African Sunset Slot Machine
African Sunset is a 5-reel, non-progressive video slot from GameArt Games. The title includes 15 fixed paylines and is set on a sun-baked African savannah, a majestic open plain where lions, rhinos and giraffes roam. The bright, vivid casino title boasts a top jackpot of 2,000 credits, but also contains a brace of lucrative bonus features, including a scatter, a wild, free spins and multipliers.
You’ll spot all kinds of wild animals in African Sunset. Who knows, it could motivate you to visit the great continent itself. If you’re lucky, you just be able to fund your trip with winnings put together from playing this slot.
Layout, Controls and Stakes
As stated, the game takes place on the savannah, with the reels appearing in front of a sun-washed scene. As the orange fireball descends below the line of the horizon, the reels come to life. The game logo appears in the top left-hand corner, and the reel grid is decorated by sharpened tribal spears, the like of which are used by huntsmen.
Below the grid are the controls. African Sunset is a Spin and Stop slot, meaning you can hit Stop whenever you want the reels to, well, stop. It sounds self-evident, but most slots don’t let players determine when the reels come to a halt. In this way, you can play as slow or as fast as you like. The control panel also has an AutoPlay button, which you can use to play up to 500 automatic spins. Use the up and down arrows to adjust the bet-per-line, which goes from 0.01 to 0.50. In other words, you can stake up to 7.50 per spin. Considering the total bet is quite low, the pay-outs in the game are very handsome indeed. More on those later, though.
Keeping track of your balance and win amounts is easy thanks to the tabs at the bottom, and players can click on the gearwheel icon in the lower left corner to enable the gamble mode or mute the music. The latter consists of tribal drums and the trumpeting of elephants (believe it or not, the audio can get annoying after 50 spins).
The Base Game
There are only ten icons in African Sunset. They include a rhino, a giraffe, a lion, a zebra and playing cards, from 10 to A. There’s also a tree icon. The graphics are not photorealistic, but they are very good indeed, with lots of detail. They also stand out in the reels in near three-dimension.
The best-paying regular symbol is the rhino, which furnishes players’ pockets to the tune of 1,250 for five, 125 for four and 25 for three. Next it’s the giraffe (125/25/10), whose pay-outs are identical to the zebra. All wins pay to left to right on adjacent reels, and only the highest win on each line is paid.
Wilds and Scatters
The wild icon is the lion. As such, it substitutes for all symbols in the game to help you form pay wins. It’s also the highest-paying symbol, granting the 2,000 jackpot for five, 500 for four, 50 for three and 2.50 for two.
The scatter is the tree. It pays 375 for five, 250 for four and 15 for two.
If a lion symbol and/or tree symbol appears on reels one and five simultaneously, you’ll be gifted 15 free spins. Not only that, but during free spins, a random multiplier of x2, x3, x5 or x10 will be attached to each win. The bonus feature can be re-triggered during free ones, and you’ll be awarded an additional five free spins.
Gamble Feature
You can opt in to a double-or-nothing gamble on any win hit in African Sunset. All you need to do is make sure the gamble feature is enabled at the start of the game. If you don’t want to risk the temptation, just disable it before spinning.
The gamble game has you guess whether the face-down card on the table is black or red. Your winnings are doubled if you guess right. Winnings can be gambled up to five times, but if you make a wrong guess, you lose the lot.
When the Sun Goes Down
African Sunset is a damn fine slot game. Its pay-outs are exceptionally high given the low stakes, the gameplay is strong and the opportunity to win free spins and multipliers is enticing. Give it a go and see how you get on.