FRKN Bananas

FRKN Bananas: Slot Overview

When playing slots, it takes about 3.7 minutes to achieve your 5-a-day quota of fruit and veg. More so fruit, given its ubiquity in the online gambling space. Developer Hacksaw Gaming is doing its bit to help out, but instead of mixing up a bowl of cherries, plums, and limes, it's mainly concentrated on a single item. The item in question is bananas, and the game, titled FRKN Bananas, pulls off some pretty neat tricks involving spreading, copying, and multiplying with the bendy, yellow stuff.

The little 'I heart NY' sticker in the bottom right corner of the screen might tempt you into thinking you're gambling in The Big Apple, but no, the setting for FRKN Bananas is the fictional city of Peelington 'where you can only go left or up, everyone prefers sticky over smooth and where victory is oh so sweet.' That line might not make much sense from the outset, but it does cover some of the main features quite well. While pondering how, take a moment to absorb the downtown hustle and bustle of Peelington, with its slight Le Bandit or RIP City vibes.

FRKN Bananas is played on a 6x5 reelset in combination with 19 paylines. It's a medium-high volatile slot, rated 4 out of 5, and of the various RTP models available, 96.31% is the highest theoretical value. Four bonus modes may be activated from the bonus buy section, and base stakes range from 10 c to $/€100.

An odd collection of items make up the paytable, such as the high-paying watermelon, hotdog, popcorn tub, boxing glove, and diamond, paying 1.5 to 3 times the bet for a 6 OAK winning line. The low pays are the standard 10 to A card royal collection, though, awarding 0.5x to 0.7x for 6-of-a-kind. All types of Banana symbols are wild, but Go Bananas symbols are not wild.

FRKN Bananas: Slot Features

Apologies in advance for mentioning the word banana about six thousand times, but this section details the Banana Split? No, Banana Spread feature, Bananza!, Banana Blitz!, and the feature buys.

Banana Split? No, Banana Spread!

Spreading Banana symbols can point up or to the left. When a spreading Banana lands, additional Spreading Bananas spread from it in the direction the original symbol points to the edge of the grid. Spreading only occurs if the Spreading Bananas would be part of at least one win. Left Spreading Bananas cannot land on the leftmost reel, and the upwards Spreading Banana cannot land on the leftmost reel. All Spreading Bananas are wild multipliers which substitute for regular pay symbols and show a multiplier value of x1 to x100. If 2 Spreading Bananas spread over the same position, the multiplier values are added together on that position. A line of 6 bananas is worth 5x the bet.

Bananza!

Landing 3 FS scatter symbols in the base game activates this bonus with 10 free spins. It has the same mechanics as the base game with an increased chance of landing Spreading Bananas with high-value multipliers. Spreading Bananas also land in more favourable positions on the grid. Hitting 2 or 4 FS scatters grants a further +2 or +4 free spins, respectively.

Banana Blitz!

Landing 4 FS scatters in the base game triggers 10 free spins in the Banana Blitz! This feature has wild Sticky Banana symbols and Go Bananas symbols. Landed Sticky Bananas remain on the reels till the end of the bonus, and each is given a new random value of x1x to x100 on each spin. If there is at least one Sticky Banana in view and a Go Bananas symbol lands, the Go Bananas mechanic activates. When activated, the Go Bananas symbol reveals a value of 3 to 10. This number represents the number of Banana copies created from each Sticky Banana symbol on the grid. Some Bananas can land on top of each other. However, copied Bananas cannot land on Sticky Banana symbols, GO Banana symbols, or FS scatters.

Copied Bananas are wild multipliers that appear in random positions and substitute for other symbols on the paytable. A copied Banana symbol has the same multiplier as the Sticky Banana it was copied from. If copied Banana symbols land on the same spot, their multipliers are added together. Copied Bananas and Go Bananas symbols are removed on the next spin. Hitting 2 or 4 FS scatters grants a further +2 or +4 free spins, respectively.

Bonus Buy

For 3x the bet, players can ensure each spin is 5 times more likely to trigger free spins by activating BonusHunt FeatureSpins. For 50x the bet, they may buy Spread 'Em FeatureSpins where each spin lands at least 2 Spreading Bananas - FS symbols do not land in this mode. Gamblers can even jump directly into Bananza! for 100x their stake or Banana Blitz! at 200x.

FRKN Bananas: Slot Verdict

FRKN Bananas' collection of yellow characters and symbols might seem a bit silly, but spare a thought for 'Comedian', a 2019 artwork by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan which consisted of a banana stuck to a wall with grey duct tape. Sounds kinda dumb? Maybe so, but this conceptual art piece (can we call it that?) sold for a cool $6.2 million to crypto guy Justin Sun, who went on to eat the banana backstage. Is it a wonder some claim the art world is an elaborate money laundering scheme?

Back in the real world, regular banana lovers or those who get a thrill out of Hacksaw Gaming's mastery of jamming wilds, multipliers, and wild multipliers onto a gaming grid get a real treat here. FRKN Bananas follows on from Donut Division's Gooey Guns and Gooey Wilds feature, except instead of only horizontal spreading, players get vertical spreading as well to lay wild multipliers across the reels. Overlap them, and multipliers get even bigger. Spreading wilds is a juicy plantain of a feature, but even that may be superseded by what FRKN Bananas can get up to in the Banana Blitz! round. Manage to get lucky in that phase of play, and a lot of Bananas can end up not only on the grid but stacked on top of each other, boosting multiplier values further. Decent hits were achieved when bananas were raining down, and FRKN Bananas has a win cap of 10,000x, which is reachable in the base game as well as its bonus rounds.

Once again, Hacksaw Gaming has cranked out another rock-solid number. FRKN Bananas possesses an offbeat personality, follows no herd, and has the ability to drop some ludicrously good action when its sticky not smooth, spreading, copying wild mechanics go, erm, bananas.