Jurassic World

The 2015 movie caught a lot of hype, but proved to be equally interesting for some as it was disappointing for others. And while we don’t think Microgaming wanted to replicate that aspect in their slot, some parts of it seemed to have carried over anyhow. Jurassic World is a 5-reel slot offering 243 ways to win released in June 2017 and gives us that little bit of hope that the publisher has some hope of returning to old glory.

Frequent stacked Wilds, Scatters that can transform into Wilds in case you don’t get enough to activate the free spins, and three different extra round bonuses! And if all that isn’t enough, the Indominus Rex can make an appearance to boost your wins during normal gameplay up to a 1,000x your total bet.

Usually, licensed slots draw in a more casual crowd, big fans of the franchise who might not usually play these types of games. As we’ve seen with South Park’s Reels of Chaos, you usually want to throw in some charm to woo in said players while they’re gambling their money away. However, Microgaming’s Jurassic World feels a bit unpolished.

The outlines will shine a bit when you score a win, but no symbol has any animations and when you score large wins, the title just throws up stills from the movie. It really feels lacking. However, it is much of an improvement gameplay wise than the last few Microgaming releases. The lacklustre paytable sadly still carries over, but at the very least, wins outside of special features don’t feel entirely useless. The Indominus random multiplier can prove a good score, but beyond getting five Scatters, which is a 100x increase in wager, the paytable is boring. When five of a kind wins don’t even break 10x your total bet, you know you have a problem.

There’s no progressive jackpot waiting for us here, which is a shame. We stand by our reasoning that the recent trend of low paying symbols would be a lot easier to swallow if your dead spins at least contributed to a pool you have a hope of winning. Your biggest fixed jackpot is 100x your wager, and the most you could theoretically win is $102,000, which will require the Indominus to make an appearance, or a very lucky set of free spins. You can wager between $0.30 up to $7.20 in this slot, although we wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re feeling really lucky. You can get small wins relatively often thanks to the Wilds appearing regularly, but at most they will either be lower than your wager, or it will cover four or five spins at most.

If you watched the movie, you’ll have seen everything you can find here in terms of icons. Six different kinds of dinosaurs await you, as well as the four main characters from the movie – Owen Brady, Vic Hoskins, Claire Dearing and Simon Masrani. Again, the game doesn’t really have any animations, so they feel more like cardboard cutouts than anything, but we’re just glad to not see poker card symbols floating about! There are three different Scatter bonuses you can activate. Which one is triggered is random, until you activate them 15 times and then you can take a pick on which is your favourite.

We understand why this choice was made, but much like with previous titles that also made use of this, it relies on players activating said special features enough times before they get bored, and there’s no guarantee that players will commit long enough. Gyrosphere Valley gives you a multiplier on each dead spin. The multiplier resets when you do score a win and you’re guaranteed to end on a winning spin. Creation Labs introduces Rolling Reels, which makes new icons appear in the place of old ones when they become part of a win. Wilds are also frozen, and stay stuck in one spot for three spins. Finally, Raptor Den makes all Scatters Wild, Scatters stay stuck until they award additional free spins, and you need three Scatters to unlock five more extra turns. All three give you 10 free spins to start with.