Tiki Thunder

Tiki Thunder: Slot Overview

The Pacific Ocean is an enormous body of water covering around one-third of the Earth's surface, and dotted with approximately 25-30,000 islands. Apparently, of the many, many islands, there is one that 'holds ancient secrets.' Well, there could be more with secrets IRL, but in this instance, we're focusing on a volcanic island designed by software provider Slotmill to house its online slot Tiki Thunder. Not to give too much of the secret away at this stage, but a lot of the technical bits we're about to uncover here as the adventure unfolds have been acquired, let's say, from elsewhere. However, the creative Slotmill team has made sure its own accomplished fingerprints can be found on Tiki Thunder as well.

Tiki Thunder opens up to flames flickering mesmerizingly from a couple of malevolent-looking torch holders, while glowing eyes in the distance reinforce a subtle undercurrent of menace. While the 'Pacific Paradise' is often presented in a warm, friendly sunlight, as glassy water laps gently against pure white sands, Tiki Thunder takes place during a storm where rain pours and lightning flashes. The visual components combine to create an unusual sense of unease. So even if there might not be much happening on the screen that hasn't been spotted in other slots before, Tiki Thunder is an evocative example of this type of game.

A 5x5 grid hosts the cluster paying action, creating winning combinations when 5 or more matching symbols are connected to each other. Mathematically, Tiki Thunder is a highly volatile slot available in two RTP models, 96.1% is the highest. Its stake range is $/€0.20 to $/€60, and as well as the speedy Burst Mode, players may activate the Xtra-Bet, which adds 50% to the stake in order to make triggering free spins 3.4 times more likely to occur.

Diamonds, clubs, and hearts are the low pays, spades do not appear for some reason, while blue, green, red, and purple masks are the high pays. Hitting a cluster of 12+ in size awards players with 5x to 12.5x their stake. All symbols part of a win explode off the reels, making space for a symbol drop. A wild symbol is placed in one of the empty spaces after each win before symbols fall in. Wilds substitute for all symbols except the scatter. Avalanches repeat until no new win appears.

Tiki Thunder: Slot Features

Tiki Thunder erupts with an Avalanche mechanic linked to a progressive win multiplier, multiplier enhancements, Thunder Surge, Giant symbols, free spins, and Fast Track feature buys.

Progressive Win Multiplier

Each Avalanche win doubles the win multiplier. The win multiplier resets at the beginning of each base game spin. During any round, the upcoming multiplier steps can be enhanced by these modifiers:

• Lava Multiplier - Erupts when reached, causing the meter to advance to the next multiplier value.
• Gold Mask - Adds one to three wild symbols to the reels before the multiplier meter advances to the next step.

Thunder Surge & Giant Symbols

The Thunder Surge feature may activate at the start of any game round. When triggered, the win multiplier increases a random number of steps before the first symbol drop. At the start of a new game round or at the end of a game round when no more wins are present, 2x2 or 3x3 Giant symbols may randomly land. They count as the number of 1x1 positions they cover.

Free Spins & Super Mode

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters in the base game awards 8, 10, or 12 free spins, respectively. During free spins, the win multiplier starts at x1 and does not reset till the round ends. If a Gold Mask activates and the wild symbols it adds do not contribute to a win, the feature retriggers at the start of the next free spin. Scatters are not present during the free spins round. Moreover, Super Mode may randomly activate when free spins start. In this mode, the Giant symbol feature triggers on every spin.

Fast Track

At the Fast Track, players can buy 8+ free spins, 12 free spins, or 12 Super Mode free spins for 100x, 400x, or 1,000x the bet, respectively. For 350x, players can buy the Gamble, which has a 25% chance to land 5 scatters, a 25% chance to land 5 scatters with super mode active, and a 50% chance of a non-winning spin. It is also possible to buy Thunder Surge for 30x, which guarantees a Thunder Surge trigger.

Tiki Thunder: Slot Verdict

Might as well deal with the 10-ton elephant in the room, which is Tiki Thunder's very close resemblance to Yggdrasil Gaming and partners' DoubleMax slots. Fair dues, DoubleMax slots tend to be 5x3 paylines or ways games, but Bang Bang Games did sneak a cluster paying version, The Runemakers, in there too, so this isn't entirely without precedent. What to say? Many studios take inspiration from each other's work; it is what it is, and players are able to express outrage or just go with it. On the plus side, Tiki Thunder grabs hard onto the DoubleMax idea before performing a few tricks to make it its own, up to a point.

One diversion from the norm is the way Tiki Thunder handles the win multiplier increment. Not only does it double on each win, but the Thunder Surge and Lava Multiplier lurk with the ability to jump multiplier steps. Though in saying that, a release like Barbarossa DoubleMax also offered the ability to Multiplier Jump. Still, it's a potent effect in a game that can build crazy win multiplier values, so no complaints having them on board. Giant symbols, too, can provide a leg-up in a cluster pays game, more so the bigger ones, since 3x3s literally guarantee a winning cluster, making Super Mode free spins the far more desirable bonus. As a counterbalance to all the good stuff, Tiki Thunder is able to blunt the effect of its features by, say, hitting more 2x2 Giant symbols, and it could be hard during the review to get lengthy runs of consecutive Avalanche wins rolling.

However, a big 40,000x max win means this is a game that can get a serious roll on when a perfect storm of features is firing. Due to its unpredictable multiplier surges and giant-sized assists enhancing the double-up multiplier formula, Tiki Thunder provides some stiff competition to the DoubleMax franchise, even if a lot of its ideas aren't exactly dripping with original thinking.