Gonzo’s Quest Slot Review

Where To Play Gonzo’s Quest

Gonzo’s Quest is arguably one of the most commercially successful video slots of all time – and it’s produced by Swedish game developer NetEnt. The game follows the life of an adventurer called Gonzo who’s in search of untold riches in El Dorado.

The game is based around a 5-reel, 3-row format and there’s a total of 20 fixed paylines in play – these cannot be adjusted.

When I was testing the game I was pleased to find a wide variety of stake options; you can play from as little as 20p and as much as £50 per spin. (The exact stake amounts can vary quite a lot between online slot casinos.) In this Gonzo’s Quest slot review I’m going to give you a more in-depth look at what this classic has to offer – and what you can expect when playing it for yourself.

How To Play

I was happy to see that NetEnt have opted to keep things as simple as possible when it comes to the design of Gonzo’s Quest. Most online and mobile casinos I came across now use a slightly updated version of the game – the HTML5 version – although a few of the larger UK-based bookmakers still appear to offer the old-school Flash option.

In the centre of the screen you’ll see the main spin button. Clicking this will begin the game – and to the left of this button you’ll see the “Bet Level”, and to the right, the ‘Coin Value” button. Both of these options allow you to configure how much you want to stake each spin – and I think it’s fair to say that NetEnt covers virtually all the bases here – there’s plenty of stake options for you to take advantage of.

As with all NetEnt games there’s an autoplay facility (letting you pre-set up to 100 spins to play out automatically) and there’s also a quick spin option which greatly increases the speed of gameplay.

Symbols and Payouts

When I was putting this review of Gonzo’s Quest together I found the paytable to be quite odd; most video slots have a large number of symbols (it’s not uncommon to see 12+) but Gonzo’s Quest only has 7 – bar the scatter symbols and wilds. All of these symbols take the form of Aztec-like masks with the Purple mask being the highest-paying symbol of the bunch.

The wild symbol appears only on reels 2, 3 and 4 and substitutes for all other symbols – including the scatter. The scatter symbols, by the way, take the form of a Gold Coin, and landing three or more of these (on an active payline) will trigger the main free-spins bonus – I’ll talk more about this in the next stage of this review.

Bonus Features

As one of NetEnt’s most popular games, as you can imagine – Gonzo’s Quest is packed full of bonuses and features. One of these features is present during the main base-game, while the other is a standalone free-spins feature. Below, I’m going to cover both of these in depth, so you can get an idea of how it all works – and what you can expect when playing the game for yourself.

Cascading Wins

During the base-game, any wins you manage to form triggers the cascading feature. This sees the symbols involved with the win disappearing and new ones dropping down to take their place. This cascading feature continues for as long as wins are formed – and it also ties into the increasing multiplier feature which I’m going to cover in the section below.

Increasing Multiplier

During the base-game, you’ll notice above the reels (on the right-hand-side) there’s a multiplier trail; this activates each time you manage to trigger the cascade feature.

On the first cascade, all wins are multiplied by 1X. On the second cascade, wins are multiplied by 2X – and if you manage five consecutive wins, you’ll enjoy a whopping 5X multiplier – this then continues being applied to wins for as long as the cascades continue.

Free Spins

I found the way in which Gonzo’s Quest’s free-spins feature is triggered to be quite strange; you need to land three of the Gold Coin scatter symbols on an active payline, from left-to-right. Doing so will award you with 10 free-spins.

Now, if you manage to land the scatter symbols on a diagonal payline, you’ll win 20 free-spins – it’s pretty rare to do, and I’ve only ever had it a few times (I’ve played the games hundreds of times over the past few years), so don’t expect to see it landing regularly!

Now, during the bonus, there’s one key change; the cascading feature continues to be present – but the actual multiplier values change. Instead of them being worth 1X, 2X, 3X and 5X, they’re now worth 3X, 6X, 9X and 15X.

This means, if you’re lucky enough to manage five consecutive wins, all wins will be multiplied by a whopping 15X! This is ultimately where the game’s main win-potential lies, and it’s one of the reasons why the game’s bonus round is so popular – the win-potential here is huge.

It’s also possible to win additional free-spins during the bonus by landing another three scatter symbols on an active payline. Doing so awards you a further 10 free-spins, while landing them on a diagonal payline awards an additional 20 free-spins.

Jackpot and How To Win

With a jackpot of 62,500 coins it’s clear that Gonzo’s Quest has some pretty decent win-potential. (This maximum win is achieved by making multiple full lines of the top-paying symbol during the free-spins bonus while on the 15X multiplier during the free-spins bonus.

I myself have seen a number of screenshots online of players hitting upwards of 2,000X their stake during the bonus – but I think you’d be hard pushed to win anything higher than this.

Remember, if you’re looking to learn more about the various symbol payouts – you can work out how much each symbol pays by accessing the game’s paytable. This is found directly under the game’s spin button – it also shows you more information about the game (including the RTP which is 96%.) As a general rule of thumb, I’d estimate the “average” max win to be around 500X – anything higher than this and you can count yourself incredibly lucky!

Software

NetEnt were one of the first game developers to develop mobile-specific gaming technology. They called it “One Touch”, and Gonzo’s Quest was the first of their games to be released using One Touch technology. So, what exactly does One Touch mean?

Essentially it’s a special mobile-optimized format that makes gameplay a lot smoother from mobile devices. The game itself remains unchanged (meaning the mathematics are the same.) However, the game’s interface is completely different – and special mobile-optimized buttons make things like adjusting the bet size, setting up autoplay and activating quick spin far smoother than were you using the desktop-specific interface.

In my experience, playing Gonzo’s Quest on mobile devices is a pretty positive experience – the game runs smoothly, it’s fast – and the UI is incredibly user-friendly and easy-to-navigate.

Summary

If you take a look at NetEnt’s own website they cite the release of Gonzo’s Quest as being one of the major milestones for the company. Of course, I don’t think it’s hard to see why – the game proved to be an instant success with players all over the world, and the unique cascading wins mechanic set a precedent for many games to come – today, hundreds of online video slots use the same format.

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The increasing multiplier trail is also incredibly interesting – and it offers up some really decent win-potential in both the base-game and the bonus.

I really like the look and feel of the game too – the audio soundtrack isn’t too intense, and it makes you feel as though you’re deeply immersed within the slot.

The only downside I’d say is that the bonus round is quite hard to trigger – it’s common to go hundreds of spins without activating it. However, this is somewhat to be expected, as typically the bonus pays well – I’d say you can expect to see the average bonus paying around 100X your stake – sometimes less, sometimes more.

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Last Updated on February 21, 2021