expecting plenty of diners to flock to Fatz’s to enjoy the supersized symbols, expanding reels and Free Spins that are on the menu.”
As a GigaBlox slot, each spin will see between two and five reels merge together to allow giant symbols to drop into play, with sizes of 2×2, 3×3, 4×4 and 5×5 available. Every symbol other than the purple arrows can appear as a GigaBlox symbol.
When purple arrows appear, they will trigger the respin and expand feature. This provides players with one free respin while the GigaBlox reels increase in size, extending towards the direction of the arrow symbol.
Multiple arrows can appear on the same spin, causing the reels to expand further. Additionally, purple arrows can drop into play on the free respin, causing the feature to retrigger.
In the free spins game mode, each purple arrow that appears will be collected into a meter beside the reel set. Once three purple arrows are collected, GigaBlox symbols can no longer appear in sizes of 2×2, as they reach a minimum size of 3×3.
Collecting six and then nine arrows in the same free spins feature will allow for minimum GigaBlox sizes of 4×4 and 5×5 respectively.
Meanwhile, the highest-paying symbol – the hippo – will gain a multiplier of x3 to be applied to all wins that they contribute to. For every three hippo wins that occur in the same feature, the hippo multiplier will increase by x3.
Lotus Warrior – Bulletproof Games
Three different free spins game modes are on offer in Bulletproof Games’ latest collaborative slot title with Yggdrasil. This samurai sword-swinging slot uses a 5×4 reel grid that has 25-paylines and a maximum win of x2,542, while being medium-highly volatile with an RTP of 96 per cent.
Michael Bullock, Product Director at Bulletproof Games, commented: “Lotus Warrior is a game designed specifically for those thrill seekers that enjoy the rush of immersive bonus features. We hope players enjoy this slot as much as we enjoyed making it.”
Each time a wild symbol drops into play, it can expand to cover entire reels to increase the win potential.
When three scatter symbols drop into play, the Sakura Spins game mode will be activated. This provides players with five spins and each spin guarantees a greater payout than the last, as the previously won stake will act as a base prize value for the next spin.
Players can also spin the reels to reveal ‘extra’ text on the grid, which will award an additional five spins.
If four scatters drop into play at the same time, the Shinobi Spins feature is triggered. This performs a hold and win-style game mode for every medium and high value symbol individually, as well as the bonus scatter.
For each symbol, an empty reel set will spin and each symbol that appears will lock into place. A new spin will be awarded each time a symbol locks into place, with each individual feature ending once no symbols drop in on a spin.
Once an individual symbol feature ends, any potential payline wins formed by the sticky symbols will be paid out. Collecting a certain number of symbols on the same lock and spin feature will result in multipliers being provided for the payline wins.
This feature occurs for every medium and high value symbol before performing it for the scatter. This final feature will give players the chance to activate another free spins feature.
Next up, landing five scatters on the same spin will take players to the Samurai Spins feature, which uses a progressive multiplier that increases with every win.
Each wild that appears during these spins will be collected into a pot for an enhanced final spin which places all collected wilds back onto the screen.
Mark McGinley, Chief Gaming Officer at Yggdrasil, stated: “If you’re a fan of deep and immersive games with rich bonus features then Lotus Warrior is a game that will tick all of your boxes.
“Once again it’s been a great pleasure working alongside the talented team at Bulletproof Games and this new title showcases the true benefits of working collaboratively on new releases.”
Catch the Win – Evoplay
Shiver me timbers! Evoplay has set sail with its latest pirate-themed slot release, which showcases a 5×3 reel slot with 20-paylines and a maximum win of x3,799. This swashbuckling slot release has an RTP of 96.1 per cent with medium-high volatility.
Ivan Kravchuk, CEO at Evoplay, explained: “Immersing players among treacherous seas, our latest release Catch the Wind helps to uncover hidden treasures and enter unmapped territories through the inclusion of captain ship wilds.
“With a thrilling free spins game where multipliers increase incrementally as they travel across the board, we’re confident that our latest release will go down a storm with players.
“The game comes also in the bonus buy version which allows users to purchase free spins directly, offering solutions to our partners that cater to diverse gamer preferences.”
Low value symbols come in the form of gems with blue triangles, cyan diamonds, green squares, purple pentagons and red hexagons. If the right number of paying combinations land on a single spin, these symbols can offer between x0.2 and x2 the player’s bet.
Meanwhile, compasses, telescopes, anchors and steering wheels depict the medium value symbols, offering between x1 and x30 the player’s stake.
High value symbols are represented by a pirate captain, which can provide wins between x2 and x70 the player’s preferred bet.
Pirate ship symbols can also appear, acting as wilds and as scatters. As wilds, these ships will substitute for all symbols in the game while offering a payout of x70 if five wilds land in a winning combination.
Each pirate ship wild will also present a multiplier of either x1, x2 or x3 to be applied to any wins that they contribute to.
As scatters, landing three, four or five pirate ship symbols on the same spin will provide eight, 10 or 12 free spins respectively.
With the free spins game mode, each pirate ship that appears will start with a multiplier of x1 as they stay on the board for multiple spins, moving one space to the left with each free spin that occurs. Each space the ships move, their multipliers will increase by a value of one.
More Turkey Megaways – Big Time Gaming
Although thanksgiving may be well over a month away, BTG has gained a step ahead of the crowd with this turkey-themed title. The slot has six reels with between two and seven rows, offering 117,649-ways to win. This game is highly volatile with an RTP of 96.3 per cent.
Nik Robinson, BTG CEO, stated: “BTG isn’t known for producing turkeys, but we’ll make an exception here. We’ve recently launched our games in the North American markets, so it felt fitting to make a game that celebrates Thanksgiving.
“We want to thank our North American audience for really connecting with our games. We think you’re going to love this one no matter where you are.”
As a Megaways title, an additional top horizontal reel sits above the grid, awarding an additional symbol for rows two, three, four and five.
Cascading wins also occur, causing winning symbols to disappear after providing their payouts. This increases the win potential by making way for new symbols to drop into their place.
Golden-cooked turkey scatters are also available, triggering eight three spins if three land on the same spin. Each scatter above three that lands to trigger the feature will award an additional four free spins.
When activating the free spins game mode, players can gamble the number of spins they received in order to gain more.
Players perform this gamble by spinning a wheel and hoping that it lands in a green section, which will award additional spins. Losing the gamble will send players to the base game empty-handed.
Furthermore, the free spins feature starts with a win multiplier of x1 that increases by a value of one with every winning combination that is formed.
