African Elephant: Slot Overview

Pragmatic Play heads out on safari with an online slot titled African Elephant. The name is straightforward—maybe even a touch plain—spelling out the theme and star in just two words. That simplicity carries through much of the experience, as this isn’t exactly one of the studio’s most inventive releases. Still, things can get lively when the extras come charging in, even if you could easily overlook the Slot Features section where we break down the Wild Shape and the set of triggered or purchased free spins.

African Elephant looks instantly recognizable, so anyone who has tried an Africa-themed slot will likely know what’s coming here as well. Expect sunbaked grasslands, roaming wildlife, distant hills, a winding river, and acacia trees spreading their umbrella-like canopies across the savannah. It’s a familiar formula, and players who enjoy this style shouldn’t have any trouble warming to African Elephant’s visuals. The soundtrack fits too, though it’s calmer than many similar games—more laid-back than drum-heavy—yet it complements the graphics nicely.

African Elephant runs on all devices—tablets, mobiles, and desktops—and takes stakes from 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin. Rated 4.5 out of 5, it’s a highly volatile slot with a maximum return to player of 96.04%. There’s no indication that the RTP changes when free spins are bought, so it’s reasonable to assume it remains the same. Gameplay takes place on a 5-reel, 4-row grid with 20 unchangeable paylines to land winning symbol combinations.

The paytable uses J-A card ranks as the low-value symbols, while higher payouts come from animals like a meerkat, leopard, wildebeest, zebra, and rhino. A five-of-a-kind line across the reels returns 4 times the bet for low pays, and 5 to 30 times the bet for the premium symbols. Elephants make their real impact through the wild symbol and the Bonus symbol. Wilds can appear on all five reels and substitute for every symbol except the Bonus, but they only enter the grid through the Wild Shape feature. If a wild line connects, a five-symbol win pays 75x the bet.

African Elephant: Slot Features

African Elephant uses a familiar pairing: modifier-driven free spins. The modifier here is called the Wild Shape, while the bonus round itself is simply named free spins.

Wild Shape

On any spin, there’s a chance that, once the spin ends, a shape appears on the screen, framing random positions. When this happens, every symbol inside the outlined area is transformed into wild symbols. After the conversion to wilds, wins can then be evaluated.

Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 Bonus symbols in either the base game or within the bonus round awards 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. While the free spins round is active, a Wild Shape is guaranteed to trigger on every single spin.

For anyone who doesn’t want to wait for the heat to rise naturally, free spins can be purchased for 100x the bet. When the feature is bought, 3, 4, or 5 Bonus symbols will appear to start it.

African Elephant: Slot Verdict

If the goal of returning to nature is to keep things simple, then Pragmatic Play delivers. African Elephant is a straightforward slot centered on a fairly uncomplicated modifier that can show up occasionally in the base game or on every free spin. It’s a perfectly serviceable idea; loading the reels with wilds in hopes of connecting matching symbols is never a bad thing. But there isn’t much beyond that, so if a single extra-wild mechanic doesn’t excite you, it may be best to move on—because from a gameplay perspective, that’s largely the whole package.

From a technical point of view, the Wild Shape works well enough; it’s just quite basic, which raises the question of how long it will stay interesting before it starts to feel repetitive. It does appear in both the base game and the bonus, which helps, but it still comes across as a little thin on its own. The possible saving grace is the game’s potential to pay big. Even if Wild Shape doesn’t look especially powerful, the stated win cap of 15,000x the bet suggests African Elephant can still produce some very strong results.

Overall, African Elephant is a decent example of the African slot style. It focuses on doing essentially one main thing and executes it about as well as it can. If the Wild Shape mechanic appeals to you, it should provide some entertainment. If not, the minimal, almost copycat vibe may not do enough to stand out.