Safari So Good Assembl’em

Safari So Good Assembl'em: Slot Overview

Safari So Good Assembl'em is an African nature-themed addition to developer Slingshot Studios' Assembl'em range of slots. These are games which use a card-based mechanic that progresses by hitting various gaming milestones and collecting items. This system offers a unique type of engagement that, you know, some may like, some may not, but is connected to features such as jackpots and free spins modifiers. Part of the excitement of going on a safari is seeing stuff you've never seen before, and while the animals in Safari So Good Assembl'em are of the pixelated variety, there are things here that gamblers may not have spotted in the wild before.

It took a while to put digits to keyboard to describe the reaction to the audiovisuals. Not because there was nothing to say, or anything negative per se, but the background artwork, fine as it is, is also pretty commonplace. Nothing on the screen is going to pierce your eyes like a piece of optical shrapnel, but Safari So Good Assembl'em is the textbook definition of African savannah. There's grass, towering trees, a wide open vista, a stream, that's about it. However, trigger free spins, and the view has a much more magical tone, helping give the game a distinctive personality. The animals are of the amiable variety as well, so despite the average base game setting, there are sights to see on this safari.

A lot of emphasis is placed on the Assembl'em part of the game, which has caused the 5x3 reelset to be squished quite small. Running along it are 15 paylines, evaluating winning combinations left to right from the leftmost reel. Slingshot Studios has designed a highly volatile math model and when staking from $/€0.20 to $/€45 per spin the greatest of the three RTPs is 96.24%.

A bunch of unusually designed 10-A card ranks are the lower paying symbols, while pots, jewellery, musical instruments, drums, and cars are the higher pays. Hitting five matching royals awards 1x-1.2x the stake, or 2x-3x the bet for the high pays. Wilds substitute all paying symbols and are present on all reels. Wilds have the same payout value as the car symbol.

Safari So Good Assembl'em: Slot Features

As well as the Assembl'em feature, Safari So Good Assembl'em has free spins with several modifiers, Upsizer, Bonus Recharge, and a bonus buy.

Assembl'em Feature

Assembl'em is a card feature, where players unlock cards at various milestones, which can be used to modify aspects of the free spins round. Each card has a multiplier and jackpot range, which can be applied to one of the free spins features. Cards can be upgraded or activated by collecting banner symbols on the reels for each character. Collecting overlay tokens by unlocked character cards may increase the jackpot by x1 or the multiplier by x0.5. Players can choose which unlocked character cards are active for the Extra Wilds and Invading Wilds features.

Free Spins

In the base game, collecting 1 or more overlay tokens by any of the free spins feature cards can trigger 10 free spins. Any free spins feature card can be triggered when its corresponding overlay token is collected. The free spins feature card indicates the available multiplier and jackpot. Multipliers apply to all line wins. Collecting 5 overlay tokens per jackpot triggers the associated jackpot. Free spins features are:

• Extra Wilds - 2 to 15 wilds can be randomly added to the reels per spin.
• Invading Wilds - A stacked wild can land on reels 2 or 4 and invade an adjacent reel, turning it wild. If stacked wilds land on reels 2 and 4, they invade reel 3.
• Combo - Each spin will have either the Extra Wilds or Invading Wilds feature. The Extra Wilds, Invading Wilds, and Combo Free Spins feature jackpot will be available to trigger. The Combo Free Spins jackpot is worth 5,000x.

Upsizer, Bonus Recharge & Feature Buy

After triggering the Extra Wilds or Invading Wilds Free Spins feature, players can upgrade the active character card's maximum multiplier as part of the Upsizer feature for an indicated cost. Moreover, when free spins end, it may be possible to buy an extra free spin for a calculated cost. It is also possible to buy the Combo Free Spins feature as well. The cost for buying the round depends on the active character cards selected for the feature.

Safari So Good Assembl'em: Slot Verdict

Safari So Good Assembl'em was a game that improved the more time spent with it. The first impression was pretty tepid. The background was plain, nice, but plain; the gaming grid was minuscule, and the cards above the reels smacked of gimmick rather than hot innovation. But, given a bit of time, the point of the game got a bit clearer, and its finer aspects emerged. This might not be an unmissable bucket list trip to virtual Africa, but Slingshot Studios has at least come up with something relatively novel to try, and who knows? Messing around with cards and upgrading them might be just the gambling action players never knew they wanted.

Or not. Peel away the theatrics, and what's left is a savannah-themed jackpot slot where free spins come with wilds and a multiplier. Decent, if not exactly earth-shaking. Assembl'em is the main event, so potential players will have to be down with that, and commitment may be needed to hit milestones in order to unlock the game's stronger elements. Positives include the way Extra Wilds, Invading Wilds, or the high-potential Combo round provide a sense of variety. As for winning potential, the max exposure is 5,421x the bet, equating to the big jackpot plus some room for change. Altogether, the hopes and expectations were that the Assembl'em feature was going to be even more sophisticated than it turned out to be, but it is quite unique, so gamblers keen to settle in for the long haul and play around with animal-adorned cards might get the point.