Zap Attack: Slot Overview

Watch out, players: aliens packing ray guns have arrived in Zap Attack, a sci-fi slot from Swedish provider Thunderkick. Alien-invasion stories always make you wish that if a super-advanced species ever crosses the vast distances of space to reach us, they’re the friendly type—here to lift humanity up rather than strip-mine the planet or treat us as a resource. Beyond avoiding conflict, it would be a letdown to learn that even a civilisation capable of interstellar travel is still just a hostile bunch of violent, grabby opportunists. That would be pretty bleak.

The little green visitors in Zap Attack definitely aren’t here to shake hands, so let’s set expectations early. Still, when they start zapping people during the free spins round, it can work out nicely for players. A quick note on presentation too: Zap Attack’s audio and visuals are quietly outstanding. The action takes place in a nowhere-town aptly named Roswealth, backed by an eerily twanging, reverb-heavy guitar soundtrack. The overall vibe recalls classic 1960s sci-fi from the Space Race era, or even Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, which came out not long before Zap Attack.

At the centre of the screen sits Zap Attack’s grid, built with 5 reels, 5 rows and 25 fixed paylines. Wins land by matching symbols along a payline from the left on consecutive reels; most symbols require at least 3, except the top-paying alien symbol, which pays from 2 OAK and up. Running on a highly volatile math model, Zap Attack delivers an RTP of 96.15%, with higher values available when purchasing free spins. Stakes range from 10 p/c to $/€100 per spin, while buy feature options cost between 60 to 250 times the bet.

Symbol-wise, the low pays are the 10 to A card ranks, paying 1 to 1.5 times the bet for a 5-of-a-kind line win. Above those are 4 human character symbols as the mid pays, plus one alien symbol as the top pay. For these 5 symbols, a 5 OAK hit returns 2 to 10 times the bet. There’s also the regular 1×1 wild symbol, which substitutes for every symbol except the scatter.

Zap Attack: Slot Features

Zap Attack includes a second wild type called the Expanding Multiplier Wild, along with a bonus game featuring symbol upgrades and bonus buys.

Expanding Multiplier Wild

Expanding Multiplier Wilds expand to cover the entire reel when they are part of one or more wins. Once expanded, they receive a multiplier of x2, x3, x4, or x5. Any win that runs through an Expanding Multiplier Wild has its multiplier applied. If a win passes through multiple Expanding Multiplier Wilds, their multiplier values are multiplied together before being applied. The maximum is 5x5x5 for an x125 multiplier. Expanding Multiplier Wilds substitute for all regular paying symbols.

Bonus Game

Zap Attack’s scatter symbol is an old TV set, and scatters are required to trigger the bonus game. In the base game, landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters awards 7, 11, or 15 free spins, respectively. During the bonus game, landing 2, 3, 4, or 5 scatters grants an extra 3, 5, 7, or 9 free spins, respectively. While in the bonus game, the high-pay alien symbols holding zap guns shoot one of the human character symbols positioned next to the grid. Each shot is collected on a meter, and this progresses in a fixed sequence: sheriff, waitress, grandma, and farmer. When a meter is filled by 10 hits, the corresponding symbol turns into the high-pay alien symbol for the remainder of the bonus game. Players also receive +1 free spins when this occurs.

Buy Feature

In the bonus buy menu, players can purchase the bonus game triggered by 3 scatters for 60x the bet (RTP 96.45%), 4 scatters for 125x the bet (RTP 96.44%), or 5 scatters for 250x the bet (RTP 96.48%).

Zap Attack: Slot Verdict

Thunderkick has played a major role in popularising bonus rounds where lower-value symbols upgrade into the top symbol, thanks to titles like Pink Elephants from 2017 and Pink Elephants 2 in 2020. Zap Attack leans on that same idea for many of its standout moments, and it would be easy to criticise Thunderkick for revisiting an old formula. Even so, Zap Attack doesn’t come across as a weak imitation of a better game, and there are a few clear reasons why. Chief among them is how well the sci-fi alien-invasion theme is handled. It isn’t exaggerated, but it’s not blandly restrained either—rather, Zap Attack sits in a stylishly realised world, built with strong artwork and supported by a superb soundtrack.

After you’ve settled into Roswealth, it’s time to hope the features show up. That means landing Expanding Multiplier Wilds in the base game, then triggering or buying the free spins bonus game. It’s not a carbon copy of Pink Elephants, since you need the alien to shoot the mid-pay symbols instead of collecting orbs, but the core idea is essentially the same. Sorry, townsfolk, but you’ll be rooting for those ray guns to hit as many characters as possible, aiming to load the grid with the high-pay alien symbol—ideally with Expanding Multiplier Wilds in the mix too.

One potential drawback for some players is that Zap Attack comes with a smaller max win than its elephant-filled predecessors, at 5,000 times the bet. Still, if that figure doesn’t bother you, there’s plenty here for Pink Elephants fans to enjoy in Zap Attack. It may not be bigger or automatically better than what came before, but it remains a very entertaining slot all the same.