Professor Clank’s Combinator

Professor Clank's Combinator: Slot Overview

It appears Australian developer ReelPlay has taken a slight hiatus from loading the market with Infinity Reels slots to concentrate on things like their 10K Ways mechanic, as well as brand new projects. One of the new projects to come flying from the ReelPlay production line is Professor Clank's Combinator. This is a scientific explosion of sights, sounds, and rambunctious characters, alongside such features as Explosions, Morphs, Boosters, and a unique Bonus Respins round.

Apologies if this sounds judgmental, but with a name like Professor Clank, we had visions of all sorts of wacky scientific activity going on. Apparently, so did ReelPlay, who designed a Steampunk-esque workshop packed to the rafters with all sorts of brass-based gadgetry. With a similar visual quality to Money Mariachi, Professor Clank's Combinator is a very colourful slot where the workshop fizzes, pops and jiggles in time to the action taking place on the reels. The mechanical mayhem works too, and Professor Clank's Combinator has a playful Machinarium, Bioshock Infinite feel that made it fun to review.

The cranking and clanking occurs on an initial 6-reel, 3-row game grid that provides up to 707 ways to win. Playable on all devices, tickets to Clank's experiment start at 0.25 p/c before rising to $/€25 per spin. Approximately every fourth spin fires off a win in what is a low volatile slot, producing a theoretical return value of 96.01%.

Professor Clank's Combinator's paytable starts with welded steel looking card royals (9-A), paying 0.5 to 1.2 times the stake for six of a kind, then higher value spanners, goggles, blasters, and robots which are worth 2-10x the bet for six of a kind. The Professor wild symbol appears on reels 2, 3, 4, or 5 to replace all symbols except the scatter.

Professor Clank's Combinator: Slot Features

The main goal in Professor Clank's Combinator is its Bonus Respin feature, but on the way, players benefit from Explosions, Morphs, Boosters, and Drops, which are all interconnected. Let's take a look.

Explosions, Morphs, Boosters & Drops

When a winning combination hits, all non-winning symbols, except scatters, are removed from the reels. Those that remain drop to the lowest position available on their reel. After explosions have taken place, if more than one symbol type remains, they all morph into the highest paying symbol present. After Explosions and Morphs, if any previously winning symbol is no longer in a winning position, extra matching symbols are added to one or more adjacent reels to make it a winning symbol.

After Explosions, Morphs, or Boosters have occurred, a new symbol is dropped onto the top of each column which is less than 5 symbols high. Any dropped symbol that improves the win is kept, others (except scatters) explode. If the new symbol win value is greater than it was before the Drop, an extra Drop is triggered. When no more Drops occur, the final win value is awarded.

Bonus Respins

Hitting 5 or more scatter symbols gains you access to the Bonus Respins round. All non-scatter symbols explode, drop to the bottom of the grid, and 3 respins are awarded. For each respin, a new symbol is dropped onto each column which is less than five symbols high. New scatter symbols are held, and they reset the spin count while non-scatter symbols explode. When respins run out, each scatter in view awards a cash prize of 1-100x the bet or a bonus prize. Bonus prizes are named Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum, worth 10x, 50x, 250x, or 2,000x the bet, respectively.

Gamble

When the bonus round ends, players have the option of gambling the winning total. This can be done up to three times by spinning a green and black segmented wheel. You can choose to multiply the winnings by 1.25x to 10x and whether to risk half or all of the winning amount.

Buy Bonus

Eligible players have the option of buying the Bonus Respins feature for the cost of 50x the bet. This triggers a spin where at least five scatters land.

Professor Clank's Combinator: Slot Verdict

Professor Clank's features might appear slightly complicated in written form, but in practice, they are straightforward. In the base game, it's a matter of landing winning combinations, then hoping additional matching symbols are added to improve the win. Same in the bonus game, really – hit as many prize symbols as possible before spins run out and collect the winnings. Or, gamble them for a chance to improve the win. However, unlike the sorts of gamble features ReelPlay has used in games like Bananaz 10K Ways, being unsuccessful means you lose the lot rather than drop down a notch on a multiplier trail.

To be fair, the convoluted paytable instructions kind of suited Professor Clanks' Combinator's intricately designed Steampunk scientist in a lab scenario. With the theme, ReelPlay has come up trumps, and the activity taking place off the reels can be as exciting as on it. In a way, because winning possibilities in Professor Clank are pretty decent, where a win cap of 10,000x the bet has been put in place. Well, that's the limit ReelPlay has placed on the gamble feature. Outside this, the realistic max win is likely to be less impressive.

Nevertheless, with the building element of the Explosion/Morph/Drop thing in the base game, decent wins are technically possible there, too. Bonus Respins are quite interesting as well, having a streak respin origin but with a new stacking twist. The low volatility might be a show stopper for some, and on the whole, Professor Clank's Combinator pours forth plenty of smoke and fireworks, yet it's hardly a heavyweight contender.

That is unlikely to matter much to players drawn to Professor Clank's Combinator's excellent presentation, ReelPlay having done a great job with the playful, eccentric scientist trope. Professor Clank's Combinator's respins had a similar feel to Nunchucks Chicken's bonus round, too, so the game might appeal to players who appreciate a Tetris-like element while gambling online.