In The Rabbit Hole

In the Rabbit Hole: Slot Overview

The Free Dictionary defines the term 'rabbit hole' as 'A situation, journey, or process that is particularly strange, problematic, difficult, complex, or chaotic, especially one that becomes increasingly so as it develops or unfolds.' It seems we have Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to thank for the idiom, being the archetypal rabbit hole journey, which becomes increasingly bizarre as the tale unfolds. Not only has the story entertained readers for over 100 years, but it's also provided mental fodder for a good number of Wonderland-related online slots. Here's another one titled In the Rabbit Hole courtesy of developer Red Tiger which, if players are lucky, provides a rabbit hole of its own in the form of a three-tiered free spins round that potentially gets better the deeper it goes.

While there are links to Wonderland, In the Rabbit Hole is pretty subtle about it. For one, there are no characters from the story in this game, though there are objects associated with some of them. The game actually seems more preoccupied with flowers than anything else, as they pop up all over the place. In the background, bordering the grid, and on the wild symbols. In the Rabbit Hole has a soundtrack which is pretty wondrous, even if the visuals aren't quite so much. This isn't a game Red Tiger's art team went wild on, which is a little unusual, given that using Wonderland is often used as a springboard to greater bursts of experimental creativity. Fair enough, some of the animations and bonus round effects have a hint of surrealism.

Spinning away in the middle of the display is In the Rabbit Hole's game grid, made up of 5 reels, 3 rows, and 10 paylines. Before getting the ball rolling, players choose a stake of 10 p/c to £/€20 per spin. The volatility is about as high as it gets, rated five out of five by the studio, while it goes about the business of producing a theoretical return value of 95.76%.

To win, at least three matching symbols must land along a payline, starting from the leftmost side of the game grid. Amongst the lower value bunch, we find clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades, paying out 2 to 5 times the bet for five-of-a-kind, then books, teacups, top hats, watches, and goldeny flowery things as the five high pays. Hit a five-of-a-kind premium win to collect 100x the stake. Look out for wild flowers, which are present on all reels - these substituting for all pay symbols, though they do not appear in the base game, and are worth 100x the bet for a line of five.

In the Rabbit Hole: Slot Features

Diving into this rabbit hole means first triggering free spins, then looking for further retriggers that can lead to two deeper bonus rounds. The journey begins by landing 3 bonus symbols on reels 1, 3, and 5 in the base game to win 7 free spins. Wild symbols are added to the reels from this point onward until the bonus round ends. On the final free spin, should 3 Win Spins symbols land on reels 1, 3, and 5, then 7 free Win Spins are awarded.

Win Spins

This round does what it says on the tin, meaning each free Win Spin is guaranteed to generate a win. On the final Win Spin, if 3 Wild Spins symbols land on reels 1, 3, and 5, players are awarded 7 Wild Spins.

Wild Spins

During Wild Spins, every spin is also guaranteed to create a win; plus, whenever wild symbols hit, they are locked to their position for the remainder of the feature. This bonus round does not offer the chance of winning any sort of retrigger, so when it ends, players are slung back to the base game.

In the Rabbit Hole: Slot Verdict

Base a slot, game, movie, song, book, or whatever on rabbit holes and you kind of have to bring it in terms of wackiness, where each new layer peeled back reveals a deeper level of chaos. Red Tiger brings a certain level of it for In the Rabbit Hole without the game being overly mind-blowing. Part of the reason is the blandness of the base game, sans features, modifiers, or wilds. It bobs and buzzes along, knocking out line wins, sort of like twiddling your thumbs until the bonus round triggers.

Once it does, then things can get quite interesting, more so the deeper down the hole you find yourself burrowing. Red Tiger has used a similar approach before in games like Genie Nights and Honolulu Nights. For In the Rabbit Hole, the first level of free spins has wilds added; that's a bonus, and then the next level, Win Spins, dole out guaranteed wins. It doesn't mean big wins, of course, but guaranteed wins, all the same. However, Wild Spins are the main goal, and they could be pretty neat when they were triggered. It's unlikely to happen super often, but the combination of sticky wilds and guaranteed wins might be enough of a temptation to keep entranced players tapping away at the spin button. So much so that a bonus buy might have come in handy for those not looking to exercise patience but would prefer cutting to the chase. Make it all the way to the bottom of this hole, and rewards of up to 4,230.7 times the bet are technically possible.

When the ride concluded, it has to be said it wasn't the deepest nor the freakiest rabbit hole ever conceived by mortal minds. It's fairly tame in many respects, Red Tiger seemingly choosing subtlety over flamboyance with the Wonderland theme while funnelling much of the fun into one place. Trigger free spins, and who knows? That's when the rabbit hole has the chance to get more cavernous, with potentially bigger thrills and rewards depending on how deep you make it.