Hula Balua: Slot Overview

If you enjoy online slots that carry a quiet thread of continuity, then Hula Balua from software provider ELK Studios is one to check out. It isn’t immediately apparent, but Hula Balua has ties to Tropicool 2, with a few elements bridging the two titles. For one, certain features have overlapping traits, and for another, Elmo the Sloth is back again. Possibly fed up with the frosty conditions last time out, the lovable sloth has packed up and sailed off in search of a much sunnier home.

That warmer landing spot seems to be Hawaii, as a quick online translation suggests Hula Balua in Hawaiian means ‘double dance’ in English. A curious name, considering there isn’t exactly a huge amount of dancing in Hula Balua. Still, the setting is wonderfully idyllic. The kind of place where you roll out of bed, rinse off in a nearby waterfall, snack on mangos from the garden, spear fish in the lagoon, then spend the afternoon doing nothing more demanding than relaxing in a hammock. That’s the paradise Elmo has settled into, and it certainly looks the part.

Back to reality for a second, and the betting range sits at 20 p/c to $/€100 per paid drop. Pressing spin releases 36 symbols into a 6×6 sized gaming space, with the added twist that symbols can combine into larger versions, as covered later. Hula Balua is a scatter pays slot, so symbol position doesn’t matter; as long as at least 8 matching symbols are visible, a payout is awarded. Winning symbols are removed from the reels and replaced by those above them. The gameplay runs with medium-high volatile behaviour and delivers an RTP of 94%, whether you’re in normal play or using the X-iter menu to activate features.

As for the symbols, Hula Balua uses, from lowest to highest value, green, yellow, and pink anonymous fruits, followed by a sliced kiwifruit, sliced mango, a pink fruit half, and a split star-shaped fruit. Landing 8 matching symbols pays 0.1 to 1 times the bet, rising to 5 to 200 times the stake for 20+ symbols. In a confident move, ELK Studios has also added wild symbols to Hula Balua, which substitute for any standard pay symbol. A win made up entirely of wilds pays the same as the top-paying regular symbol

Hula Balua: Slot Features

Where Hula Balua really loads up is on features. The line-up includes Sticky Redrops, Merging symbols, Elmo Redrops, Big symbols, Multipliers, a bonus game, a Super bonus game and X-iter feature buy modes.

Sticky Redrops

Once triggered, this feature selects one paying symbol and turns it sticky. Any matching pay symbols currently on the grid lock to the reels. If one or more matching sticky symbols or wilds land during a redrop, players receive an extra redrop, and payouts are awarded when a redrop produces no further matching symbols or wilds. Sticky symbols can be upgraded, and sticky redrop symbols may appear as 1×1, 2×2, or 3×3 in size.

Multipliers and Big Symbols

Matching symbols that land in a square or rectangle will merge to form big symbols. Those big symbols then generate multipliers worth the number of small symbols covered by the big symbol. When a big symbol contributes to a win, its multiplier value is added to the global multiplier, which affects all wins.

Big symbols can also merge into even bigger symbols when they are adjacent and match. When big symbols combine into bigger ones, an additional multiplier is added to the global multiplier. The global multiplier stays visible until no more wins land. Lastly, if gaps open up beneath a big symbol, they are filled with symbols of the same type.

Elmo Wild Drops

This feature is initiated by Elmo, and while it’s active, Elmo moves 1 column to the left, dropping a random number of wilds onto the grid on each redrop. Wilds remain until Elmo exits the grid or they are used in a win. Elmo is active on the last redrop.

Bonus Game

Landing 3, 4, 5, or 6 bonus symbols awards 6, 8, 10, or 12 free drops, respectively. When 2 bonus symbols are vertically connected (one directly above the other), they upgrade bonus symbols into Super bonus symbols. The Super bonus game guarantees big symbols on each free drop. The global multiplier carries over into free drops, and hitting 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 bonus symbols awards 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 additional free drops.

X-iter

Turning on the X-iter allows players to choose from the following:

• Bonus Hunt – 3x the bet to buy a game round with an increased chance of triggering a bonus.
• Big symbol – 10x the bet for a game round with guaranteed big symbol.
• Sticky Redrops – 25x the bet for a game round with sticky redrops.
• Buy bonus – 100x the bet buys the bonus game.
• Super bonus -200x the bet buys the super bonus game.

Hula Balua: Slot Verdict

Hula Balua may spark Tropicool 2 memories, albeit without the Cool Reel, but it also introduces a range of different features and a broader mechanical rework. Some tweaks are understated while others are more noticeable, yet paired with the hotter setting this time, Hula Balua comes across as its own thing. It’s well worth a look if you enjoyed the feel of the earlier Tropicool titles or if scatter pay slots are your kind of game. On a side note, this format is especially popular right now. Scatter-paying slots used to be relatively rare, but they’ve clearly moved into the mainstream. Hula Balua is a strong example of the style too, provided you can look past ELK Studios’ tendency to ship games with low return values.

Hula Balua works for two main reasons. First is the top-tier presentation, a familiar ELK Studios strength. Second is the collection of extra mechanics layered on top. A standout is Sticky Redrops. These sticky winning symbol respin-style features, made famous by games like Serial, are becoming more common, but they still aren’t typical inside a scatter pays setup, which makes their inclusion here more appealing. And it doesn’t stop there: the big symbols and merging system performs brilliantly, not only as a standalone idea but also because it meshes neatly with the scatter pays/sticky redrops approach. Add a global multiplier on top, and Hula Balua has the right tools to explode when it decides to. Of course, that won’t happen every other drop, but the possibilities are definitely present. The potential is also high at 25,000x the bet. Not so long ago, ELK Studios releases often capped around 2,500x, or 5,000x if you were fortunate. Based on more recent launches, those limits seem firmly in the past.

To wrap up, Hula Balua feels a little unusual because it isn’t officially a Tropicool slot, yet a few details are hard to miss. Chief among them is Elmo, who’s quietly slipped back in, fully dressed for the theme. That’s not a negative, though, and even if the game’s origins feel slightly mysterious, as a scatter pays option packed with several smart additions, it’s an easy recommendation.