Gorilla Kingdom Slot Review

Where To Play Gorilla Kingdom

Gorilla Kingdom is a brand-new video slot from NetEnt, and is based around a 5-reel, 4-row build. The game uses a 1024-ways-to-win format, meaning conventional paylines aren’t relevant here. I found the game can be played from as little as 10p and as much as £100 per spin (depending on the slots casino you use), and – as the name suggests – it’s themed all around Gorillas.

If you’ve ever played Thunderkick’s Pink Elephants before you’ll undoubtedly see some resemblances between the two games – but make no mistake; NetEnt have put their own unique touch on the game, and an exciting free-spins bonus allows you to transform the lower-paying symbols into the top-paying symbol – the Gorilla. I’m going to kick off this Gorilla Kingdom slot review with a look at how to play!

How To Play

If you’re familiar with NetEnt’s slots, you’ll know they’ve gone through a few different user interfaces. Gorilla Kingdom uses their latest – and I was actually quite taken aback at first, as it looks nothing like NetEnt’s slots I’ve played in the past! Thankfully, the user-interface is easy-to-navigate and easy-to-use – and getting started is easy.

Unlike virtually all of NetEnt’s slots there’s just one way of selecting the size of your stake. This is done by using the “Coin Value” button, to the left-hand-side of the screen. You will then see your total bet displayed to the left-hand-side of this – and this is the amount you’ll be staking on each spin.

In the centre of the screen you’ll see three buttons; dead in the centre is the main spin button – pressing this button will begin the game round at the bet size that you’ve currently got selected.

I was also happy to see that NetEnt have opted to offer an autoplay feature (which lets you set up to 100 spins to play out automatically) and there’s also a quickspin button – this quickens the pace of the game, meaning you need to wait less time between game rounds.

In the far bottom left-hand-corner of the screen you’ll also find a small hamburger menu. This is here you’ll find all the game’s settings – along with the paytable. Here, you’ll be able to adjust the audio volume, view the paytable and read more about the game. Personally, I highly recommend you take the time to get familiar with how the game’s bonus mechanic works – I’m going to explain it later on in this review, but it’s always good to have knowledge about the type of game you’re playing!

Symbols and Payouts

Looking at Gorilla Kingdom’s symbols and payouts shows that the game does bear a lot of similarities to Thunderkick’s Pink Elephants. You’ll see the lower-paying symbols all depicted by playing card values, including 10, jack, queen, king, and ace – and I find these rarely contribute towards big wins. However, if you can manage a 5-of-a-kind combo – with a few stacked on each reel – then you can walk away with 50X-ish wins.

There’s a total of five higher-paying symbols in Gorilla Kingdom, including a Leopard, a Hornbill, an Okapi and a Pangolin. The top-paying symbol is, naturally, the Gorilla – and he’s stacked across all reels, meaning theoretically it’s possible to land a full screen of him.

Bonus Features

Gorilla Kingdom is all about the free-spins feature – and in order to trigger it you’ll need to land three, four or five of the scatter symbols anywhere in view. Doing so will award you with 10, 15 or 20 free-spins respectively.

I’ll also point out here that it’s possible to win additional free-spins during the feature. Landing 2, 3, 4, or 5 more scatter symbols during the bonus will award an additional 3, 10, 15 or 20 free-spins respectively.

Symbol Transform Feature

The entire point of the bonus round in Gorilla Kingdom is to transform as many of the “low value” higher-paying symbols into the Gorilla. Occasionally, when the Gorilla symbol lands in view you’ll notice that he transforms into a Gorilla Mask symbol. This will then add 1 to a tally on the right-hand-side of the screen – where you’ll see the four other higher-paying animal symbols.

Basically, each time you collect 6 of these masks one of the animals will transform into the Gorilla symbol – and you’ll also receive an additional 2 free-spins.

So, if you manage to collect a total of 24 Gorilla Mask symbols throughout the bonus, all the higher-paying symbols will be transformed permanently into the Gorilla – this is where the game’s real win-potential lies, and it’s possible to win massive amounts of money if you line-up the Gorilla all the way across.

I’ve actually spent quite a lot of time playing Gorilla Kingdom – and one thing I will say is that the main free-spins feature seems pretty hard to trigger. I don’t have any actual data on this, but if I had to estimate it, I’d imagine the bonus round triggers every 200 spins or so. However, you will usually walk away with a decent payday – thankfully Gorilla Kingdom isn’t one of NetEnt’s “classic egg timer games” where sub 10X bonuses are commonplace.

Jackpot and How To Win

I actually really like that NetEnt publishes exact information about how much it’s possible to win by playing Gorilla Kingdom. Many games (especially Megaways games these days) have so-called unlimited win-potential – but you never actually know how much it’s possible to win by playing. Gorilla Kingdom offers up to a whopping 4,096X your stake – on a single spin – and this is made possible by landing a full screen of the Gorilla symbol during the bonus round.

Of course, doing so is incredibly unlikely – and you’ll need to have a lot of luck on your side for this to happen. However, I feel this kind of jackpot payout is definitely achievable – unlike other video slots that offer tens of thousands of times your stake, but that is virtually impossible.

I’m also often asked about the best ways of increasing your chances of winning while playing slots. Unless you’re playing a progressive jackpot game (which occasionally offer a better RTP for those playing at higher stakes), with Gorilla Kingdom there simply isn’t a way to “guarantee a win”.

The best possible thing you can do, if you do want to increase your chances of winning is to give the game a good few hundred spins. If you open the game, set it off for 100 spins and then leave it without a bonus – you’re not really giving it the best chance of bonusing.

As I mentioned earlier, I think the bonus frequency rate is around 1/200, so you should expect to give it at least 200 spins to bonus. That’s not to say the bonus round won’t drop in earlier – just something I feel is worth mentioning.

Software

Like all of NetEnt’s new games, Gorilla Kingdom utilizes what’s known as “NetEnt Touch”. This is a special mobile-optimized platform that allows their video slots to be played seamlessly from mobile devices.

The actual content of the game doesn’t change – the symbols still pay the same amounts, and the bonus feature still works in the same way – but a few of the “unnecessary” graphics are edited out to provide a smoother and faster gaming experience.

Playing Gorilla Kingdom from your mobile device couldn’t be easier – just head to your preferred online casino, open up the game and tilt your device into landscape mode – you will then be able to set your stake and begin spinning! The mobile-optimized version of the game also has all game features built in too, so you’ll be able to take advantage of autoplay and quickspin functions.

Summary

When I first played Gorilla Kingdom it was evident that it was NetEnt’s attempt at creating a Pink Elephants-like slot. However, there’s a couple of key differences – the main one being that there are only five reels as opposed to six.

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I actually really like the game – and I feel that NetEnt have actually done a really decent job with their latest release. Many of their games from the past year or so (bar Dead or Alive 2) have received criticism from players – and in fairness, a lot of their games did lack creativity.

Gorilla Kingdom, on the other hand, ticks all the right boxes; it’s fun-to-play, easy to play – and there’s some fantastic win-potential on offer in the main bonus round too. Just be prepared to wait a few hundred spins for the bonus to land, as it’s definitely not the easiest free-spins feature to trigger I’ve come across!

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Last Updated on February 21, 2021