When I first loaded up Silverback Gaming’s slot Tiki Bonanza, I couldn’t help but think of the Aloha! Cluster Pays slot by NetEnt, even though the art style used in each game is quite dissimilar. What the two games do have in common is a reel set stuffed to the brim with totems in both single and stacked configurations, but I guess if I was entirely honest, there are plenty of other games that also use totems for their primary symbols. This is a 243-way machine that sports a 95.63% RTP and a maximum win cap of 5,000x bet.
It’s a little strange, as I expected this to be a much more generous game when I first began to play. The game offers a locking reels feature plus an expanding playfield mode which should enhance the potential of the bonus round, but I seriously struggled to hit anything even remotely decent each time that I caught myself a handful of those heavily desired scatter symbols. On the plus side, the locking reels feature was somewhat kinder towards me, whilst the option to buy a bonus round has a very low and, therefore, tempting price attached.
I’m already confident that this isn’t going to be an ideal game for everyone; those who love to play higher variance machines are unlikely to find anything here to keep them interested. If you like to spin bigger bets on slots with lower volatility, however, then our free demo slot of Tiki Bonanza may be for you:
| Provider | Relax Gaming |
| Reels | 5 |
| Rows | 3 |
| Paylines | 243 |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.10 - 100 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 5,000x |
| Bonus Buy | Yes |
| RTP | 95.63% |
| Our Rating | 6.0 |
Tiki Bonanza Slot Casino Bonuses
Tiki Bonanza Slot Free Play
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Tiki Bonanza Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
I already mentioned the similarities between this game and NetEnt’s Aloha! Cluster Pays; that game wasn’t anything extraordinary, but it did end up as a favourite with the promotions departments of many online casinos as the game of choice on which to award free spins for whatever reason. Because of that somewhat privileged status, most frequent online slot players are likely to be familiar with Aloha! – this game had a more serious and detailed graphical style, similar to another game named Totem Link which we looked at a little while back here at Demoslot from the provider Blue Guru Games.
I’m afraid there’s no monetary reward attached to either the scatters or the wilds in Tiki Bonanza. This is a common bugbear of mine these days, to the extent that I am starting to question if I should point it out. For the time being, however, I’m sticking to my guns – bring back the big payouts for these exceptionally rare and infrequent combinations please developers! With that short rant out of the way, the things that do pay here include the stacked red totem, which is worth 10x the bet for a completed payway of five-of-a-kind, as well as the stacked purple and yellow totems, both of which return 8x for a full payway. The remainder of the table consists of just five lower-paying royal symbols; full ways of the Ace and King have a semi-reasonable return of 2.5x and 2x, respectively, whilst the others drop as low as 0.3x for five-of-a-kind.
I mentioned that I thought this game would suit those who enjoy betting a little more than average, so I’m pleased to report there is a wide range of available bets starting and finishing at €0.10 and €100.00 per spin, respectively.
Base Game & Modifiers
The base game setup of Tiki Bonanza utilises a standard 5×3 playfield, along with the familiar and popular 243 ways to win payout mechanic. This means that every possible path from left to right is connected for wins, so you only need to see that a symbol has landed somewhere on each reel to be sure of hitting a win.
Locking Reels
The base game includes this one special feature to spice things up. Called “locking reels”, there is a button at the bottom of each of the five main reels that allows you to lock the symbols shown for a fixed cost before you go for your next spin.
If you have two scatter symbols, for example, you can opt to lock those in place to make it easier to catch a third scatter and trigger a bonus round. You may also choose to lock full stacks of high paying symbols in place when they appear towards the right, opening up the possibility of catching further stacks to the left of their position.
I had a reasonable amount of success when I played around with this functionality – much more so than when I tried to hit big on the main bonus round.
Tiki Bonanza Slot Bonus Features
Hitting three or more scatter symbols will trigger the free spins feature; unfortunately, the scatters have no cash value, and there is no mention on the paytable about the benefit attached to landing more than three scatter symbols as a triggering combination. I hope the game does award some extra free spins, or that is a really poor deal for the player.
Free Spins
The big pull of this mode is the expanded playfield, adding two extra rows to the reel set for the duration of the bonus round. This change also increases the number of active payways from 243 to a sizable 3,125, which I expected to make it much easier to hit a big win.
I played more than 20 bonus rounds as I was writing this review to see how I would fare, but I have to be honest and tell you that I consistently struggled to hit anything when I played this feature. There is no locking reel feature available here either, so there is no chance to use that to boost your chances.
I can only guess that the low number of high-paying symbols, along with their stacked configurations, is the reason for my difficulty when testing this feature.
Bonus Buy
The only saving grace of the free spins feature here is the fact that it costs just 66x the regular price of a spin to purchase – assuming that the option is available in your country, of course! For me, this facility is not available, which is just about the final nail in the coffin as far as I am concerned with this game.
Tiki Bonanza Slot Review Final Thoughts
I usually enjoy most of the games released on the Relax Gaming platform, but this one didn’t live up to my expectations. The bonus round doesn’t seem to pay anything for me – I did enjoy the locking reels mechanic, but on its own, that isn’t enough to warrant a recommendation for Tiki Bonanza.
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