Apes of Wrath: Slot Overview

Fans of American realist fiction might feel a slight letdown that they won’t be tagging along with the Joad family and the other “Okies” on their westward journey toward California’s supposed promised land. Instead, developer iSoftBet leans into a smart pun, moving the setting away from North America’s dust bowls and migrant camps and into the dense, green African jungle. Here, a crazed-looking gorilla takes the alpha role, backed by a troop of lesser apes, alongside respins and free spins in a package that doesn’t exactly redefine the genre.

Apes of Wrath delivers a familiar wildlife vibe, like a mash-up of Wolf Gold and Gorilla Kingdom that’s instantly recognisable. Between the very bright low-value symbols and the animated animal faces on the reels, it has an old-school slot feel. A 5-reel, 3-row layout sits among trees and pools, with sunbeams cutting through the canopy as mosquitoes hum in the background. At first glance, there’s little that sets Apes of Wrath apart from the many other jungle-themed slots, and honestly, that impression doesn’t really change as you keep playing.

The slot runs smoothly on any device, and stakes can be set from 20 p/c to $/€20 per spin. Volatility sits around the middle of the spectrum, so this ape isn’t as ferocious as some players might prefer. The upside isn’t massive either, and you’ll likely need plenty of wilds landing during features to squeeze the most from it. Even then, don’t expect a torrent of glittering riches to pour in, as you’ll soon find out. The RTP is respectable, though, with Apes of Wrath offering a theoretical return of 96.01%.

In the base game, each spin plays across 20 paylines, with wins formed by 2 to 5 matching symbols. The lower end of the paytable is made up of 10-A royals, followed by four higher-paying animal icons. Those premium symbols include toucans, small furry critters, crocs, and gorillas. Five-of-a-kind animal hits return 12.5 to 25 times your stake, and the top two premium symbols pay from two of a kind and up. The final symbol before the feature set is the wild, also shown as a gorilla. It doesn’t pay by itself, but it substitutes for every symbol except the bonus to help complete winning combinations.

Apes of Wrath: Slot Features

Overall, the feature set is fairly restrained, much like the rest of Apes of Wrath. The main highlights are a free spins round awarded via a Bonus Wheel and Wild Ape Respins, with both features expanding the play area when they activate.

If 3 consecutive reels land stacked gorilla symbols, they combine into one giant symbol and trigger Wild Ape Respins. Before the respins begin, the wild-eyed gorilla smashes the reels, extending the grid by adding an extra row. During Wild Ape Respins, all gorilla symbols turn wild and the number of paylines is doubled to 40.

Hitting a scatter on reels 1, 3, and 5 activates the bonus wheel. The wheel drops into the centre of the screen and can award up to 20 free spins + up to 50 added wilds. After the free spins/wilds total is determined, the bonus round begins. It also runs on an expanded 4×5 sized grid with 40 paylines active. Beyond the extra wilds appearing on the reels, not much else is different. In fact, there’s essentially no other change. Finally, free spins cannot be retriggered.

Apes of Wrath: Slot Verdict

“I’m jus’ pain covered with skin,” Sairy Wilson told the Joad family as they pushed across America toward the promised land. Spinning Apes of Wrath probably won’t drag players into that kind of misery, but it also isn’t the sort of slot that energises you with bold ideas or boundary-pushing design. Wilds dominate this jungle, driving most of the bigger wins and much of the fun. “Big” is relative, though, and Apes of Wrath is better suited to players who don’t want to wrestle with a truly savage, high-powered game. The visuals are merely fine, the potential is moderate, and the features don’t deliver quite as strongly as they might initially suggest.

Wild Ape Respins are a good example. The key point is that the 3 reels of ape wilds aren’t sticky. So rather than holding a solid 3×3 wild block in the centre to pull in loads of combinations, the setup splits and spreads the nine wilds across the reels. They might appear again on a respin, or they might not, which can be a frustrating discovery. An extra row is always welcome, and more paylines helps too, but it’s not a shortcut to serious profits. Even a full screen of gorillas only pays 1,000x the bet, so the overall ceiling isn’t especially high. It may be down to the reel/payline format, but the free spins round isn’t particularly thrilling either, even with the expanded layout. It ends up feeling like a longer run of Wild Ape Respins, and it can’t be retriggered.

Sometimes it feels like Apes of Wrath exists mainly because someone at iSoftBet came up with a memorable title and didn’t want to let it go to waste. Beyond the entertaining wordplay, there isn’t much about Apes of Wrath that stands out as truly gripping. Unless you’re specifically after that physical, old-school slot style, there’s not a strong case for giving Apes of Wrath a spin.