Penguin City Introduction

Penguin City is a Video Slot featuring 5 reels, 3 rows and 243 ways. It uses a both-ways payout system, and with Win all Ways there are no fixed paylines. Any cluster of 3 or more matching symbols on consecutive reels from the left or the right results in a win. You can play it on any device with stakes ranging from €0.10 to €125.

Penguin City is set inside a chinese restaurant and focuses on 3 penguin kitchen workers who are stuck doing all the unpleasant chores. Tired of being pushed around by the master chef, they’re always plotting their getaway. The animated background shows penguins moving around the restaurant, bugs creeping across the reelset, and chinese lanterns gently swaying in the air. Really nicely executed!

It even feels like the slot may have taken inspiration from Dreamwork’s well-known Penguins of Madagascar.

Penguin City Symbols

The slot features 9 regular symbols, 1 sticky wild symbol and 1 Emperor Penguin symbol. Lower-value icons are wooden card suits in different colors, while the premium symbols are various food-themed items such as –  boxes of noodles, soy sauce, cooking pots, noodle soup and chopping knives, with the noodlebox being the top payer, awarding 10x for 5 across a full payline.

Penguin City Features

Penguin City skips a classic free spins round; instead, the main attraction is Penguin Escape Mode, which activates as soon a Wild appears on 2nd or 4th reel during a winning spin. That wild becomes Sticky for the entire Escape mode, and the game keeps respinning until a spin produces no win.

While Escape Mode is running, after each spin you can either land an extra Sticky Wild on the 2nd or 4th reel, or get a winning symbol on the 3rd reel. On top of that, there’s a chance to hit a stacked Emperor Stacked Wild, which drops down one row per spin and effectively ensures respins until it leaves the reels!

Penguin Escape

• Score a win involving a wild symbol in the base game to trigger the Penguin Escape mode
• In the Penguin Escape, 1 penguin attempts to break free on every spin (unless the Penguin Emperor is
  present)
• If the Penguin manages to jump onto the reels, then 1 of 2 outcomes occurs: 1 sticky wild is added to reel 2 or 4 on winning spins or 1 symbol is swaped on reel 3 to create a win on losing spins
• Raising the bet size clears all sticky wilds and stops the Penguin escape mode
• A spin without a win also ends the Penguin escape mode

Emperor Penguin (Stacked Wild)

• The Emperor Penguin shows up on the third reel during the Penguin escape mode
• He consists of 3 vertical wild symbols
• He ensures a win whenever any part of him remains visible on the reels
• The Penguin Emperor acts as a walking wild, moving down by one reel position each spin until he disappears from the reels

Penguin City Conclusion

Penguin City is undeniably a visual masterpiece. Unfortunately, the gameplay mechanics don’t quite match the same level of brilliance. There’s no standard free spins feature, but Penguin Escape Mode triggers often and keeps things moving at a lively pace. It’s somewhat reminiscent of the feature in another Yggdrasil slot called Golden Monkey.

This is a low to medium variance title with a 96.2% RTP and a maximum win of 1647 times the stake, which is fairly modest. Even so, it’s still an enjoyable and slightly intriguing slot despite the lower variance. It may even rank among the more entertaining low-paying slots we’ve played in quite some time, we have to admit.