Jungle Jim El Dorado is a 25-payline pokie by Microgaming where you will get the entertainment by Jungle Jim’s swaggering gestures as he stands by to watch the outcomes of the Rolling Reels mechanism. Reel icons drop and disappear if identical symbols complete a payline win. Subsequently, symbols from above including those at the top of the emptied reel positions, drop into gaps created by disappearing symbols. The cascade of icons may form a fresh set of winning combinations, technically earning you bet-free wins.
Symbols
You will be reaping more than the regular payline wins as the machine comes with progressing win multipliers. The multipliers increase gradually with every continuing payline wins. To heighten the possibilities of landing on matched-symbol groupings, the Jungle Jim logo serves as Wild Symbol.
Identical regular-paying symbols fall in the same payline in which you can complete a Logo Wild as winning combinations. After all, a wild card may substitute for any symbol, except for the Bonus Scatter icon. You cannot form its winning combinations, as the Paytable has no provisions for Wild Symbol payouts.
Free Spin Bonus
Initial payline wins created by the Rolling Reels mechanism earn 1x the Bet staked per Payline. If the Rolling Reels go on a roll, the multiplier increases. More so, if you succeed in elevating the game to the Free-Spins Bonus Round as the applicable win-multipliers are much greater.
Take note of a distinct pair of tribal discs that emerge in scattered positions across the reels. This unique Scatter element poses as the key to the Free-Spins Bonus Round. Three of such symbols emerging simultaneously as Rolling Reels outcomes, award Scatter Pays equivalent to 5x the Total Bet. Moreover, the occurrence will enable you to enter the Free-Spins Bonus Round and play with 10 bet-free turns.
Theme
Jungle Jim takes place in two very distinct settings like the Kong the eighth wonder pokies. The base game is in the lush south American jungles, we love that they have used transparent reels for the game as the backdrops are excellent and we don’t want a huge reel set obscuring them. The second is a gold-laden treasure room, which we assume in Eldorado itself is stunning. The whole game is the byproduct of it, including Jungle Jim himself. The level of animation work here is right up there with many modern films though, maybe Jim could have had one or two extra moves programmed as he can get a little repetitive.
The reel icons will come as no surprise, there is a host of coin chests, rare native treasures, and rare gems on offer. On the latter, a small touch we like is that the emeralds, rubies, and the like are large rough uncut stones such as you would find in the jungle, not the polished shop stones you would see on more generic slots. It’s small touches like this that set apart slot games that use their theme to full effect from those which, quite frankly, miss the boat.
Features
There is a limit to pay-lines; so there’s no real user interaction in-game style outside of choosing your betting and bankroll strategy. There’s more than enough room in the bet range to satisfy all kinds of players too. Microgaming hasn’t yet released RTP; and variance statements for the game, so we can only gauge how it pays from our brief play on it; initial impressions were a decent RTP and a medium-high level of variance; no surprises here then for a competitor of Gonzo.
IGT calls it cascading reels, NetEnt terms it avalanches and for Microgaming, it’s rolling reels. Whatever you pick this popular mechanic is the process where existing wins fall or explode from the screen that replaces with a fresh symbol drop from above. Younger fans will mostly know this style from the Bejewelled Blitz game on FaceBook; for those of us a little more seasoned, this is how Tetris worked. As with most slots titles that use it, there is an increasing multiplier on Jungle Jim from 1x to 5x.
The game isn’t out for full release; yet so we don’t know the exact symbol values or how a wild will function; with everything else going on in the game; and the high volatility; we’d have to assume it has the limit. And cannot grant any reward of its own in terms of a jackpot, just like the individual scatters. Of course, with the scatters, if you can collect all three, you will trigger the free spins round. Whilst this does take place on a separate reel set, it uses all the same feature mechanics of the bonus round, only the re-trigger is extra in terms of win to spin potential. If this sounds critical, it isn’t, a re-triggering spins round on a game with so much action and pay-out potential is worthwhile!
Synopsis
If you liked Gonzo, you will love Jungle Jim, it really is that simple. The game is lovely to look at, fun to play and contains all the serious win potential that a high variance game should. Clearly, the high volatility does require a bit more bankroll control than a gentler slot game but, that’s the point of high risk / high reward games. Also, it rather sits with the theme, many explorers went in search of Eldorado to come home empty handed, others plundered riches in the jungles of South America, which will it be for you?
