Lions GigaBlox

Lions Gigablox: Slot Overview

Lions are known as the kings of the jungle, but how exactly were they elevated to this regal status? They aren't the biggest or the strongest beasts out there, nor do they really live in jungles. Whatever the reason, lions are majestic, not to mention dangerous, animals, and they've been honoured by developer ReelPlay in the online slot Lions Gigablox. As the name lays out, not only do gamblers get to tangle with the king of the jungle, but they also get to romp alongside the Gigablox big symbol mechanic straight from ReelPlay's partner Yggdrasil Gaming's tool kit.

Design an African savanna slot, and a casino game maker has to do something very special to make it stand out from the herd visually. This ReelPlay has not really done. Don't get the wrong impression, Lions Gigablox makes a fine enough graphical statement, but it also looks like 50 other games that are set in the same neighbourhood. Eh, you know how it is: dry yellow grasslands, towering trees like huge umbrellas acting as shields from the sun, a meandering river, distant mountains, wide blue skies, that sort of environment. As mentioned, nice, but nothing special.

Raging like a semi-ticked off lion is a medium-high volatile math model available in several RTP configurations. The default return value is 96%, and bets vary at slightly inconvenient intervals from 40 c to $/€26. This is likely to be because the 6-reel, 4-row gaming matrix operates 40 paylines for evaluating winning combinations.

Classically African slot-fonted 9-A card ranks are Lions Gigablox's low-pay symbols, which are followed by higher value hyena, warthog, meerkat, and lioness symbols. Lines of 6 royals pay 0.25x to 1.5x the bet; lines of 6 matching animal symbols are worth 2 to 3.75 times the bet. The lion is wild and appears on all reels. Lions replace all other pay symbols and are worth 10x the bet for a 6 wild winning line.

Lions Gigablox: Slot Features

Lions Gigablox leans more to tradition than innovation in the features department, delivering a combination of Gigablox, tumble wins (around here called explosions), and free spins where a rising win multiplier gets tossed to the pride like a slab of bloody meat.

Gigablox

Gigablox are larger than regular symbols available in sizes of 2x2, 3x3, or 4x4. Every spin will have at least one Gigablox reel. Any symbol, including the wild and the scatter, can land as a Gigablox.

Explosions

Each winning symbol (not scatters) explodes and is replaced by symbols dropping from above. When any part of a Gigablox symbol is used in a winning combination, the entire Gigablox symbol explodes. If an explosion creates a gap below a Gigablox symbol that it is too wide for it to fall into, the Gigablox is split into 1x1 sized symbols.

Free Spins

Hitting 5 or more scatter symbols triggers the free spins feature - 2 free spins are awarded for each triggering scatter symbol. During the free spins round, a win multiplier starting at x1 is added in. Symbol wins in free spins are multiplied by the multiplier. Also, the multiplier increases by +1 at the start of any cascade. The win multiplier is maintained for the entire free spins session, and it does not have an upper-value limit. Hitting 5 or more scatters retriggers free spins, with each retriggering scatter awarding +1 free spin.

Lions Gigablox: Slot Verdict

There was something déjà vu-ish about Lions Gigablox. Perhaps it was because Yggdrasil Gaming made a similar-looking game titled Gator Gold Gigablox and, to a lesser extent, Gator Gold Deluxe Gigablox. Maybe it's because there are so many African wildlife slots cluttering up the shelves already they blur into one another. Maybe both reasons, because Lions Gigablox felt like visiting an old acquaintance when it leapt up on the screen. Familiarity can be a double-edged sword. When it works, a warm, cosy sensation ensues. When it doesn't, the repeat performance can be stale. Lions Gigablox skirts between these two extremes while leaning precariously towards stale, despite being a nicely presented example of an African outdoors game.

The same goes for Lions Gigablox's features. None of them are scoffable inclusions, but none are exceptional either, and the game info mentioning that 'every spin promises an exhilarating adventure' is a tad optimistic. Especially base game spins, since the win multiplier is not present in that phase of play, reserved as it is for free spins only. It is a critical piece of the puzzle, too, since without the power of multiplication, regular unaltered winning combination values aren't ginormous. Explosions exist at all times, but even then, Lions Gigablox's full 8,622x winning potential feels out of reach when not coasting through a free spins session.

Combine pleasantly plain theme treatment with pleasantly plain features, and you've got a game that is, hard to avoid saying this, pleasantly plain. ReelPlay has played it totally safe when the team behind it came up with the gameplay and presentation of Lions Gigablox, resulting in an okay, though bland slot.