Serengeti Kings

Serengeti Kings is one of the newly released games by NetEnt, featuring 5 reels and 4 rows, but with a minimum starting bet of only $0.10. At first glance, one may think it is a Megaways paying game, but it isn’t, but it doesn’t play like the usual slot games either. Serengeti Kings plays in batches of 12 spins, whereby on the 12th spin, either the collected Lion or the Panther symbols would come down onto the reels to create new winning combinations. The Free Spins feature game plays likewise too, but with Wild Multiplier symbols coming into play, for better and bigger winning chances.

Nonetheless, a glance into its paytable would show extremely low win values for all the symbols in play, except for the Wild symbol which pays 50x the total bet for any 5 of them. However, the Scatters are once again non-paying, typical of most new games nowadays, and I don’t like it at all! The top paying regular symbols, the Lion and the Panther, pays only 5x the total bet, whilst the lower symbols pay only 1x - certainly not appealing at all, to say the very least, but good wins would still be possible during the free spins when the Wild Multiplier symbols come into play to boost up the wins. The base game play, on the other hand, being devoid of any win multipliers, simply cannot produce any decent wins, so this part really sucks!

The game starts with 12 Lion spins first, followed by 12 Panther spins next, then they alternate back again. On every 12th spin, the collected symbols, either the Lion or the Panther, would drop down onto the reels in random positions, to create new wins. The 12-free-spins feature game play likewise. The only difference is that the Lion and Panther symbols can overlap each other to become Wild or Wild Multiplier symbols. The more Wild Multiplier symbols on the reels, the bigger the wins, with no other possible ways to get bigger wins.

Needless to say, my few sessions on this Serengeti Kings game turned out to be very disappointing for me. Those Lion and Panther symbols couldn’t produce any decent wins in the base game, and not many Wild Multiplier symbols got created either. Even the Wild symbols tend to land in the wrong positions. Maybe just not my luck, or not my lucky day, but this is one more new game I don’t think I would want to play!

Serengeti King takes you deep into the forest where you get to see a lot of animals. This 5x4 reel slot release from Netent has a lot of potential but a poor and boring base game. This slot is all about the free spins feature, however the graphics is brilliant.

With cartoon style graphics, you’ll see mountains in the backdrop as well as trees and rocks on the plains. Symbols include A, K, Q, J and 10 royals which are nicely designed as they feature animal skins on them. You’ll also see meerkats, zebras, giraffes, hyenas, lions and panthers. The lion and panther are you most lucrative symbols and for 3, 4 or 5 on a payline giving you 1, 2 or 5 times your stake respectively.

The sunset symbol is the wild and appears anywhere on the reels – it replaces all symbols except the scatters. Getting 3, 4 or 5 wilds will pay 3, 10 or 50 times your stake. Do not get excited, as wilds are not very active on the reels.

The Serengeti Kings slot begins with the Lion Spins mode and then the Panther Spins mode. Each last for 12 spins each. During the spins, all lion and panther symbols appearing on the reels are collected into the loin counter and the panther counter respectively. On the 12th Lion Spin, no lion symbols are collected, and the lion feature is triggered. All lion symbols collected in the lion counter are randomly added to the reels and pay outs are awarded. The same applies for the panther spins. During these features, if there is a panther symbol and a lion symbol is placed on the panther symbol, it turns the symbol wild. If a wild is on the reels, it adds a multiplier to the wild symbol.

The free spins feature is triggered when you get 3 or more moon scatter symbols on the reels. You’ll then get 12 free spins. You can get more symbols in the Lion and Panther Counters by triggering the feature with more scatters:
• 3 scatters – you’ll begin with 0 symbols in the Lion and Panther Counters
• 4 scatters – you’ll begin with the number of symbols collect so far
• 5 scatters – 5 more lion and panther symbols are added to the collected symbols in both Counters

The same feature is played where all the lion and panther symbols are added to the reels on the 12th spins. Only during free spins, the symbols come in stacked form, making it easier to collect more.

I think for the first time Netent introduced the buy free spins feature, but its not worth it, unless you buy the 5 scatter option, as you have a better chance of recovering your money at least.