9k Wild Yeti

9k Wild Yeti Slot

Coming only a couple of months after 9K Wild Yeti Dream Drop, 9K Wild Yeti puts 4ThePlayer in the unusual position of releasing the non-jackpot version second. Most of the previous game's structure survives intact, with the Dream Drop system removed and a new Big Prizes wheel taking its place. That makes this less of a new entry than an alternative version for players who prefer the Yeti mechanics without the progressive jackpot attached.

The action takes place across 5 reels and 4 rows with 1,024 ways to win. Set against the same frozen Nepalese landscape as its Dream Drop counterpart, the game has medium volatility, a 96.01% RTP and bets ranging from €0.20 to €240. Payout potential reaches 9,000x the bet.

Yeti Rampage provides the main attraction. Landing four Yeti symbols on the same reel transforms them into a single stack carrying a random x5 to x10 multiplier. When stacks occupy adjacent reels, they combine and their multipliers are multiplied together, creating the possibility of significantly larger Yeti wins as more reels become involved.

Landing 3, 4 or 5 Scatters awards 8, 15 or 25 Free Spins. Regular paying symbols disappear during the bonus, leaving only Yetis, King Yetis and Scatters. Another 2, 3, 4 or 5 Scatters add 4, 8, 15 or 25 spins respectively. King Yeti can trigger a Snowstorm that rearranges the symbols to create or improve a Yeti win, after which the King Yeti itself may expand into a stack and activate Yeti Rampage.

Replacing Dream Drop is Big Prizes. Coin symbols can randomly trigger a prize wheel containing five fixed awards: Mini at 15x the bet, Midi at 25x, Super at 75x, Mega at 150x and Ultra at 1,000x. The Yeti Power Up Ante Bet doubles the stake and introduces King Yeti symbols to the base game. Feature purchases are also available, with Free Spins costing 50x the bet and a King Yeti Spin costing 100x.

Taken on its own, 9K Wild Yeti has a decent core mechanic. Building adjacent Yeti stacks and multiplying their values together gives Yeti Rampage a clear purpose, while Snowstorms make King Yeti a useful addition rather than another decorative special symbol. Big Prizes feels less naturally integrated, almost as though the Dream Drop wheel needed something else to do once the jackpot was removed.

More importantly, anyone familiar with 9K Wild Yeti Dream Drop will find very little genuinely new here. As a non-jackpot alternative it does the job, and the 96.01% RTP is a considerable improvement over the Dream Drop version's 94.01%, but as a separate release arriving just two months later, 9K Wild Yeti struggles to justify how closely it repeats its predecessor.