Wild Plunder Introduction

With its bright palette, sunny skies and tropical seas, this cartoon-style slot could easily be mistaken for a Nintendo title. The first thing that stands out is the rotating background: the globe slowly turns as one far-off island after another drifts across the horizon. It certainly looks cheerful, but there’s little treasure to be found once you start playing.

Wild Plunder includes a bonus game along with three random features. The layout is 5 reels, 3 rows and 26 fixed pay lines. Available across all devices, this NextGen Gaming release allows stakes from €0.25 up to a hefty €625 per spin, which on its own hints at limited upside. The 96.6% RTP is a touch higher than we typically see in NextGen slots, and that’s probably down to the fairly low variance on offer.

Wild Plunder Symbols & Features

The reels feature 4 low-value coin symbols and 4 higher-paying icons shown as jugs of ale, treasure chests, ghost pirates and the octopus – with the octopus paying 14 times the stake for 5 of a kind. The key wild symbol is the heroine Rhonda. Hit 5 of her and you’ll collect a 16 times the stake payout. None of the symbols appear stacked, which leaves base game wins very small.

Wild Plunder adds a handful of random base-game features to try to liven up an otherwise dull experience. On any spin, one of three features can trigger:

• Wild Current – stormy weather may spin the globe and add up to 9 wild symbols.
• Rhonda’s Respin – land a single Rhonda wild and the pirate girl herself may swing in to award a special respin, giving you a second chance to trigger the bonus.
• Release the Kraken – another feature randomly adding wilds on the reels.

Wild Plunder Free Spins

Landing two or more Jolly Rhonda wild symbols on the reels activates up to 5 Wild Spins. The round uses a walking wild mechanic similar to what you’ll find in Jack and the Beanstalk, for instance. Each spin, all wilds shift one reel to the left, and any neighbouring premium symbol turns into a wild. This can lead to a full-screen wild result and a top payout of a little over 400 times the stake. On top of that, every wild that appears also grants extra spins.

Wild Plunder Conclusion

Overall, this is a low variance, low potential slot wrapped in a childish, pastel-coloured theme and paired with absurdly low payouts. If you’re simply looking to pass the time, you’d be better off with Candy Crush or firing up an old Nintendo Wii. From a maths perspective, it’s not worth it. It’s hard to see any solid reason to risk your hard-earned money here when there are so many stronger online slots out there—something even the upbeat, happy-go-lucky Spongebob-style tune can’t compensate for.