King of Samba

King of Samba: Slot Overview

Once upon a time, you could practically set your watch by developer AvatarUX's reliability. Each and every new release seemed to be a PopWins device of some description as the studio rode its successful slot formula hard. Those days are over because while the studio still releases PopWins slots, it has branched out far and wide. A perfect example of the experimental spirit pervading AvatarUX HQ is King of Samba, which replaces big, expanding grids, masses of ways to win, eye-grabbing potential, and popping for something smaller and more limited in ability.

Vibe is one of King of Samba's main selling points, and it does this quite well. To stoke an atmosphere, the game has a carnival theme, full of drum beats, whistles, and slinky sounds. The visuals hold up their end of the bargain, too, depicting a vibrant street scene to help players pretend they're swaying to the groove on the streets of Rio during Carnival time or somewhere else just as lively if they have other party preferences.

King of Samba is a 3x3, 5-payline slot that creates 3 OAK winning combinations only. To go with the reduced grid size, AvatarUX has toned the math model volatility down to a low setting, as it produces a default RTP of 96.16%. The maths might not be huge, but the bet range is and players can stake from 1 c to $/€300 per game round. Unusual for an AvatarUX game, King of Samba does not have any Xpress bonus buys, ante bets, or anything like that.

Six party-going characters appear on the 6 paying symbols, awarding a payout of 1x to 3x the bet for a winning payline. Wild drum symbols substitute all of the paying symbols and are worth 4x the bet when landing a winning combination of wilds only.

King of Samba: Slot Features

In addition, all wilds in King of Samba are Walking Wilds, and they appear on the top or middle row. After each spin, Walking Wilds drop by 1 position until they disappear from the reels. Walking Wilds can appear with a multiplier of up to x20, and multipliers are additive if more than one is part of the same payline.

Wild Spree

At random, a spin may contain 9 Walking Wilds, each wild having a multiplier of x2 or higher.

King of Samba: Slot Verdict

AvatarUX continues to smash expectations, leading players in directions the studio was not really traversing down not that long ago. Is the studio exceeding expectations on these journeys? Oftentimes, yes, but with King of Samba, for gamblers thrilled by slots which pile on extra rows, provide a ton of ways to win, and dangle bags of winning potential, in other words, what AvatarUX usually produces, then probably not. King of Samba is for a different kind of punter or gambling mood altogether. It's a game almost as concerned with style as it is with substance, as it sets up an energetic partying scene while its gameplay doesn't go much further than that.

Of the actual gameplay, there aren't a lot of things to say. Wild symbols with additive multiplier values offer a leg up in any game, and in King of Samba, they're about all it has to boost the normal run of things. Hit play, and hope wilds rain down like confetti with upper-end multis attached to them. Pay symbol values aren't massive, so the more wild multipliers squeezed in there, the better the chances of transforming them into a decent hit. Maximum winning potential isn't huge in the grand scheme of things, either, but the 1,200x the bet cap isn't out of place considering what King of Samba is capable of doing. One pinnacle moment would be the jackpot-like occurrence of the Wild Spree feature. It's something for those who play the game to cross their fingers for, at least. Quite likely, there is a time and place where King of Samba may shine, but it doesn't seem like the sort of slot that is going to dazzle the shorts off AvatarUX's traditional fanbase.