Tropicool 2: Slot Overview

When it comes to vacation hotspots, soaking up the sun in an Antarctic region probably doesn’t feature on many wish lists. Yes, the frozen ends of the planet have their own striking charm, but they’re hardly famous for beach vibes and tanning weather—at least not outside of slots. In the playful universe of ELK Studios’ earlier game Tropicool, however, that’s exactly where Tony Toucan and Fiona Flamingo built their little paradise. Now they’re back with a fresh face, Elmo the Sloth, plus an upgraded set of features and a boosted sense of potential along the way.

Tropicool 2 still feels welcoming, just like its predecessor. If anything, the scene comes across even toastier, with the front of the screen showing a cozy thatched beach bar you’d expect on a tropical escape. That said, the icy grid cubes and the iceberg backdrop keep a clear link to the original game’s colder setting. Tony and Fiona remain sharp-looking, friendly hosts, setting an upbeat tone for whatever chaos they’re about to unleash.

Tropicool 2’s playfield uses a standard reel area in the lower section, with the Cool Reel positioned above. Wins form when at least three identical symbols land on adjacent reels starting from the far left, after which they’re cleared via the avalanche mechanic. Symbols from the Cool Reel fall down first, and any remaining gaps are then filled by symbols from the main grid. The Cool Reel is replenished by new symbols entering from the right. This avalanche cycle continues until no further win appears.

This all plays out in a highly volatile style on a 6×6, 46,656 ways to win setup, with a theoretical return of 94%. Where available, there are two ways to play—standard spins with stakes of 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin, or by using the X-iter bonus buys. Symbol-wise, the low-paying basics are purple, green, orange, and red berries, followed by watermelons, limes, pineapples, coconuts, and strawberries, each trapped in ice. The first four pay 0.25x the bet for six of a kind or 0.3-3x the bet for the others. Tony and Fiona also award payouts, but they pay as scatters from anywhere as long as at least three of a kind are visible. Their rewards are multiped based on symbol size—the larger the bird, the higher the multiplier.

Tropicool 2: Slot Features

The first Tropicool was already a lively slot, but the follow-up somehow turns the dial even higher. Among the added mechanics are the Cool Reel, Elmo Redrops, Big Symbols, a Free Drops Bonus Game, and X-iter buy options.

Cool Reel

In Tropicool 2, the Cool Reel is 3 rows tall and holds feature symbols, empty ice cubes, and empty cells. As mentioned earlier, when the avalanche mechanic clears space on the main reels, feature symbols can drop down and trigger their effects:

• Wild – replaces all paying symbols except bird symbols.
• Locked Wild – a wild symbol that stays for 3 wins.
• Mystery – after a drop ends, Mystery Symbols transform into the same pay symbol type.
• Row Swap – one symbol type overwrites all others on the row except for wilds, bonuses, or Elmos. Additional rules and exceptions for Row Swaps are listed on the pay table.

Elmo Redrops

When Elmo falls from the Cool Reel, he becomes active in his 1×2 size. Elmos may land as 1×1 first, then later expand into 1×2 if space becomes available. While active, Elmo frightens bird symbols, replacing them with wilds or locked wilds and setting off Elmo Redrops. During redrops, locked wilds and bonus symbols stay in place while everything else is removed. Elmo walks one reel to the left with each redrop until he exits via the rightmost reel.

Big Symbols

Any paying or feature symbol—excluding Elmo, bonus, or birds—can appear as a 2×2 or 3×3 big symbol. Big symbols pay according to how many 1×1 positions they occupy. If a big symbol drops from the Cool Reel, it crushes paying symbols as it falls until it reaches the bottom of the grid. Feature symbols and big symbols cannot be crushed. If a big symbol can’t fit into an available space on the main reels, it splits into 1×1 symbols to fill any openings. In addition, big symbols that can’t drop onto the main reels but have gaps beneath them will fill those spaces with 1×1 tiles of the same symbol type.

Free Drops

Hitting 3, 4, 5, or 6 bonus symbols in the main area grants 6, 9, 12, or 15 free drops. During the bonus, two extra symbols are added to the Cool Reel. One is Extra Drops, which awards 1,2 or 3 free drops when triggered; the other is Multipliers, increasing the round’s win multiplier by +1, +2 or +3. Locked wilds stay on the grid between drops.

X-iter

Pressing the X-iter button puts the game into X-iter mode. From the menu, players can select the following:

• Big Blocks – 10x the bet buys a game round featuring a big symbol on the Cool Reel and main reels.
• Turbo Spins – 25x the buys 25 quicker spins.
• Elmo – 50x the bet buys a game round with guaranteed Elmo Redrops.
• Buy Bonus – 100x the bet buys the Bonus game.
• Super Bonus – 500x the bet gets you the Bonus game with a starting multiplier of x10.

Tropicool 2: Slot Verdict

If ELK Studios has a standout strength, it’s building strong sequels. Again and again, the developer has returned to earlier releases—whether they were big successes or not—and expanded them dramatically. There are plenty of examples: the Kane and the Gold range, Nitropolis 2, Nitropolis 3 or Nitropolis 4, plus entries from the studios’ ‘Classic’ range of slots. Tropicool 2 comfortably earns its place alongside many of those titles, delivering a seriously fun experience when things start clicking.

Of course, it won’t be smooth sailing every session, and the relatively low RTP is a notable drawback. The X-iter bonus buys were exciting—though the 25-spin Turbo run option felt a bit like padding. The rest, however, offered a great way to see what Tropicool 2 is capable of. And what it’s capable of is producing features that can shine individually, but become even more entertaining when they combine. There are loads of moments like that: row swap flooding the reels with matching symbols, the multiplier building, the Cool Reel dropping in all kinds of useful firepower, and Elmo adding a nicely unpredictable edge by pushing wilds onto the grid, and so on. It’s a fast-moving chain of events that at times felt similar to playing one of the stronger Gold slots, just without the expanding reels element. The potential is sizeable as well, with Tropicool 2 keeping things from going completely off the rails thanks to a 25,000x the bet win cap.

Overall, there’s real scope for some high-energy sessions here—if you catch Tropicool 2 in the right mood. It improves on the original Tropicool in several respects, which is exactly what you want from a sequel, and it should appeal to players who enjoy ELK Studio’s particular style of entertainment. The biggest gripe is arguably Tropicool 2’s 94% RTP, which is pretty rough—but it’s ELK Studios; aside from avoiding the game because of it, what else can you do?