Bongo’s Bananas Base Game
Bets of 0.05 to 15 coins mean all types of players have options, and the three horizontal and two diagonal payline patterns are easy to understand. I enjoyed the pacing of the reels, whether I was tapping the spin button each time or using one of the 3, 25, 50, or 99 spin autoplay options. Wilds hit often to create small wins and the occasional 10x win for three-of-a-kind, but my two 50-spin sessions in which I didn’t activate a bonus round produced 32% and 34% losses.
Bongo’s Bananas Hold & Win Bonus
You can activate the Hold & Win bonus by landing at least one Monkey Collect Coin and two or more Banana Prize Coins. Banana Prize Coins pay 1x-15x your bet, while jackpot coins pay 25x-1,000x your bet. You get three re-spins, and the counter resets to three each time you land a new coin. I triggered the bonus on my 8th, 158th, and 168th spins, but winnings of 30x, 8x, and 16x my bet felt underwhelming considering a top prize of 5,000x is on offer. The 30x win produced a small winning session from 50 spins, but the session in which the bonus round activated twice was still a loser.
Bonus Buy
The 114x bonus buy option to purchase the Hold & Spin Bonus seemed expensive, considering my results from triggering this feature from the base game, but I took the plunge to purchase it four times. The bonus round played very differently after buying it, with each session triggering three Monkey Collect Coins and several re-spins. A five-coin win was followed by 28-coin and 49-coin losses, but my last attempt produced a 73-coin profit, thanks mainly to a 150x major jackpot win. These results confirmed that this is a highly volatile slot, no matter how you play it.