Lucky Ryan Gigablox

Lucky Ryan Gigablox: Slot Overview

A couple of months before this review, developer Yggdrasil's leprechaun pal Ryan was hiding out in a bar, blasting zombies in Lucky Apocalypse, a much darker take on leprechaun slots than we're used to seeing. He must have won the battle or is flashing back to a happier time because the studio has followed up with Lucky Ryan Gigablox, a slot that reskins basically the same features in a much brighter, sunnier, rainbowed fairytale-type world.

Where Lucky Apocalypse was quite originally laid on for a leprechaun slot, Lucky Ryan Gigablox charges headlong in the opposite, more conventional direction. In other words, the game is a jolly old jaunt in nature amongst trees, flowers, clovers, and the like, all set to a cheerfully Celtic-inspired tune. Cliched? Yes, but not badly executed if you're in the mood for a traditional leprechaun slot soaked in the sorts of sounds and images gamblers have come to expect from this particular genre. Ryan's there too, above the Progress Bar, guitar in hand, smile in place, joining gamblers as they spin and virtually pick flowers.

Played on a 6x5 reelset, Lucky Ryan Gigablox is a scatter pays slot with an Avalanche mechanic and more. On each spin, players may stake 20 c to $/€100, and it is possible to buy the bonus round to skip the base game altogether. Highly volatile, Lucky Ryan Gigablox is available in three RTP configurations, with a 96% version being the most preferable of the bunch.

To win in Lucky Ryan Gigablox, you need to land 8 or more matching symbols in any position on the grid. Winning symbols are removed, causing an Avalanche of symbols and another chance to win. The pay symbols are made up of 10-A card ranks, a beer mug, a liquor bottle, a hat, and a barrel, worth 0.1x to 5x for 8 OAK, increasing to 1.5x to 25x the bet for a 15+ OAK combination. Wilds may appear in the base game, though only through the Progress Bar, to substitute any regular pay symbol.

Lucky Ryan Gigablox: Slot Features

Lucky Ryan is assisted on his quest to get lucky with features such as Gigablox, a Progress Bar, free spins, non-winning spin features, and a bonus buy.

Gigablox

Gigablox are clusters of 1x1 sized symbols that appear as a 2x2, 3x3, or 4x4 symbol. Gigablox split into matching 1x1 symbols upon participating in a win. They may also split, dropping some of their 1x1 segments if irregular empty spaces appear beneath them.

Progress Bar

Each Avalanche adds +1 point to the Progress Bar on top of the grid. After 4 Avalanches, a 2x2, 3x3 or 4x4 Gigablox spawns on the reels, and after 6 Avalanche Wins, 1-4 wild symbols are added to the reels. Manage to get 9 Avalanche wins, and free spins are triggered.

Free Spins

Players win 8 free spins by completing the Progress Bar or by landing 4+ scatters in the base game. In free spins, a Gigablox is guaranteed on each spin. In addition, the Progress Bar changes so it contains growing multipliers of up to x50. Each Avalanche adds +1 point to the bar, granting a higher multiplier. At the end of Avalanches, the highest achieved multiplier is applied to the win then the bar resets. Reaching 9+ Avalanches or landing 3+ scatters grants +8 free spins, plus a payout depending on the number of landed scatters.

Non-winning Features

Non-winning spins can randomly trigger one of these features, creating a winning combination:

• High Luck - a random number of regular symbols turn into high-paying symbols.
• Rock and Luck - a random number of regular symbols turn into random symbols to form a win.
• Lucky Gigablox - a random 2x2 cluster of symbols turn into a Gigablox symbol.

Bonus Buy

Players are able to buy 8 free spins right away from the bonus buy at a cost of 100x their bet.

Lucky Ryan Gigablox: Slot Verdict

Where its predecessor unexpectedly pulled the tired leprechaun slot genre into brave new territory, Lucky Ryan Gigablox drags everything back to wallow in all the usual banalities. We get it; some gamblers prefer familiarity to wandering wide-eyed into somewhere uncomfortable and weird. Furthermore, it's not for nothing that the industry overflows with samey, repetitive stuff, of which, Lucky Ryan Gigablox kind of is. Ah well. Lucky Apocalypse possesses a level of originality that might prompt a test run to see whether gamblers actually like it or not, Lucky Ryan Gigablox is easier to assess for suitability by taking just a quick glance.

Not only is the theme a little trite, but the fact Lucky Ryan Gigablox's features make for repeat viewing didn't inspire much enthusiasm either. The gameplay isn't bad per se; tracking consecutive Avalanche wins on a Progress Bar might be quite engrossing, in much the same way winning symbols fill meters to trigger features in a Reactoonz-type game. Gigablox hit the reels at a certain point, as do wilds, and flipping the Progress Bar to produce win multipliers adds extra impetus for making it into the free spins round. This is especially so since even maximum winning combinations don't have huge values, so jacking them with as big a multiplier as possible would certainly be a help.

On its best day, Lucky Ryan Gigablox is able to crack wins of up to 6,260x the bet, but so can Lucky Apocalypse, which offers the same action but in a far more gripping game world. Oh well, the demand for generic leprechaun slots is apparently still alive and well, so anyone who prefers this kind of activity in a more familiar setting can now do so in Lucky Ryan Gigablox.