Gorilla Mayhem: Slot Overview

From most of the material we looked through while digging into Pragmatic Play’s Gorilla Mayhem, gorillas are often described as “gentle giants” — right up until they feel provoked. That’s when the chest-thumping starts, and you’re suddenly dealing with 300-400 pounds of furious muscle smashing through anything in its way. In calmer moments, though, a troop of gorillas cuddling and grooming can be surprisingly endearing. Luckily, the angrier side is what matters here, because Gorilla Mayhem’s multiplier wilds feature some seriously worked-up looking primates. Alongside these special symbols, Gorilla Mayhem also brings in free spins, which add a progressive layer to the multiplier wilds mechanic.

Gorilla Mayhem drops players into dense jungle terrain. It’s the sort of place where a machete would come in handy for cutting through the brush, and you’d want industrial-strength repellent to survive the mosquitos. It’s also a setting where wildlife seems to be in charge — especially the powerful gorilla. He appears on the loading screen, initially not too interested in causing trouble. Trigger free spins, though, and during the short transition scene between the base game and the bonus, he clearly slips into rage mode. Until that happens, you’ve got time to take in the backdrop and get comfortable with how everything plays.

Starting with the layout, the game uses 5 reels, 4 rows, and 1,024 ways to win. As a highly volatile slot, Gorilla Mayhem is available with three RTP settings, ranging from 96.5% down to 95.5% or 94.5%, depending on the jurisdiction. It’s built to run smoothly across devices and allows wagers from 20 p/c to $/€100 per paid spin.

Wins are formed by matching symbols on adjacent reels starting from the far-left reel, and there are 11 paying symbols in total. The lower values are vine-wrapped 10-A card ranks, paying 1-1.5x the bet for five of a kind, while the higher symbols include snakes, birds, hippos, crocodiles, leopards, and gorillas. Landing a five-symbol winning way with animal icons pays between 1.5 to 4 times the stake.

Two wild symbols appear in Gorilla Mayhem. The first is the regular ‘WILD’, which can land on reels 2, 3, 4, or 5 and substitutes for all symbols except the scatter. The second wild is more targeted: the golden gorilla wild symbol. It also shows up on reels 2-5, but it only substitutes for the top paying gorilla symbol. When this wild displays 1, 2, or 3 gorilla heads, it adds a multiplier of 1x, 2x, or 3x to all winning combinations involving the gorilla symbol.

Gorilla Mayhem: Slot Features

Watch for the thick turquoise crystal that can land on any reel. This is the scatter symbol, and hitting 3, 4, or 5 scatters awards 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. During free spins, landing 2, 3, 4, or 5 scatters grants an extra 5, 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively.

The free spins round includes a progressive collection feature. When the standard gorilla pay symbol or the golden wild versions appear, they are collected. As the paytable describes it (in slightly grim wording), every 40 gorilla heads collected causes the level increases. At level 1, golden gorilla wilds can randomly land with x1, x2, or x3 multipliers. Advancing to level 2 means gorilla heads can be x2 or x3, while level 3 means golden gorillas only appear with x3. Each time level 2 or 3 is reached, you also receive an extra +3 free spins.

Lastly, in eligible regions, players can purchase free spins rather than triggering them through normal play. The price is 80x the bet for 3, 4, or 5 scatters symbols to land and activate the bonus.

Gorilla Mayhem: Slot Verdict

Given how “inspiration” tends to work in the online slots space, it’s hard not to compare Gorilla Mayhem with NetEnt’s Gorilla Kingdom. The longer you examine them side by side, the more overlap you notice. There’s the same main character, the same reels/ways configuration, nearly the same free spins totals, and even the blue jewel scatter looks almost identical. It’s either an eerie coincidence or completely intentional — who knows? The two titles feel like baby gorilla siblings separated at birth, only to reunite later and start pounding their chests at each other over contested ground, or something along those lines.

One more similarity between Pragmatic Play and NetEnt’s gorilla-themed slots is the collection/progressive element during free spins. That said, this is where the paths split and each game goes its own way. While Gorilla Kingdom borrowed the Pink Elephants concept of upgrading lower-paying symbols into higher ones, Gorilla Mayhem approaches its top symbol differently. Here, the deeper you progress, the better the theoretical chance of enhancing gorilla payouts with x2 or x3 multipliers. Higher levels also add extra free spins, and during our Gorilla Mayhem test, free spins seemed to come around frequently. That wasn’t only from hitting level 2 or 3 — two-scatter retriggers also appeared more often than we expected. Of course, it could simply have been a fortunate run. Where Gorilla Kingdom comes out ahead over NetEnt’s release is in terms of max win. This time, players get a title with potential winnings of up to 5,000x the bet, along with stronger odds of actually reaching that ceiling compared to its rival.

Among other things, Pragmatic Play appears to be leaning into a growing fascination with our gorilla relatives. The upside is that their primate-focused slots seem to be improving, and Gorilla Mayhem feels like a clear upgrade over the previous one we encountered, Jungle Gorilla. Overall, Gorilla Mayhem’s features aren’t exactly groundbreaking, and it doesn’t quite reach “alpha” status — but it delivers some solid moments, and the theme is presented with plenty of energy.