Savannah Drums

Savannah Drums: Slot Overview

Explore nature in an African wilderness themed slot titled Savannah Drums from developer SG Digital. Not the most original location for an online slot, though get it right, and you can see why developers repeatedly chose to use it. The good news for African-philes is that SG has largely done a good job of it. The vibe is pleasant, the vista bright, and the included features are not only fun but are capable of blasting out a pretty massive max win figure as well.

While there's nothing new about the view in Savannah Drums, SG Digital has made it look nice all the same. We get the usual water feature, surrounded by waving grass, those high branched acacia trees that seem to be everywhere in Africa, mountains off in the distance and a mostly clear blue sky, occasionally crossed by a cloud or two. It's a sort of upbeat Walt Disney type image, and the accompanying soundtrack is just as positive, giving Savannah Drums more than enough bounce to make most African slot enthusiasts feel right at home.

In the middle of this African arcadia, SG has placed a 5-reel, 4-row action area, using 20 paylines to land winning combinations across. The game is medium volatile, which felt underrepresented during testing where Savannah Drums had no problems driving down the balance before tossing out a compensatory bonus to help pull us back into the game. Players can opt to theoretically increase the frequency of bonuses, too, by engaging the Super Bet option. When this is off, stakes range from 20 p/c to $/€200, doubling the amount when activated. Super Bet's effects are detailed below, and whether it's on or off, the only RTP mentioned is 96.1%.

All pay symbols require at least three of a kind to land on adjacent reels from the left-hand side to trigger a win. On the low side, there are wood designed 9-A royals, while the high pays are vultures, elephants, rhinos, and lions worth 2.5 to 7.5 times your stake. There are loads of symbols in Savannah Drums acting as wild at certain points, but there is also a dedicated wild symbol, landing in all reels to replace any normal pay symbol.

Savannah Drums: Slot Features

Savannah Drums comes with quite a lot of features such as several Drum modifiers in both the base game and free spins where they are persistent.

Scatter Symbols

The bonus symbol doubles as both scatter and wild, appearing on all reels in the base game. Landing 2 of them triggers a Drum modifier or 3 of them triggers free spins. However, if the Super Bet is active, then only 1 bonus symbol is needed to trigger a Drum modifier, or 2 for free spins.

Drum Modifiers

When Drum modifiers are triggered in the base game, one of four outcomes is randomly awarded:

• Free spins may be activated.
• Wild Reels – 1 or more wild reels are added to the game panel.
• Wild Symbols – 1 or more low paying symbols is randomly selected and transformed into a wild symbol.
• All Wins – a win multiplier of x2 to x10 becomes active.

Free Spins

These are won from the Drum modifier as mentioned above or triggered when at least 2 or 3 bonus symbols land in view – depending on whether the Super Bet is active. If extra bonus symbols trigger the feature, the round starts with a win multiplier of x2 or x3.

During free spins, the bonus symbol only appears on reel 5, and when one hits, a random Drum modifier is awarded, remaining active for the full duration of free spins. These can be:

• Wild Reels which persist and move position between spins.
• All Wins increases the win multiplier up to x10.
• Wild Symbols which convert low pays into wilds as covered above.
• The Eliminator removes a low paying symbol for the remainder of the free spins.

No set number of free spins are awarded. Instead, the bonus round continues until a Sunrise Symbol lands on reel 5, then one final spin is played out.

Savannah Drums: Slot Verdict

The African savannah might be pretty common in slots, but if you want to chill with nature and reels for company, Savannah Drums is a pretty good choice. It sort of has the vibe of Spirit of the River or Yahana's Rite, though in a more down to earth, not so complex way, and the action flows with fewer interruptions. For the most part, SG pulls it off well. The visuals are nice, everything has a warm glow, and the blazing eye totem thing gives the animals a touch of mysticism that might suit a Native American game, yet it fits here as well, giving the special symbols a touch of gravitas.

The modifiers are a good selection, too, from full reel wilds, added wilds, multipliers, to symbol removals, Savannah Drums has just about everything covered. There are definite possibilities in the way modifiers persist and bounce off of each other in what can be lengthy free spin rounds, only spoiled when the dreaded Sunrise Symbol shows up to ruin the party. While only tapping a fraction of the potential during the review, what we did see was encouraging. Checking the stats confirms that impressive things can happen out on this savannah where max exposure is capped at $/€250,000, while within this figure, it is possible to win the equivalent of 24,995x your stake.

All in all, Savannah Drums was a positive game to test run. After the trauma of reviewing Dave Lame, there was a hint of trepidation about what the next SG release might be - tension was running high and not in a good way. However, what followed was a neatly designed slot that calmed the nerves. Savannah Drums might not be revolutionary enough to stick with you for long after you're done, but it's a satisfying nature game all the same.