Kangaroo Island Slots
Kangaroo Island is a low budget Australian wildlife themed slot with some of the smallest prizes we’ve ever seen. It does however have one of the best Wild features we’ve come across, which delivers regular wins to compensate.
The theme is fun while somehow avoiding being tacky; whereas a generic Australian theme might feature beers, BBQs and hats with dangling corks this one has gone just for the unique Australian wildlife, making it that little bit more tasteful in style. The format is very simple and traditional, coming from Merkur who are originally a land based slot machine provider, more recently adapting their games for online play. This 5 reel, 10 winning payline game offers a top prize of only 100x your stake but if you like your wins in regular small doses then this might be a good slot to choose.
Some Bonza Spins in This Outback
This Australian theme is all about the wildlife, with symbols including a koala, a dingo, a duck billed platypus, an emu and of course, a kangaroo! While the format of this game is quite traditional, the styling is modern, cartoonish and fun. The artwork here could easily be a children’s book or cartoon, making this simple but playful. Australian and even Kangaroo themes have been done before, with other titles such as Kangaroo Land from EGT and Outback Jack by Aristrocrat.
However, we doubt there is a slot out there themed so specifically on Australian wildlife and featuring unlikely animals such as the Dingo, Emu or Duck Billed Platypus. It’s difficult to take a country specific theme and deliver it in a way which isn’t naff and slightly ridiculous, but Merkur have somehow accompanied this with their own restrained take. The backdrop to the game is a bright sky blue which doesn’t detract from the reels themselves.
However, if you visit the pay table you’ll find a more interesting road scene amid the Australian desert, with fern leaves scattered around the sides and a map of Australia at the centre. The Wild here is that most Australian of items: a boomerang!
And the Scatter symbol is a road sign with a kangaroo. The final element is the sound; while the spins generate some generic slot machine sounds, when you get a winning combination a snazzy bit of 80s music plays, another association with Australia. So a simple game, but totally on theme.
Toss the boomerang and see if your stake comes back
This is a 5 reel, 10 winning payline game which like other games from Merkur features the payline numbers along both sides of the reels, which spring into action when a winning combo is landed.
The top prize on offer is just 100x your stake however, a neat feature with the Boomerang Wild means you will receive regular wins to compensate for this. The Boomerang Wild, any time it is landed literally spins as only a boomerang can to encompass its neighboring tiles, transforming those into wilds and giving the associated prizes. Merkur call this a Surrounding Wild, but we think we prefer the term Viral.
The Wild becomes contagious to the surrounding symbols. So should you land two Boomerang Wilds, there’s a good chance you’ll hit the 100 coin top prize. Another feature is the gamble or collect option given at every win, which allows you to gamble in order to potentially multiply your stake to the next highest coin value. Or, if you prefer you can simply collect your winnings and continue. The prizes for all the symbols are shown in the pay table below.
G’Day, Fancy a Spin?
The best way to sum up Kangaroo Island would be good, clean, Australian fun. It’s a simple format, with colourful and cartoonish artwork and very few features.
There is nothing naff or garish about this game; it’s almost a traditional slot but styled for the modern era, or for a children’s storybook. This is a game for someone who prefers regular small wins to the chances of a big payout and the unintrusive Australian theme is just an added bit of amusement.
