Munchy Milo

Munchy Milo: Slot Overview

We live in a big old universe full of stuff we know little to nothing about, so who can really say what sort of worlds and lifeforms might be lurking at the edges of reality? Software provider Hacksaw Gaming has pondered the possibilities and imagined a planet covered in candy. On its own, that's not so imaginative; loads of candy lands can be found when playing slots, but this one has been discovered by an intrepid explorer, who just so happens to be a monkey, and is titled Munchy Milo. An inventive premise, then, though one that loses a few creativity points on account of being a redo of the solar-powered release Sun Princess.

A little suspension of disbelief or a willingness to voyage somewhere fantastical might help accept what's going on in Munchy Milo. In this sector of the multiverse, the apex species is even more monkey-like than humans, and they've just reached a planetoid coated in candy and edible items. Colonising such a place could be risky if the local population can't help but eat everything in sight. Then again, we're doing a pretty good job of consuming everything on our Earth, so maybe it's just a matter of time till we've 'munched' everything here too. Anyway, Milo is the name of the monkey explorer in the spacesuit who has discovered this place, putting an interesting spin on the lifeform-free candy landscapes often found in slots.

A collection of healthy and not set healthy symbols land on a 7x7 game grid that creates winning combinations by way of cluster pays. When 5 or more matching symbols are connected horizontally and/or vertically, a winning cluster is created. Munchy Milo does not have cascading wins, though. It does have a medium volatile math model, creating a maximum RTP of 96.3%, and it takes bets of $/€0.10 to $/€100.

Five candy symbols are Munchy Milo's low pays, while five fruits are its highs. The largest possible clusters are 49 symbols in size, and they pay 300x-750x for the candies, or 1,000x-10,000x for the fruits. Wilds have the same values as the top fruit symbol when 49 of them are on the reels, and they're able to substitute any paying symbol.

Munchy Milo: Slot Features

Munchy Milo has Jolt Frames that convert symbols in straight lines and add multipliers to wilds, three bonus rounds, and several feature buys.

Jolt Frames & Chain Reaction

One Jolt Frame may land on a pay symbol or wild at the start of a spin, and it activates after wins have ended. When a Jolt Frame activates, it spreads in a straight line to the edge of the grid, turning all symbols on the line into matching symbols that the Frame landed on. The three types of Jolt Frames can spread two ways vertically, two ways horizontally, or four ways horizontally, vertically and diagonally, depending on space. Wins are evaluated after the spread. If a wild is spread over it, it gets an x2 additive multiplier, increasing by x2 each time it is hit by a Jolt Frame. Moreover, if a Jolt Frame spreads over a symbol of the same type as the one the Jolt Frame landed on, it triggers a Chain Reaction. A Jolt Frame appears on the second symbol, which triggers another spread depending on the landed Jolt Frame. This can continue till the grid is full.

Lift Off Luck Bonus Game

Lift Off Luck and 10 free spins are awarded when landing 3 scatters in the base game. It keeps the same mechanics as the main game but has an increased chance of landing Jolt Frames. In each of the three bonus rounds, landing 2 or 3 scatters awards +2 or +4 free spins, respectively.

Gravity Groove Bonus Game

Landing 4 scatters triggers Gravity Groove's 10 free spins. In addition to Lift Off Luck's mechanics, when a Jolt Frame spreads through a wild, the wild gets an x2 multiplier, and it becomes sticky on the grid till the end of the bonus. The multiplier increases by x2 each time a wild is hit by a Jolt Frame.

Going Bananas Hidden Epic Bonus Game

The Epic bonus is activated when landing 5 scatters in the main game. As well as Gravity Groove's mechanics, a Jolt Frame is guaranteed on every spin.

Feature Buys

BonusHunt FeatureSpins cost 2x and cause each spin to be 3 times more likely to trigger a bonus game, while Astronomical FeatureSpins guarantee a Jolt Frame on each spin for 50x. It is possible to buy Lift Off Luck or Gravity Groove for 80x or 200x the bet, respectively.

Munchy Milo: Slot Verdict

Hacksaw Gaming has a talent for thinking outside the box, and they've half done this with Munchy Milo. Instead of drafting up a stock candy land for players to hurt their teeth playing, the studio has backed up all the marshmallows with a story, inserted an unlikely galactic explorer in the guise of a monkey in a spacesuit and turned it all into a space sweety slot instead of the usual Willy Wonka's Chocolate Room. Mechanically, however, Munchy Milo is old news with the features pulled in like a tractor beam from the ethereally anime styled release Sun Princess.

This means a rerun of the Sun Ray Frames (here called Jolt Frames) mechanic, and its branching effects. One of the main stars of Sun Princess and now Munchy Milo is the Chain Reaction feature. Spreading is fine, creating wild multipliers is all well and good, but the real tingles of adrenaline were sparked by a spreading line hitting a matching symbol and branching off in a new direction. Better yet, when spreading lines are hitting multiple matching symbols, which then trigger Chain Reactions of their own. If wild multipliers get caught up in all the chaining, spreading, and activating, so much the better. Full screens of matching symbols are the ultimate goal, and in Munchy Milo, achieving that can be worth quite a bundle. Fruit symbols are what you want in this regard, as a full screen of strawberries, even without a multiplier, instantly equals the game's win cap.

Once upon a time, a Hacksaw Gaming reskin might have caused a bit of a jolt, but these days, not so much as the studio settles into its role as one of the industry's guiding lights. Gotta keep the numbers up when you're at the top to prevent up-and-coming whippersnappers from pushing you down the ladder, and all that. Yet while Hacksaw Gaming redoes are becoming more common, the studio is talented at painting interesting skins, and Munchy Milo is an entertaining repeat.