One of the potential benefits of partnering up with casino game maker Yggdrasil Gaming is gaining access to a suite of premade online slot mechanics. We’ve seen a bunch of studios put them to use to varying degrees of success. Today, the daddy studio gets to flex as it puts its Gigablox mechanic to use in a quirky sci-fi game going by the name Giganimals Gigablox. It’s an interesting, some might say, unusual mash together of animals, aliens, Gigablox’s, batteries, and spotting exterior influences.
Giganimals Gigablox is played on the surface of a planet that’s very alien to earth. The lighting, the plant life on the right side of the screen (or is that habitation?), and the critters all point to an exotic, off-world adventure. The adventuring side of Giganimals Gigablox is reinforced by a secretive, detective-like soundtrack. And what’s with the four animals flying UFOs sitting by the four collection meters? Your guess is as good as ours, but this is sci-fi, after all, so best to just go with it and see where we end up.
The interplanetary journey begins by selecting a stake of at least 20 p/c per spin, going up to a ceiling level of £/€100 a pop. This can be undertaken on any device, where the active gaming area on screen consists of a 6-reel, 4-row panel supplied with 40 fixed paylines for winning combinations to land across. Highly volatile, Giganimals Gigablox has been created with four RTP models, and checking the paytable will confirm whether you’ve got the highest value, at 96% or one of the three lower versions.
Whilst there are six reels, during the base game or in free spins, reels can merge to form larger symbols of 2×2, 3×3, 4×4, 5×5, or 6×6 in size. For the purposes of win evaluations, larger symbols are broken down into regular 1×1-sized symbols to do so. For the low pays, Giganimals Gigablox has four battery icons showing various levels of charge, but all pay 2 times the stake for a six-of-a-kind hit. These are followed by four friendly-looking alien symbols, awarding 4-8x the bet for a line of six. Rounding off this section is the wild, also appearing on all six reels. Winning lines of wilds are worth up to 20 times the bet for six of a kind, or they can be used to subsite any regular pay symbol.
Giganimals Gigablox: Slot Features
Low-pay symbols can also become wild. One way is when the Wild Surge feature triggers in the base game, in which one or more of the four low-pay symbols is transformed into wilds. On top of this, when low-pay symbols create wins, they are added to their relevant collection meter next to the reels. Values added to meters are multiplied by a random multiplier of x1 to x5. When a meter is filled, Collection Free Spins are triggered.
Collection Free Spins
When triggered, players are awarded between 5 and 24 free spins. However, those unhappy with their allocated amount can choose to gamble for more if they would like to on a wheel, keeping in mind that unsuccessful gambles lose the whole lot. The low pay symbol type which triggered the feature is wild throughout. As in the base game, low-pay symbol wins are collected by their meter, and if filled, that symbol becomes wild, plus 2 extra free spins are awarded.
Scatter Free Spins
The second way to enter the bonus round is by landing at least 5 scatter symbols (counted in their 1×1 size). Each triggering scatter symbol awards 1 free spin. As before, players can gamble for more spins if they would like to, and the low-pay symbol collection is available. Fill a meter, and the symbol turns wild, and +2 free spins are awarded.
Buy A Bonus
In applicable markets, users are able to make use of the bonus buy to directly access one Giganimals Gigablox’s bonus rounds. Paying 75x the bet buys 10-24 free spins, 150x the bet gets 24 free spins, or 250x the bet buys 24 free spins with one low pay turned wild.
Giganimals Gigablox: Slot Verdict
One suspicion of a possible exterior influence crept in when browsing the paytable and getting a general feel for the game. It didn’t feel like an Yggdrasil Gaming slot. Or, at least, not a 100% Yggdrasil Gaming slot. The UI/menus had echoes of something Reflex Gaming might do (not a judgement, by the way, just an observation), a studio which has dabbled with the mechanic in the past; see Desperate Dawgs 2 Gigablox as an example. However, the particular low-pay winning symbol collection function present in Giganimals Gigablox felt like a descendant of Vikings Go Berserk. Similar, though not entirely the same. In Giganimals Gigablox, low-pay symbols never have to win battles; they’re just always wild or not, though they’re never sticky.
Giganimals Gigablox isn’t quite so chocker with features as its Norse brother and sister slots. Free spins are just free spins when symbols haven’t achieved wild conversion status, meaning they can be a little dry. And also, there was quite a noticeable difference between free spins with a wild low symbol and those without – this applied to both entertainment levels as well as rewards. For the record, the max reward in Giganimals Gigablox clocks in at 5,120 times the bet.
If your reaction to that last bit was ‘pah, numbers shnumbers’ and are looking for a quirky sci-fi slot in which to get your Gigabloxing on, then Giganimals Gigablox could be the go. It’s nowhere near Yggdrasil Gaming’s finest use of the mechanic, however, and while there are thrilling moments to be had, it might pay to be prepared to put in some game time or shell out to really have a chance of uncovering them.
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