Halloween Jack introduction

When we first heard about this fresh NetEnt slot, we rushed into the action like kids on Christmas morning, ignoring both the splash screen and the info page. Within seconds a wild lands and starts strolling across the reels. Instant chills. Haven’t we witnessed this somewhere before!? The few remaining brain cells in our heads start firing on all cylinders, and soon the conclusion becomes obvious — the “new” NetEnt title we were excited for has set off our clone alarm. Seasoned players will quickly notice that Halloween Jack is built on the 2011 NetEnt classic Jack And The Beanstalk – still praised by many and often regarded as one of NetEnt’s finest creations. But is it simply a copy, or is there more to it? Let’s see.

Halloween Jack runs on a 5-reel, 3-row layout with 20 pay lines. With stakes from €0.20 to €100 per spin on all devices, it caters to both casual bettors and big spenders. Here’s where it gets interesting: when you compare it directly with Jack And The Beanstalk, you’ll find the same reel set, the same number of pay lines, identical bet settings, and the same 96.28% RTP, which is a pretty strong sign that we’re looking at a clone.

Leaving the technical details aside, what about the look and feel? It’s seriously impressive, so credit to NetEnt’s design team. This is a horror-themed slot, set in a dark, foggy graveyard, backed by an unsettling sound loop that reinforces the eerie mood. The background is packed with effects — lightning flashes, ravens swoop by, and fires blaze — so it’s probably a fairly resource-hungry game.

Halloween Jack symbols

As noted earlier, the paytable matches the one in Jack And The Beanstalk, so if you know the original you can safely skip ahead. Either way, you get 10 regular symbols in total — 5 low-paying symbols plus 5 premiums shown as horseshoes, ravens, bats, demon horses and possessed girl, with the possessed girl as the top payer at 50x for 5 across a full line.

There’s a walking wild mechanic in both the base game and the free spins round, and it multiplies all wins by 3. Whenever a wild lands, you receive a re-spin, and the wild shifts one reel to the left. The re-spin sequence stops once no wilds remain on the reels. Familiar, right?

Halloween Jack Free Spins

Now for the free spins, where the real fun (hopefully) begins. To enter, you need to hit 3 treasure chest scatter symbols anywhere on the reels, which awards 10 free spins. If 3 or more scatters show up during the free spins, you gain 5 additional free spins.

It only took a short while to notice that the free spins play exactly like the original — the only change is the theme and visuals. Rather than gathering keys, players collect lanterns in the following way:

• Stacked Hell Hound Wild – collect 3 lantern symbols, and the next wild appearing on the reels will become a 2 symbols high stacked wild.
• Stacked Jack-o’-lantern Wild – collect 6 lantern symbols, and the next wild appearing on the reels will become a 3 symbols high wild.
• Expanding Death Reaper Wild – collect 9 lantern symbols, and the next wild appearing on the reels turn into an expanding wild. The wild expands to cover the entire reel and shifts to the left one reel at a time.

Halloween Jack Conclusion

As much as we enjoy Jack And The Beanstalk, it’s hard not to be let down that this ended up as a one-to-one clone. If you’ve played the original, you’ll recognize every detail here — from how annoyingly long it can sometimes take to trigger the bonus, to how helpful it can be for wagering once it finally lands.

That said, it’s a gorgeous-looking slot with a strong mathematical model that’s been proven over the years thanks to the original. With a max win potential of 3000x per single spin in the bonus, it’s absolutely worth checking out. For veterans it may not feel like an exciting new launch because it’s clearly a clone, but for newcomers it’s a chance to experience one of the best online slots ever made.