Jumbo Safari: Slot Overview

With the crazy flood of Big Bass Bonanza releases, it’s easy to overlook that Pragmatic Play’s partner, Reel Kingdom, also produces slots that don’t revolve around hauling fish from the reels. When the studio steps away from bass, the outcomes can be hit-or-miss, as its signature approach can sometimes be an acquired taste. That’s true of Jumbo Safari as well: while there’s no fishing theme here, the slot features eight different animals tied to rising prize values during its free spins round, and it places a clear spotlight on landing five-of-a-kind winning combinations.

Jumbo Safari takes place in a jungle where every creature has apparently ditched rivalries and appetites and decided to be best friends instead. The overall feel leans toward an Ice Age, Madagascar, Jungle Book style, with a parade of cheerful animals charging across the reels. Visually it’s fine—actually fairly solid for Reel Kingdom—and the soundtrack is as upbeat and brisk as you’d expect. The presentation is coherent and straightforward, which may or may not appeal to players who enjoy Reel Kingdom’s stranger, non-BB efforts like Star Pirates Code. It also has a slightly dated look, something Reel Kingdom is known for, but at this stage it’s still a decent showing.

Gameplay in Jumbo Safari runs on a 5×3 action area with 20 paylines, paying on 3+ OAK combinations across. It isn’t built as a massive-potential title, but it does use a highly volatile math model and delivers an RTP of 96.52% whether you’re betting 5 c to $/€60 per spin, purchasing the bonus round, or enabling the ante bet. When switched on, the ante bet doubles the stake to increase the chance of triggering free spins, as additional scatters can appear on the reels.

The pay table includes twelve standard symbols: J-A card ranks plus frogs, parrots, snakes, sloths, crocodiles, elephants, tigers, and gorillas. Five-of-a-kind wins return 4x the bet with card royals, or 10x to 500x the bet when the higher-value animal symbols form the line. Wilds can land on every reel. They replace any symbol except the scatter, and when they create wild-only winning lines, they pay the same as the gorilla.

Jumbo Safari: Slot Features

Since there are no base-game features to note, the main goal is landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters, which award 15, 30, or 50 free spins, respectively. Before the free spins begin, players pick one chest on screen, which reveals a random pay symbol that will be stacked on the reels throughout the feature.

Above the reels during the bonus, each animal is linked to a monetary prize. The opening prize values are 20x for the frog, parrot, snake, and sloth, 30x for the crocodile, 40x for the elephant, 100x for the tiger, and 1,000x for the gorilla. On every spin where there is no 5 OAK win, the prize values increase. When a 5 OAK animal symbol win lands, the corresponding animal symbol prize value is awarded, and all prize amounts reset back to their starting values. If no 5 OAK win hits during the round, then after the final spin, one of the money prizes is awarded at random. Free spins cannot be retriggered.

Feature Buy

Purchasing the bonus for 100x the bet ensures that 3, 4, or 5 scatters appear on a spin to activate the free spins feature.

Jumbo Safari: Slot Verdict

Jumbo Safari is a cute little slot with equally cute, modest features. The issue is that there simply isn’t much happening overall. The feature set is thin, and the most noticeable drawback is the complete absence of anything extra in the base game. With literally no base-game features at all, the experience can feel very flat. On the plus side, five-of-a-kind hits can be satisfying—especially with gorilla or wild symbols—and the wait to trigger the free spins round didn’t feel overly long, even without the ante bet. Still, slots with featureless base games often risk becoming repetitive quickly.

Once in the free spins feature, things improve a little. The core idea remains landing 5-of-a-kind lines to collect the matching prizes shown above the reels. Those prizes can build up on spins that miss 5 OAK wins, though most of the amounts aren’t particularly huge. Also, for a game that bases its excitement on five-matching symbol wins, those moments can be infrequent, and it wasn’t unusual to see free spins rounds where none landed at all—even with a stacked symbol selected at the start. When that happens, the game hands out a random animal prize as a fallback, which at least provides something, and a 1,000x+ gorilla prize did show up once during the review. Even so, the bonus can end up feeling a bit underwhelming, like heading out on a real safari and missing the Big Five entirely.

As you’ve probably gathered, Jumbo Safari isn’t designed for enormous payouts, and the maximum win is capped at 3,000x the bet. When you weigh that against the limited feature set and the generally low intensity, Jumbo Safari nails the adorable safari theme, but it’s difficult to see it delivering truly jumbo-sized entertainment.