Tropicool

Overview Tropicool

Ever wondered what would happen if a powerful Arctic snowstorm somehow ended up striking the Caribbean? Well, wonder no more, as ELK Studios have set their latest game- Tropicool, in an environment that mirrors that exact scenario. In this climate change nightmare from the future, the warm oceans have been frozen solid, and the islands are heaped with snow. However, do not fret as the native birds and animals seem to have adapted not only to the cold but have gained anthropomorphised habits of wearing hats and scarfs.

Once you get your head around the bizarre yet interesting theme, players will start to understand that there is a lot of good gameplay and a range of exciting bonus features on offer for this game. These features include the avalanche bonus dynamic, which is very apt considering the setting. In addition to this, there is the feature reel which rewards a range of modifiers including adding normal, locked and multiplier wilds to the reels. Also on the feature list is the free drops bonus feature which is this game’s free spins round. Lastly, there is the X-iter feature which is ELK Studio’s bonus buy option.

Theme and Symbols

The theme for this free slot game is tropical life but frozen. Hence the name Tropi (referencing the tropical environment) and Cool (referencing the fact that everything has been hit with layers of snow and ice). This is a theme that here at Slots 777 we have never seen but one that deserves some novelty points. Speaking of novelty, the two main characters for this slot namely Tony Toucano – the toucan and Fiona Flamingo- the glamorous flamingo add another layer of absurd but entertaining fun to this crazy slot machine.

The background for this game is a tropical island paradise that has been met with a bitter winter or powerful ice storm. In any case, it looks like the inhabitants of this island won’t be surfing any time soon. If anything, it looks like they will need to be getting ice skates out instead. From the perspective of the player, they can see frozen sand beaches, a very cold or even frozen ocean and a beach hut that looks like it was not designed to be heaped with snow. Dotted around this setting are rigid palm trees, frozen in place by the extreme cold.

The board for this slot is a Tetris-like falling symbols affair which comes of course with the avalanche playing feature. Its design is clever in that most of the symbols are encased in ice as though perfectly preserved by the fast-acting freeze on the island. They each slide and crash open in a mightily satisfying way.

Symbols for this game are split into low-value, high-value and special symbols. The low-value symbols are the various fruits and tropical produce frozen in blocks of ice. These comprise the plum, lemon, cherry, apple, coconut and strawberry. The higher value symbols for this game are the two birds mentioned earlier. These symbols appear in stacked formats. Out of these two, Tony Toucano is the most valuable, paying 1.2x your stake for 6 in combination. There is also a special wild symbol which in this game is just the letter W, it can replace normal symbols to help players form more wins. Lastly, there is the B bonus scatter which is relevant to the free spins bonus.

Game Play

Tropicool is played on a 6-reel, 6-row playing board with a maximum of 46,656 ways to win. To create winners in this game, players must match a minimum of 3 symbols across a pay line starting on reel 1. To change your betting level per spin, use the bet adjuster tool located at the bottom of the playing window. The betting range is 20p to £100 per spin.

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 on the right-hand side of the reels. You can set up auto spins in the game’s menu.

The volatility for Tropicool is in the medium to high bracket. The return to player percentage for Tropicool is 95%, a little lower than average. The biggest payout that players can win on one spin is 10,000 x your total stake.

Features

There are quite a few features for Tropicool. Each will be explained in the following text. The first feature that players will probably notice is the avalanche feature. This bonus will trigger every time that you create a winning combination. When you do so, the winning symbols will be moved off the reels and immediately replaced by another set from above. In this way, players can create more wins from one spin. The feature only ends when the new set of symbols does not score a win.

Next on the feature list is the feature reel bonus. You will notice that when you create winners in this game it will unlock symbols from their ice cages. Unlocking feature symbols in the feature reel above the regular playing window will apply modifiers to the gameplay.

These are as follows:
Unlocking a standard wild: This symbol can replace all paying symbols to help form wins.
Unlocking a locked wild: One of these wild symbols will come out and stay locked to the same position for 3 winners.
Unlocking a multiplier wild: Winning combinations that include this symbol are subject to a multiplier between 2x and 5x.
Unlocking a row swap bonus symbol: 1 symbol replaces every other symbol on the row except wild and bonus symbols.

Next is the Free Drops bonus feature. This is triggered when players land 3 or more of the B bonus scatters on the reels at once. Landing more scatters gives you more free spins or ‘drops’. During the free spins round, two special symbols are also on the reels. These are the extra drops bonus symbols, which adds more spins to your tally and the progressive multiplier symbols which increases the win multiplier.

We would go into the X-iter feature, however as it is not available in the UK, there isn’t much point.

Conclusion

This super novel slot is refreshing to play after so many Lucky Irish or Egyptian slots. It's fun, new and has plenty of bonus features too. Plus let’s not forget that this game also has an impressive 10,000x top prize, a great payout in anyone’s book. It’s a shame about the X-iter feature not being available in this country though, as buying your way into features can save a lot of time waiting for them to trigger naturally.