Serpentico Smash

Serpentico Smash: Slot Overview

The inexorable pull of Mesoamerica has sucked another software provider into its lush, green, richly cultured orbit. This time, it's casino game maker Thunderkick sampling the sights and returning with the online slot Serpentico Smash. It's a game that lives up to its name by smashing symbols in a violent cluster pays, cascade process, linked to symbol collecting and wilds being placed on the grid, in a game which advises players to 'try not to stand directly underneath anything important.' That said, it is time to see if Serpentico Smash has the venom to stand out from the forest of other Aztec-type slots, or whether it becomes just another forgotten relic lost amongst the trees.

Thunderkick has used a blocky style to paint Serpentico Smash, which suits the game as a whole well. It's not the most visually inspirational Aztec-inspired slot ever designed, though. Players who like wide, sweeping views of the forest, mountains, and step pyramids rising majestically up through the crowds won't get any of that here. Instead, the view zooms in on a wall, framed by leafy plants, where symbols drop down and smash each other to bits. So even though Serpentico Smash might not inspire anyone to make a real-life journey to Mesoamerica to witness its wonders first-hand, it does have a satisfyingly bulky appearance.

Serpentico Smash creates wins using a cluster pays system. A cluster occurs when 5 or more matching symbols connect vertically or horizontally on the 5x6 gaming grid. Gamblers can stake $/€0.10 to $/€100 in this highly volatile slot, where the RTP is 94.18%.

Six regular paying symbols land in the game. There are three gems set in rock and three stylistic animal symbols. Clusters consisting of 5 symbols pay 0.1x to 0.4x the bet, and landing the largest clusters of 20+ OAK is worth 10x to 50x the bet. Wild symbols contribute to winning clusters by substituting for all regular pay symbols.

Serpentico Smash: Slot Features

Serpentico Smash gets its smash on with the help of a Crush feature, Charger Meter, global multiplier, bonus game, Bet+ and bonus buy.

Crush Feature

The Crush feature triggers on every win or when there is a scatter in view. Winning symbols and scatters become heavy, crushing all symbols below them on the same reel except other heavy symbols. All heavy and crushed symbols are removed, causing a redrop. This process repeats until no more wins or scatters appear on the grid.

Charge Meter

The Charge Meter fills with crushed symbols and needs 30 of them for a full charge. Crushed symbols add 1 step, though a crushed wild adds 30. Each full charge adds 1 to the Collected Wilds meter, up to a maximum of 5. When no more wins occur, no scatter is present, and it holds at least one charge, the Collected Wilds meter activates, adding one wild to the grid for each full charge. After activation, the Collected Wilds meter resets, but the Charge Meter can continue to fill. The Charge Meter resets to 0 at the end of each spin.

Global Multiplier

All wins are multiplied by the global multiplier, which gets reset at the end of each spin. The global multiplier increases when a multiplier symbol is crushed. Multiplier symbol values range from x1 to x50.

Bonus Game

The bonus game is activated by collecting 3 scatters, awarding 10 free spins. Before the round starts, the global multiplier and the Charge Meter are reset. During free spins, the global multiplier and Charge Meter are persistent and only reset when the round ends. Landing a scatter during the bonus awards +1 free spin.

Bet+ & Bonus Buy

The Bet+ has three choices - the Bonus Boost or Bonus Boost Plus cost 1.5x or 2.5x, making each spin 2 or 5 times more likely to trigger free spins, respectively. The Smash Boost costs 3.5x and makes each spin 3 times more likely to trigger free spins, with multiplier symbols starting at x3. By contrast, there is just one bonus buy, triggering free spins for a cost of 75 times the stake.

Serpentico Smash: Slot Verdict

Thunderkick is a studio that sits on the more innovative side of the spectrum, and it's brought an interesting twist to the cluster pays/cascade combo common in slots. While the Mesoamerican style is one of the most oversaturated groups in online slots, the studio manages to breathe some air into it, though not so much through ground-breaking visuals, but rather by using some satisfying smash physics. Instead of trying to outdo its rivals by painting the most inspiring vista it can, Serpentico Smash narrows the focus to its action-filled gaming grid. So while the blocky art style might lack the impact of more visually soaring Aztec titles, it nevertheless serves its purpose of making the on-grid destruction impactful.

What makes Serpentico Smash work is the way its features interact, though they won't always lead anywhere special. It's a game that can smash its way through a lot of consecutive wins, but which can often end up not producing a whole heck of a lot of monetary rewards at the end of a long run. Top-end clusters are needed to really get anywhere, or a mighty global multiplier value, or both, better yet. Free spins make the job more surmountable since the global multiplier is persistent and it could indeed grow to sizable values. Adding wilds to the reels is a bonus too, while collecting symbols to charge a meter in a way that brought Slotmill's Coin Quest slots to mind. Serpentico Smash brings it all together quite well, and satisfying runs of clusters, crushing, wilds, and multipliers can ensue, but as mentioned, it was curious the way a flurry of activity could lead to surprisingly modest results.

On the whole, Serpentico Smash put up a decent show. If you thought you'd seen all a cluster pays, cascade combo could possibly do, then the Crush feature adds a new dynamic element. The game's winning potential was lower than expected, coming in at 5,000x the bet, but achieving that amount, or getting anywhere close to it, would be quite the ride given the features it has to work with. And even if it doesn't go all the way, Serpentico Smash should appeal to gamblers who find themselves in a cluster pays mood while looking for something that breaks from the norm.