Trap Tower

Trap Tower: Slot Overview

Software provider Shady Lady is known for pushing edgy themes and dark satire, from brainwashed cult activity to twisted televangelism. Today, it leads players on a tour of the criminal underbelly in the online slot Trap Tower, where a gritty urban setting hosts gang warfare and illicit peddling, with the Five-O standing by to shut it all down. Before they do, make sure to burn the evidence, literally, through flames, multipliers and mystery symbols, because as the docs make clear, 'Sooner or later, the law comes knocking', and no one wants to be left holding the bag.

Trap Tower is a slot full of nefarious characters getting up to all sorts of nefarious activities. This involves building a criminal empire, protecting turf, and taking rival gangs out of the picture, thereby expanding the empire even further. However, the criminals in this game are animals, rather than people, so it's a little harder to take them seriously, despite their willingness to shoot each other, and in some cases, to straight torch each other. A seedy, downtown spot is the heart of Trap Tower's shady business empire, covered with grime, graffiti, and GTA references, all centred on a tower that is climbable in the bonus round.

The action is carried out on a 6-reel grid, but the top and bottom positions of the middle two reels are covered, so symbols land in a 4-4-2-2-4-4 pattern. This unusual set-up gives 1,024 ways to win. There is no way to uncover the covered positions, so the grid stays like this throughout the entire game. As well as a well-stocked Store, players can also choose a regular stake of $/€0.10 to $/€50 per spin. Trap Tower will suit gamblers who like high volatility, while the RTP clocks in at 96.26%.

Trap Tower's regular low-paying symbols are hand-rolled cigarettes, bottles of baby powder, bags of rocks, and scales awarding 0.5x-0.8x for 6 OAK, and its high pays are four suss animal characters worth 1.2x-3x the stake for a 6-of-a-kind winning combination.

Trap Tower: Slot Features

Stashed away in this den of iniquity is the Trap Tower Defense feature, gas canisters, Los Gecko's Locos, Get Some, a bonus game, a super bonus game, and a range of betting extras.

Trap Tower Defense

The Trap Tower Defense feature randomly triggers in the base game. A rival gang performs a drive-by shooting against high-pay fighter symbols on the grid. The feature plays in waves. The car fires first, then surviving fighters shoot back with each hit awarding a coin win. Fighters can be killed, survive or go Berzerk. Berzerk fighters survive 5-20 additional bullets. The shootout ends when one side has been killed. Killing the rival gang awards a larger final reward. The two rival gangs are Pugs of War and the Chi-Chi Cartel. Each hit on the Pugs of War awards 0.2x-1x, while killing them awards 20x-1,000x. Each hit on the Chi-Chi Cartel awards 0.5x-5x, while killing them awards 50x-20,000x the bet.

Additional Features

• Gas Canisters - Gas canisters can appear in the base game and bonus round. When the underlying symbol is set on fire, they explode, revealing a multiplier which is applied to any ways wins crossing that position. Green canisters reveal x2-x4, red canisters reveal x5-x10.
• Los Gecko's Locos - Los Gecko's Locos triggers randomly in the base game. When active, 1-4 Gecko bikers drive by torching the reels with flamethrowers. Each biker targets one row, creating a random number of mystery symbols. Three positions up to a full grid become mystery symbols.
• Get Some - On any spin with mystery symbols, there is a chance Get Some triggers, which upgrades from a low-value to a high-value symbol.

Bonus Game & Super Bonus

Landing 3 scatters triggers the bonus game, where the goal is to burn evidence by landing fire starter symbols on the two outermost reels. Each fire starter spreads mystery symbols to adjacent positions away from its position. If a fire spreads over a gas canister, it explodes, awarding a multiplier that persists till the round ends. Gas canisters exploding on positions that already have a multiplier add the new value to the existing one. There are two types of fire spreader symbols. The green one spreads up to 6 fires, the red one spreads from 6 fires up to the whole grid. The bonus round consists of 4 levels, each with an increased chance of landing at least one fire starter, from 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% at levels 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. Collecting 3 scatters awards +3 spins and progression to the next level, until reaching level 4.

If 4 scatters land in the base game, the super bonus is triggered. It acts the same as the regular bonus except it starts at level 2.

The Store

The Store is stocked with boosters, bonus buys, highlight reels, and loot boxes. The Bonus Boost costs 1.5x to increase feature trigger chances, while the Big Bonus Boost increases them further for 5x the bet. The Thug Life costs 10x to improve the chance of getting a drive-by feature or a bonus, while the Trap Tower Defense Booster guarantees one of the drive-by features on each spin for 40x. The bonus buys range in price from 79x to 1,594x, while the top 3 results from 100, 300, or 500 spins can be bought for 82x, 208x, or 314x the bet. Lastly, loot boxes cost from 186x to 871x.

Trap Tower: Slot Verdict

If GTA and the Muppets had a little slot baby, it might very well end up looking like Trap Tower. Presentation-wise, the game paints a highly detailed vision of grime and crime. Having animals as gangsters holds the tone back from complete grim realism, while the animated sequences, deadbeat characters, and comedic elements reinforce the parody angle. It's hard to feel too intimidated by a ruthless crime syndicate made up of pugs and geckos, but despite the wacky premise, keeping the vibe fun and bouncy, Trap Tower also has two hands firmly wrapped around its bankrolls, and it ain't going to just give them away.

Some of the game brought back memories of Shady Lady's dope filled slot Laced, not just because of the drug references, but because both had an emphasis on mystery symbol reveals. Where Laced's system could be slightly irritating, what with the blocking Bud symbols all over the place, Trap Tower's mystery reveals quite often added an enjoyable tension. They appear via Los Gecko's Locos attacks in the base game and in free spins from those desirable fire starters. Both methods tie in with the subject matter, and the features, on the whole, do a good job of mirroring the chaotic energy of the theme. Drive-by Trap Tower Defense shootings, for example, can be very rewarding and make an excellent base game side feature. In fact, if your posse manages to annihilate the entire Chi-Chi gang, it's possible to claim the 20,000x max win in one big hail of bullets. Free spins may get the job done as well, though they could be rather volatile hit or miss situations. Fire starters, gas canister multipliers, and mystery symbol spreads were the one-two-three combo that led to the highlights of the review.

Some may find the features a tad too fiddly for their taste, and as usual, the theme is a bit out there, but those willing to brave Trap Tower's streets may appreciate how deliberately chaotic the experience is. Shady Lady might be a fairly young outfit, but Trap Tower contributes to its growing track record of designing games for players who want to step away from traditional spin-to-win scenarios into more elaborately designed, provocatively presented, story-driven experiences.