Jungle Falls

Jungle Falls Overview

This game is a collaboration between the well-established physical slot machine creator Bell-Fruit Games and the long-time online gaming experts Inspired Gaming. This is one of the first digital slots that the two have ever worked on together. They haven't chosen to play it safe either; with a cluster-pay mechanic, lots of symbols on the board, and a raft of interesting features, Jungle Falls is attempting to compete with the mainstream online slots currently flooding the online market.

The first feature involved in this game is the cascading reels feature which replaces winning symbols with new symbols from above, giving you multiple chances to win a combination. Also involved in this game is a wild bonus, an instant multiplier bonus, a bonus trail feature, and a free spin round. This game also comes with a handful of animal-themed modifiers that can be activated at any point in the game. All features will be explained in more detail later on in the review.

Theme and Symbols

As the name probably gives away, the theme for this game is a jungle paradise where waterfalls crash into crocodile-infested lakes and lush green vegetation covers almost every inch of available space. It has to be said that visually this is not a high performing slot game. Each element from the background to the symbols looks borrowed from another game and not designed in a coalescent manner. This gives the game a pretty shoddy looking appearance and one that will not endear players to risk their money.

The background for this slot is a jungle at the centre of which is a cascading waterfall, used as the playing board for this game. Here too, the designers seem to have cut corners with low-budget animation and poorly drawn backgrounds that look like they were put together on Microsoft paint. The whole visual experience really starts to fall down when you compare it to the superimposed monkey sitting to one side of the waterfall. The monkey is an entirely different texture from its environment, which is jarring to look at.

The board for this game is the waterfall that tumbles from a high precipice into a curiously still lake beneath it. However, its incorporation as the board is about the best thing about the overall visual appearance of this game.
The symbols for this game are split into low-value, high value and special symbols. The normal range of symbols comprises the various fruits on the reels, starting value-wise at the blue raspberry, the plum and the lime. A little more valuable than these are the regular raspberry and the orange. However, the most valuable of these is the banana. The special icons for this game are the wild, labelled as so, the multiplier coins, and the multi-coloured gem which represents the free spins scatter.

Game Play

Jungle Falls is played on a 6-reel 8-row cluster pays dynamic board. To create winners in this game, players must match 5 to 18 symbols together in a cluster. The betting range for Jungle Falls is 20p to as much as £100 per spin. To change your betting level per spin, use the bet adjuster tool located at the bottom of the playing window.

Further information regarding the slot, including a display of the paytable, can be accessed by clicking on the settings menu. The spin button is located to the bottom right of the reels. You can set up auto spins in the game's menu.
The designer has not released the volatility for this slot. The return to player percentage for Jungle Falls is 95.18%, which is below average. The biggest payout that players can win on one spin is capped at £250,000.

Features

The first feature involved in this game is the cascading reels feature triggered every time there is a winning combination on the board. When this happens, new symbols fall into the vacated positions on the winning symbols from the top reel. When this happens, special symbols from this bonus reel fall onto the reels below. These symbols include:

Coins: These symbols come with multipliers in the range of 2x to 10x. These symbols work their way to the bottom of the grid as symbols below them are removed thanks to wins. When they reach the bottom the full cash prize they indicate is paid out.

Wilds: These symbols step in for regular symbols to help form wins before falling off the reels at the bottom.
The second feature of this game is the bonus trail which can be seen to the left of the reels. Each consecutive winning cascade moves you up this bonus trail. At two points on the trail, you are rewarded for your progress. These are explained below:

Rapid Run (land 3 cascades) - All coins on the grid drop down 1 position, and you might also get more coins added to the waterfall grid.

Jungle Falls (land 5 cascades) - Shakes the whole grid, making all coins present on both the top reel and in the waterfall grid drop to the bottom to be paid. Extra wilds might also drop down to help you with regular wins.
This game, as you will notice, also has several modifiers indicated by 3 animals that can be activated at any time:

The Crocodile: Swims to the bottom of the waterfall and removes a symbol from a row that contains a coin. This will drop all symbols, including the coin, 1 step down.

The Parrot: Flies across the grid and changes all symbols in a random row into matching symbols. This guarantees a cluster win and triggers a cascade accordingly.

The Monkey: Removes all banana symbols from the grid, awarding a cash prize while triggering a cascade.
Finally, this game also has a bonus spin round triggered when you land 3 of the rainbow bonus spin scatters on the reels together. Doing so will give you 8 free spins. Landing additional scatters inside the game will add more spins. Multiplier modifiers still apply in the free spins round.

Conclusion

In summary, this slot has many great features but is really let down by its presentation. If Bell-Fruit Games are going to continue to produce games in the digital sphere, they will have to do better than this. Then again, the top prize and paying dynamics do give this game some appeal.