Gonzo’s Quest Slot Review – A Slot For Puzzle Enthusiasts
- Gonzo’s Quest Slot
- Overall Score: 4.3/5
- Graphics:
- Sounds:
- Engagement:
- Overall rating:
I still remember the good old days, back when PopCap was THE developer for puzzle games, and you could download free trials of their games from their website that you later needed to activate by inputting a special code that would authenticate the game and ensure you’ve purchased it before unlocking the full version. If you wanted to play puzzle games you had to do a lot of work and fork out some cash, which was why they were pretty niche, overall. But after the mobile revolution, literally, all you had to do to play a puzzle game was pull out your phone and download the game you want – no codes, no authentication, nothing, just plain, free fun! As such, puzzle games grew immensely in popularity in the last five years, with titles such as “Angry Birds” or “Candy Crush Saga” building empires for their developers, to the point where the developer of “Candy Crush Saga” was bought for 5.9 billion dollars, which is just 2 billion under what Disney paid for Marvel AND Lucasfilm combined! With such a success, seeing a mobile-ready slot based around a puzzle-like concept wasn’t a matter of “if”, but a matter of “when”.
Basic Features
“Gonzo’s Quest” is probably NetEnt’s most popular slot, and with pretty good reason. It’s simple, but in a great, intuitive way that allows anyone to understand it without losing the depth that makes modern video slots appealing. The slot starts with a short and rather charming CGI cinematic which sets the stage as 16th century America where the conquistadors are racing to plunder… E-er, I mean to discover the gold of the Mayans and Aztecs. Armed with a map to El Dorado, our main character Gonzo sets out on a quest (haha, see what I did there) to find the lost city and claim its riches for himself. The animation is cute, if rather naïve and innocent, and its charm extends to the slot itself, with Gonzo being ever-present and cheering when you get a good win.
| Gonzo’s Quest Slot | ||||||
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Software: | NetEnt | Double option: | No | ||
| RTP: | 96.00% | Mobile version: | Yes | |||
| Progressive: | No | Coin value: | £0.01-£1.00 | |||
| Autoplay: | No | Bet value: | £0.20 – £50 | |||
| Quick spin: | No | Max. bet: | £50.00 | |||
| Reels: | 5 | Free spins: | Yes | |||
| Paylines: | 5 | Bonus round: | No | |||
I was extremely impressed by the framerate and smoothness of the animation of “Gonzo’s Quest”. Instead of abstract cubes with symbols that spin, the rolls here are represented by stones that fall down and stack up on top of each other in a manner rather reminiscent of games such as “Bejeweled” or “Candy Crush Saga”. The animation of that process is spotless, with all the stones falling smoothly and rocking back and forth subtly for a moment before locking themselves into place. Gonzo’s animations are also fluid – no matter what happens, the little Conquistador won’t stay still for too long. He’ll scratch his beard, look around, and of course, congratulate you when you’re very lucky, though sadly he remains silent on smaller ones.
Paytable
I have to say that the flexibility of the coin value of “Gonzo’s Quest” left an incredibly good impression on me. Most slots tend to be rather limited, only allowing you to choose between a very small range of bets, but the coin value here can go as low as 1 penny and all the way up to a pound, allowing you to make bets as low as 20p (sadly, you can’t choose to only bet on certain paylines) or as high as £50, if you’re feeling adventurous and/or insane. One negative thing I found is that while the RTP is at 96%, I only seemed to win about 40% of the time, and the sums were more often than not lower than my bet.
Not counting the Scatter and Wild symbols, which are very typical of modern video slots, “Gonzo’s Quest” has only seven symbols instead of the usual 10-12, and I’m happy to say that they’re all represented by colourful stones without a single letter in sight! The images are all inspired by traditional Mayan stenography, which might make them a little bit hard to describe, but I’ll do my best! The bottom three symbols all depict stylized animal heads – getting a string of those on one of your paylines will get you between 3 and 100 times your bet. The top 4 are all masks, and those earn between 10 and 2500 times your stake. Aside from the Wild symbol which, as always, can substitute for any other, there’s also a scatter symbol that activates free spins.
Bonus Rounds/Free Spins
The main gimmick of Gonzo’s quest, and the reason why I called it a puzzle-inspired game earlier, is that whenever you manage to win anything at all you activate what is known as an “Avalanche”. Just like in many puzzle games, whenever you get a good combination, those tiles are immediately destroyed, and the remaining ones fall down to fill the holes according to the laws of gravity. After that, if the newly formed combination of tiles just so happens to result in another win, then you get it automatically without betting anything. Multiple wins for the price of one! And to add a cherry on top, after each avalanche you get a multiplier that increases up to 5x, so the more you manage to win in a single spin the higher each subsequent win will be.
When you manage to get three Scatter symbols lined up on one of your paylines, starting with the leftmost reel, you automatically activate Free Fall – this game’s version of free spins. Doing that gives you 10 spins, with the opportunity to win more should you manage to align the Scatter symbols again. As a nice, added bonus, the Avalanche multiplier I described in the previous paragraph is increased three times, allowing you to get it up to 15x during the free spins if you’re really lucky. Sadly, there’s no bonus game at all, and also no jackpot (be it progressive or regular). I would’ve liked it if the number of free spins depended on how well I did in a puzzle-like minigame or something like that, but I can’t really complain too much.
Experience of Playing the Slot and Other Recommended Games
If you want some puzzle game mechanics in your slots, then look no further than “Gonzo’s Quest”. The game might be simplistic, but that doesn’t mean it’s simple, and its structure has the potential to create some really, really tense gambling moments. The low win frequency and the lack of minigames or a jackpot can turn a lot of people off, but if you’re the type of person who’s mostly playing slots for fun rather than for the huge winnings and is fond of puzzle games, then you’ve probably found your new favourite! Still, if you’d like something with a good jackpot that you can actually strife for, I recommend Mega Moolah, which sports one of the most impressive progressive jackpots in the UK.