Tropical Bonanza

Tropical Bonanza: Slot Overview

You might have noticed the hold & win tear iSoftBet has been on of late, seemingly nailing the device to whatever they can get their hands on. The studio has paused that streak for a while to do something more original in a game called Tropical Bonanza, which uses a scatter pays system rather than ways or lines and drizzles multiplier symbols through free and paid spins. Okay, so Tropical Bonanza isn't super original since it borrows a lot from Pragmatic Play's popular slot Sweet Bonanza, including half of its name. However, Tropical Bonanza isn't a total copy and gives the rest of the game a light stir to produce a modicum of freshness.

If the idea of chilling at a palm fronded beach bar as the sea gently laps at your feet appeals, then Tropical Bonanza's waterfront location should appeal. One nice touch is the post-modernist crab on the load screen, made out of springs and wood, hinting at Tropical Bonanza's simulacrum nature, in a similar way to Magritte's 'This is Not a Pipe'. At least that's what we are assuming iSoftBet was going for. On one side of the bar, players have up to two optional betting options, while a cocktail glass overflowing with fruit sits on the right. This glass isn't just for decoration but is used to track consecutive cascades, which can trigger free spins when enough occur. Tropical Bonanza is certainly fruity and would make a good counterpoint to candy for players after a new scatter pays game.

If this is your first scatter pays slot, how it works is that symbols pay from any positions – there are no lines or ways involved. As long as at least 8 matching pay symbols are in view, a win is formed. While cocktails and clusters are being served up front, behind the scenes, Tropical Bonanza's math model runs on a medium volatile setting, creating a theoretical return figure of 96%. Tablets, mobiles, or desktop devices can be used to try your luck, where bets of 20 p/c to $/€20 can be selected.

When it comes to regular wins, it's healthy food all the way. From the lowest value symbol to the greatest, we get bananas, kiwi fruit, pomegranates, coconuts, guava, watermelon, passion fruit, dragon fruit, and star fruit. If you wanted to make an exciting fruit salad, combining Tropical Bonanza's pay symbols would be epic. As to values, bananas pay 0.25x for 8 or 9 in view, or 2x for 12+. The star fruit, on the other hand, pays 10x the bet for 8-9 in view, up to 50x the bet for 12+ on the reels. Interestingly, wilds have been used in scatter pay games before, but it's probably tricky to factor them in, so there are no wild symbols used in Tropical Bonanza.

Tropical Bonanza: Slot Features

So no wilds, yet there are plenty of other features, including tumbles, Happy Hour Modifiers, free spins, and two betting options.

Tumbles

When a winning cluster hits, it vanishes off the board, and symbols drop down to fill the gaps. If a new cluster is created out of the new symbols, the tumble feature will trigger again.

Happy Hour Modifiers

These modifier extras can appear at random on any base game spin:

• If Extra Shots activates, then 1-6 shots are added to the cocktail glass (filling the glass triggers the bonus, more on that below).
• Fruit Multiplier drops a random multiplier of x2 to x20 onto the reels, which is applied to the total win for the current spin.

Free Spins

After each tumble, 1 shot is added to the cocktail glass on the bar. If it reaches 6 shots or more in a single tumble sequence, free spins are awarded. Alternatively, free spins are also won when 3 pineapple bonus symbols are in view. In free spins, multiplier symbols also land on the reels and are applied to the win on that spin. Now, though, they can be up to x100 each and are added together if more than one of them is in view. Also, each bonus symbol that hits adds one additional free spin to the remaining amount.

Tropical Bets & Extra Juice – Side Bets

Where available, players may have the chance to buy free spins for the cost of 75x the total bet or double the chance of triggering free spins by adding 25% to the regular stake with the Extra Juice – Side Bet.

Tropical Bonanza: Slot Verdict

By its very nature, when you've played an original game, as well as several follow-ups or imitators, it's hard to get a raging mental boner over another wannabe. Tropical Bonanza does drop a few novelties into the mix, such as tumbles triggering free spins and Happy Hour Modifiers, but deep down, it's still Sweet Bonanza at its core along with a sprinkle of Play'n GO. No doubt this may excite its target demographic, ravenous for their next serving of pay anywhere symbols, unconcerned about how close it resembles a previous game.

Putting the baggage to the side for a moment, Tropical Bonanza plays pretty well. iSoftBet has nailed the beachy theme, and if you wanna see fruit on the reels while gambling, they don't come much fruitier than this. Fortunately for players who are over classic slots, iSoftBet has used fruit to enhance the island holiday experience rather than produce Vegas at the seaside effect. Despite trying our hardest to find original moments, Tropical Bonanza remains much of a muchness. Like Sweet Bonanza, it's all about hitting clusters, with the added benefit of multiplier symbols. To be fair, a couple of extras have been bolted on, and the theme is vastly different, providing a measure of differentiation like those plastic doohickies they sometimes put on the rim of a cocktail glass.

To wrap up, let's just say Tropical Bonanza is a decent scatter pays game, and its beach location was agreeable. It might make more sense why dentists or major beachgoers would choose Tropical Bonanza over Pragmatic Play's original, whereas for others, the choice might not be so clear cut. There's not much here we haven't seen before a few times, but as far as imitator slots go, it was fun enough to play and certainly doesn't shame the Sweet Bonanza name - aside from the fact another studio made it, of course.