Play Wonders of Africa for Free

Going on a safari across the plains of Africa is on pretty much everyone's bucket list. Well, now you can experience all of the Wonders of Africa and its wildlife without having to leave the comfort of your own home with this safari themed slot machine. On the reels, players will spot a range of iconic African creatures with a leopard lazing on a tree branch, a lion proudly surveying his kingdom, a powerful rhino, a humble buffalo and a magnificent African elephant. All of these animals can be spotted among the dry grass of a golden African plain landscape, giving the game a truly beautiful and warm aesthetic.

The graphics themselves aren't particularly mind-blowing since all of the images are rendered in two-dimensional artwork. However, the illustrations are spectacularly detailed and make good use of colour and lighting to make each animal appear proud, strong and majestic. Spinners will also be treated to some understated animations every time the reels reveal a payline of winning animal symbols.

Those winning sequences are formed whenever three or more of the same animal appear on one of the 30 fixed paylines which run across the 5 reels of this video slot. Each time that this occurs, a line bet multiplier will be applied to the coin value that is placed on the winning line, as outlined in the table below:

As you can see, this paytable is quite unyielding for the majority of symbols with relatively low payouts for all icons except for the Wonders of Africa wild icon. And as well as being by far the biggest paying icon on the board, this wild symbol will help players complete winning sequences by substituting for all of the other ordinarily paying images.

The only icon in Wonders of Africa that cannot be replaced by the wild symbol is the scatter – depicted by a traditional tribal mask. This mask icon will only appear on reels 1, 3, and 5 but if three appear at once, a round of 7 free spins will be activated. There aren't any fancy gimmicks behind these free games, just wager-less spins of the reels at the same bet per line as the triggering spin with the chance to retrigger should three more scatters appear.

While the free spins of this slot machine might seem fairly straightforward, there is nothing generic or usual about the game's other bonus gameplay element – the “Co-operative Symbols” feature. This special feature is activated whenever a combined animal and royal symbol appears on the third reel, causing all corresponding royal icons to turn into the respective animal and then expand to cover the entire reel with that animal symbol.

The co-operative symbols are as follows: Leopard and “10”, Lion and “J”, Rhino and “Q”, Buffalo and “K”, Elephant and “A”. So, should the Elephant and “A” co-operative symbol appear on the third reel, all of the “A” icons on the game-screen will turn into Elephants and expand, potentially rewarding a stampede of prizes!

This special gameplay element is active during free spins, meaning that players have every chance of landing some extra big wins without having to place a wager. What's more, the feature will count the original line wins of the spin as well as the wins that are activated as a result of the transformed icons. However, the wild icon will not replace any symbol during the Co-operative Symbols feature.

Wonders of Africa is a new IGT slot machine which strikes a good balance between traditional video slot design with new-fangled gameplay features. Even though the design is somewhat basic in its 2D form, players should find themselves transported into the heart of the African wilderness, while the game serves up some special transforming icons to potentially help those wins grow.