Kangaroo King

Kangaroo King: Slot Overview

G'day cobber, ever felt like heading down under and punching a kangaroo or two in the face? Nah, neither, but thanks to software provider Stakelogic, players get to face off mano a kangaroo in the online slot Kangaroo King. To be honest, despite the boxing gloves and all the punching, the kangaroo in this game is a handy sort to have around. In the base game, he bashes his way to wild symbol adds, while in free spins, he roams and grows while performing wild duties. In classic Stakelogic tradition, some of the ideas in Kangaroo King have come from elsewhere; why not come see if you can spot 'em.

Here's a bizarre fact from National Geographic where the insurance industry in Australia said kangaroos are involved in more than 80% of the 20,000+ vehicle-to-animal collisions reported each year. That's an astonishing figure when you think about it. What's also remarkable about these distinctive animals is how they can look so cute when they're placid and so terrifying when they're acting aggressively. Fortunately for gamblers, they only bump into the cartoon kind when playing Kangaroo King, which is set in a rural part of the wide brown land of Australia, a little past woop woop. With its raw landscape and jaunty soundtrack, Kangaroo King possesses all the audiovisual charm of a good African-themed slot, except we're in Straya this time.

Kangaroo King is played on a game grid that has been built using 5 reels, holding 5 rows each, and where wins land across 15 fixed paylines. A highly volatile slot, players get a default RTP of 96% no matter how they choose to play Kangaroo King. This could be single spin betting at 20 p/c to $/€40 a pop. With the Super Stake active, the bet increases by 100% whilst doubling the chance of triggering free spins.

Colourfully in-theme 10 to A card royals start the paytable off and are followed by a koala bear, a duck, a lizard, and a croc as the 4 high pay character symbols – all have fists raised, ready to duke it out. When landing a winning line consisting of 5 low pay symbols, the reward is 1x the bet, whereas the same thing but with premium symbols pays 5 to 20 times the bet. Two wild symbols appear in Kangaroo King - one is the regular wild, the other is the Kangaroo Wild. Both types of wilds substitute for all symbols except the free spins scatter.

Kangaroo King: Slot Features

Here's where things get a little 'hmm, feels like we've seen this before'. Kangaroo King's features include a roaming Kangaroo Wild symbol, free spins with a growing wild element, and bonus buys.

Kangaroo Boxing Wild Feature

Kangaroo Wild symbols are present on all reels, and landing one in the base game triggers the Kangaroo Boxing Wild feature. When a Kangaroo Wild hits, it can move to an adjoining symbol. When it does so, it leaves a wild symbol in its previous position. The Kangaroo Wild can move to multiple positions, leaving a trail of wilds behind. When it stops moving, a win evaluation takes place.

Free Spins

The scatter symbol can appear on all reels. When landing 3, 4, or 5 of them, players win 7, 10, or 15 free spins, respectively. For the free spins round, a Kangaroo Wild symbol is placed on the grid where it remains (though moves) till the round ends. On each spin, the Kangaroo Wild moves 1 position around the reels.

Next to the grid is the Expanding Trail showing the nine pay symbols divided into 4 sections. The first section is active or highlighted as it is called. The others are inactive. Whenever wins have occurred with all symbols in the current active section, that section of the trail is complete. Then the Kangaroo Wild increases in size, and extra free spins are awarded. In addition, symbols in the completed trail sections are removed from the reels for the rest of the feature.

• When the 1st section is complete – the Kangaroo Wild expands to 2x2, and +3 free spins are awarded.
• When the 2nd section is complete – the Kangaroo Wild expands to 3x3, and +2 free spins are awarded.
• When the 3rd section is complete – the Kangaroo Wild expands to 4x4, and +1 free spin is awarded.
• When the 4th section is complete – the Kangaroo Wild expands to 5x5, and +1 free spin is awarded.

When reaching 5x5, the game pays the max symbol value for the rest of the round.

Bonus Buy

From the bonus buy menu, players can buy 7, 10, or 15 free spins for 100x, 200x, or 480x the bet, respectively. The fourth option is a random buy for 220x the bet.

Kangaroo King: Slot Verdict

Ideas buzz around the gambling industry like busy bees nipping in and out of flowers to scoop nectar. However, few seem to do it so often and so obviously as Stakelogic. Similar to the way Ross from 'Friends' was married three times, and divorce sort of became his thing (according to Phoebe at least), so the borrowing of ideas has sort of become Stakelogic's thing. In the case of Kangaroo Kings, there are smatterings of Push Gaming's 'Fat' slots and Print Studios' Royal Potato to be found in its bonus round. Not exactly, exactly the same, but near enough to raise an eyebrow or two.

To give Stakelogic credit, the team has come up with an entertaining interpretation of this set of features - we're not just talking about the amusing animals and all the punching antics that go with them. Free spins, when they get a roll on, could be highly entertaining, and there's a nice blend of different things going on, from the growing, roaming wild, the removal of lesser value pay symbols, and the climax, should someone be lucky enough to achieve it of having the Kangaroo Wild grow to 5x5 and take over the whole board.

The ultimate goal is to bump up against Kangaroo King's sizable 10,000x the bet win cap. Not the highest figure to be found amongst its peers and competitors, but an enticing figure to shoot for. Stakelogic has 'borrowed' so many good ideas by now that there's a danger of drifting into a sort of numbed apathy about the situation. And while this one's a bit of a knockoff, too, Stakelogic has done enough with both the feature tweaks and theme to make Kangaroo King a should-see for players who enjoyed games like Fat Rabbit or Royal Potato.