Joker Reelz Slot
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Joker Reelz is one of those gloriously deceptive online slots. At first glance: a dull, old fashioned, simplistic, game, with little to offer the canny online casino explorer. A few spins later: you’re hooked. Obsessed with how many reels will pop into play? Is there a respin on the horizon? Will the joker be back? The game is the work of Lithuanian-based development house Tom Horn Gaming, who proudly boast of their ability to ‘disrupt’, ‘accelerate’ and ‘drive a new age of gaming’. Founded in 2008, the company now has more than 100 games in its portfolio and is busy expanding its presence in the European market.
- Joker Wild also acts as a Scatter.
- Towering Reel creates giant symbols.
- Extremely simple to play.
- Only 9 paylines.
- High minimum bet.
- Joker theme has been seen before.
Key online slots from Tom Horn Gaming include: 81 Frutas Grandes, La Tomatina, The Secret of Ba, Beastie Bux, Book of Aladdin, and – of course – Joker Reelz, released in 2020. The slots all have a crisp, sharp, feel, with solid graphics; bold and direct. Joker Reelz ticks all these boxes. It feels both familiar and new. Confused? Try it and you will see exactly what we mean. In this hungry business, it is almost inevitable that Tom Horn Gaming will eventually be gobbled up by a bigger fish – and you can see why. It brings fresh energy. Does it disrupt? Maybe not, but it rattles the cage and almost rocks the boat.
Joker Reelz Look and Feel
The Joker Reelz slot has a blocky, colourful, feel, with some big animations that interact with the game play. The reels sit in space. Across the top of the screen, the word Joker Reelz is emblazed in neon.
The colour palette is lurid pinks and greens, with deep purples and blues. It looks like a child’s version of an online slot. It may have compliance issues, but it is striking. The reels are framed with lights, reminiscent of a Hollywood-style vanity mirror.
The game’s format means that the five reels are only occasionally actually ‘five’ reels. With every spin, they form into different blocks. The large blocks combine reels together; a giant reel is three reels combined. If it lands on reels one to three, it is an instant win, with three matching symbols.
The audio is also perfectly on point. It is channelling the theme to a daytime soap opera. When you hit spin, stars float onto the screen and the sound effects perfectly compliment the soundtrack. Everything about this game gets better, the longer you stick with it. If you hit the joker icon, a dancing lady harlequin walks onto the screen to conduct the free spins. The combination of slick graphics, fluid animation, and a perfectly weighted audio palette make Joker Reelz a real contender.
How To Play Joker Reelz
Riddle me this: when is a five-reel online slot, not a five-reel online slot? Not surprisingly, Joker Reelz is the answer to this casino conundrum. Yes – it plays out in a five-reel frame, but the reels constantly morph into bigger multiples.
The Joker Reelz slot has only nine winlines and you play them all with every spin. There is no option to play them individually. If you use your mouse to click the game’s small icons, it instantly reveals the value of each.
You can vary your bet, from £0.50 to £100 per spin. There are both options for Bet Max and Autoplay. Hit the Menu to activate Turbo Mode and dig into the game rules. The nine winlines all pay out from left to right, multiplying the total bet. Only the highest wins are paid.
There are no scatters or bonus rounds, but the Joker Wild always triggers a respin. Every extra Joker Wild adds to the number of extra spins. If you hit a joker on a free spin, you get another crack of the whip. The secret to the game is simply hitting a Towering Reel, aka a giant icon, on reels one to three. This sets you up for a potentially big win, with the first three matching icons in the bag.
Joker Reelz Symbols
The Joker Reelz slot symbols all come from the same school of pre-school design. The low game symbols are multi-coloured versions of the four different playing card suits: diamonds, clubs, hearts, and spades. Five hearts or diamonds on a winline gets you your money back. There are only four more basic symbols left in play; all lurid remixes of iconic gaming symbols. In fourth place, is the BAR. Five of these is worth 5x your total bet. Next up, is the hunchback’s favourite: the bell. In pink, on a yellow background, this clanger nets you 12x your total stake, if you line them up on one of the nine paylines.
The runner-up is the 7. Five of these gets you 15x your total bet. But – in first place is a bright yellow star on a pink backdrop. This juicy little sparkler earns you a wallet-busting 50x your total bet, if you manage to land it. The final game icon is the Joker Wild. He substitutes for all symbols – and he triggers the Joker Respins feature. As we already said: if you land him during a respin, you get a repeat. Don’t forget: two or three reels can combine to create a giant reel during any spin.
Joker Reelz Bonuses
Joker Reelz has no specific bonus to shout about, but free spins are built into the game, if you are lucky enough to land a Joker Wild.
In Summary
Tom Horn Gaming has done something very smart with Joker Reelz. The developers have taken a relatively dull online slot and given it enough tweaks to make it something a little special. We were not that excited when we first saw the game, but the ever-morphing reels, combined with the character driven wilds and respins, all add up to create something which is rather fun to play.
The child-like look of the game might be problematic moving forward. Developers are now consciously steering away from anything that could appeal to anyone underage. However, it is all very well executed and plays beautifully.
Sometimes, when you review an online slot, you find things that are somewhat incongruous: a misplaced sound, an inappropriate graphic, some clumsy design. That is not the case here. Joker Reelz is the online slot equivalent of a perfectly cooked sponge pudding –
usually dull, but when perfectly executed: sublime. Grab a spoon and tuck in.