Most of the resources we read when investigating Pragmatic Play’s Gorilla Mayhem agreed that gorillas are “gentle giants” until they perceive an immediate threat. That’s a recipe for bragging rights and the possibility of 300-400 pounds of seething muscle ripping everything to shreds. How sweet it is to see a family of gorillas grooming and caressing each other while they’re in a calm mood. Gorilla Mayhem’s wild multiplier symbols feature some very upset looking apes, so maybe that’s not such a terrible thing. In addition to these specialized icons, Gorilla Mayhem also provides free spins, which make the multiplier wilds feature more progressive.
In Gorilla Mayhem, the player is placed in the thick of the jungle. The dense vegetation makes a machete useful, and strong insect repellent is required to combat the pesky local mosquito population. There are however creatures that seem to have absolute power in this area, most notably the giant gorilla. However, he is only present on the load screen and is not actively seeking to cause trouble at this time. However, if you activate free spins, he gets really angry during the transition between the regular and bonus games. Players get some time to settle down, take in the sights, and get the hang of things before the real action begins.
The grid layout features 5 reels and 4 rows for a total of 1,024 possible paylines. Gorilla Mayhem is a very volatile slot that may be found with one of three different return to player (RTP) percentages ranging from 96.5% to 95.5% or 94.5%. The game has been optimized for play across several platforms, and players may put down anywhere from 20 percent to 100 pounds or euros every round.
There are 11 different pay symbols, and players win when matching symbols land in adjacent columns starting from the left. For example, there are 10-The lowest paying combination is five cards (1–1.5x the stake), followed by snakes, birds, hippos, crocodiles, leopards, and gorillas. A reward of 1.5 to 4 times the bet is awarded for a successful combination of five animal symbols.
Gorilla Mayhem makes use of not one but two wild symbols. Wild symbols (‘WILD’) occur on reels 2, 3, 4, and 5 and can replace any symbol other than the scatter. There is greater specificity in the other wild. On reels 2-5, a golden gorilla acts as a wild symbol, replacing any symbol save the highest paying gorilla. When this wild symbol has 1, 2, or 3 gorilla heads, all winning combos including gorilla symbols are multiplied by 1, 2, or 3 times, respectively.
Slot Features in “Gorilla Mayhem”
The large turquoise crystal might appear on any reel. Landing 3, 4, or 5 of these scatter symbols awards 10, 15, or 20 free games, respectively. While in free spins mode, 2–5 scatters triggers 5, 10, 15, or 20 more free games.
The number of bonus spins you receive increases as you play. The gorilla pay symbol is collected when either the standard version or the golden wild variant appears. A level up occurs after collecting 40 gorilla heads, albeit this is worded somewhat differently on the paytable. Wild golden apes can award a multiplier of x1, x2, or x3 at level 1. Level 2 allows for either x2 or x3 gorilla heads, while level 3 only allows for x3 golden gorillas to land. When you hit level 2 or 3, you’ll receive an additional 3 free spins.
Finally, players in certain jurisdictions can opt to purchase free spins rather than waiting for them to be awarded to them automatically. If you get 3, 4, or 5 scatters to activate the feature, it will cost you 80 times your wager.
Slot Machine Carnage Caused by Gorillas
When considering the prevalence of ‘inspiration’ in the realm of online slots, it’s hard to escape drawing parallels between Gorilla Mayhem and Gorilla Kingdom, a slot machine developed by NetEnt. The longer you play each game next to each other, the more parallels you will see. The main character, the grid/ways structure, the amount of free spins, and even the blue gem scatter are all the same. Strangely similar. Or maybe it was on purpose; who knows? Both games are like long-lost siblings who were separated as infants by poachers or something and have only recently reunited to go at each other over a contested region while slamming their chests at each other.
A collection/progressive system in free spins is another feature shared by Pragmatic Play and NetEnt’s gorilla games. But now the two slots are beginning to behave differently from one another. The highest value symbol in Gorilla Mayhem is treated differently than in Gorilla Kingdom, which re-created the Pink Elephants mechanic of raising low-value symbols to high-value ones. Theoretically, the more up you go in this game, the more likely you are to increase your gorilla winnings by using the x2 or x3 multipliers. Additional free spins are provided at higher levels, and this appeared to be the case during the Gorilla Mayhem demo. More often than predicted, players landed two scatters, and not merely because they had progressed to level 2 or 3. Perhaps we lucked out, though. In terms of potential payouts, Gorilla Kingdom outperforms NetEnt’s new game. This time around, players get a game that offers greater odds of winning and a jackpot worth up to 5,000 times their initial wager.
Pragmatic Play seems to be responsible for increasing awareness of our gorilla relatives. Gorilla Mayhem is an improvement over the last primate-themed game we encountered, Jungle Gorilla, so there’s that. To sum up, Gorilla Mayhem’s features aren’t really noteworthy, the game doesn’t quite reach alpha level but has its moments, and the subject is wildly portrayed but ultimately unsatisfying.