'Discover wealth, fortune, and good luck' – so says the message blazing across the home screen of Spirit of Adventure, an online slot from Pragmatic Play and pals Reel Kingdom. It actually sounds kind of tempting, just play a game and discover good luck; who wouldn't want that? And so, with positivity coursing through our veins, we clicked 'continue' to find out what the rest of the game had in store. On paper, this includes an intriguing relic collection feature in free spins, which sounded promising, so if you're the adventurous sort, read on.
Then the actual in-game screen hit, and our spirits soared a little lower. Reel Kingdom has a knack for cobbling together objects that seem out of place. First, it was the clash of jumbled symbols on the reels, varying between photo-realistic (ish) gems, wooden low pays, and other curios. Then there's the dashing heroine from an old school movie blazing a flare alongside tiki masks, frogs, and flax in the background. To be fair, this is not the most mismatched quilt of items the studio has weaved together, but the visuals are classic Reel Kingdom. For good or ill, we'll let you decide.
Played on a 5-reel, 3-row game matrix, the game provides 10 fixed paylines for landing winning combinations across. In Reel Kingdom's favour, their games generally come up with a decent horde of stats. For Spirit of Adventure, this means a return value of 96.6%, both when playing in the default mode or buying free spins, combined with a highly volatile math model (rated 5 out of 5). Being bravely adventurous is possible on any device where bets start at 10 p/c and rise to $/€100 per game round.
All symbols except the highest one require at least three of a kind to create a winning line; the diamond pays on two or more. When hitting a line of five diamonds, the reward is 200x the bet, dropping to 100x for the red, then 50x for the blue and green gemstones. Landing five of any relic type is worth 20x the bet, while the 10-A low pay royals are worth up to 10x the bet for five. The heroine lady is displayed on the wild symbol. Wilds replace all regular pay symbols and appear only during free spins.
To gain access to free spins, there are two ways. One is by landing 3, 4, or 5 bonus symbols to win 8, 10, or 12 free spins. The second is when an island symbol hits on reel 3 to award 12 free spins. During free spins, relic symbols are money symbols, and they take a random value of 2x to 5,000x the bet, depending on the symbol.
Now, on each spin, the wild symbol moves to a random position, replacing what would be underneath it. Then, it collects the values of all relic symbols that are adjacent to it, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. In addition, each time a relic is collected by the wild, the relic is also collected on a trail.
When a trail is completed, 3, 4, or 5 extra free spins are awarded, but not more in total than were initially awarded. After free spins end, a 1x1 totem symbol appears on the grid which moves to a random position on every spin. The feature only ends when the totem and the roaming wild end up in the same position. On a side note, if an island bonus symbol lands during free spins, random relic symbols are added to the screen.
At the end of free spins, if the total win is less than 2,250x the bet, players have the chance to take the win or collect a mystery prize instead. The mystery prize can be smaller or larger than the total win.
Dishing out 100x the bet means players can immediately trigger the feature by landing 3, 4, or 5 bonus symbols.
Pragmatic Play's compadre Reel Kingdom is one of those developers you have to dive in headfirst with an open mind and see where you end up. Most of the time, it's somewhere we had no idea we didn't want to be, though good on RK for continuing to be random. Spirit of Adventure isn't quite as zany as others they've done, like Cash Elevator or Book of Kingdoms, to name two, but it's still kind of out there. Their output is so consistently unusual that it's tricky to tell if Reel Kingdom designs games in an offbeat fashion with good intentions or they're a splinter group from Pragmatic Play who set up shop to punk players.
Spirit of Adventure does feel like one of Reel Kingdom's more conventional releases, though. It gives off the impression the team purposely set out to make a game that entertains rather than confuses like Star Pirates Code did. Graphically the standard isn't bad as such, just a little off. It's hard to put your finger on exactly why. Maybe it's the bobbing action the heroine does or the clash of symbols, cultures, and time periods. Still, Reel Kingdom continues to power on under their own steam, so let's not bash their individualist streak too hard. On the bright side, Spirit of Adventure's features have their moments, and the stats are a-ok, so slot adventurers can technically find a fair amount of adventure, or some such, here.
All in all, Spirit of Adventure is one of the more mainstream releases from Reel Kingdom, which doesn't involve fish, flames, or leprechauns. Like a peanut butter freak shake, it won't be to everybody's tastes, but for those who go for Reel Kingdom's unique brand of entertainment, there's plenty of that going on.
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