Jurassic World Slots

Review of Jurassic World Slots

Many fans of the Jurassic Park franchise questioned if a reboot of the movie was necessary and I certainly wondered the same thing myself – why can’t they just leave the classics alone? I was also curious to see if a casino software company would try to improve on the original Jurassic Park online slot game in some way since we here at the site felt like it was a bit of a let-down.

Of course they didn’t have to release a new version but there’s no money to be made from a machine that doesn’t exist, and considering that this film is the fourth highest-grossing movie of all time at the box office there are surely plenty of people who would be interested in trying out something new.

However, we’re very sad to report that most players are going to find this one to be a “total yawner” and will quickly grow bored of this beautiful but unimaginative title. It’s interesting to consider that Microgaming actually won an award for their last Jurassic Park slot in 2014 because like I just mentioned, we didn’t find that one too interesting either. (Who the heck gets to vote on these things anyway?!)

We have nothing but love for this franchise so you can believe us when we tell you that this honest review of Jurassic World Slots won’t be beating up on it for no reason – we really wanted to enjoy it. Honestly, it’s just not that much fun to play and even the biggest fans of the movie will have their patience tested.

Screenshots

This release certainly got a full design makeover since the last installment, with the backgrounds being some of the best-looking that you’ll find out there today. The attention to detail in the images is definitely its main strength and all of the reels and user controls beautifully pop off of the screen.

Click on an image to pop it out and make it bigger.

Storyline

That pesky Masrani Global Corporation is at it again. When are they going to learn to properly control their genetics lab InGen and stop it from unleashing havoc on innocent park visitors? People come to Isla Nublar to relax and have fun, not to fight for their lives against scientifically-created dinosaurs who are tired of performing like circus animals.

This time the story centers around park manager Claire Dearing, her two nephews Gray and Zach, as well as Owen Grady, who is a special ex-Navy consultant advising InGen on the weaponization of their mutant dinosaurs. Predictably, things go wrong at the park and some of the dinosaurs break out of their cages and begin to smash up the island and attack the staff and visitors. There are then tons of fights and chases as the team battles the ferocious Indominus rex and other random dinosaurs as they battle to stay alive.

This title from Microgaming attempts to revive the story of the film through symbols, free spins, and backgrounds, however, these items don’t give Jurassic World Slots any semblance of a story. It’s simply a bunch of stuff from the movie that will conjure up a few memories, but will mostly leave you bored and wondering what the hell is going on.

Unique Symbols

Shockingly, pretty much everybody that you’re going to want to see made it into the game, including the best of the prehistoric troublemakers. Super-fans of the reboot are of course going to take exception that a few of the smaller characters such as Omar Sy as Barry, B.D. Wong as Dr. Henry Wu, or Katie McGrath as Zara didn’t make it in, but that’s just nitpicking. With so many dinosaurs needing to be included on the reels it’s no surprise that not every character could come along for the ride.

Actually, now that we think about it, there was absolutely no reason that these role players couldn’t have at least made a small cameo somewhere. Oh well, Microgaming probably didn’t want to get too crazy with things. Here’s what we got:

• Ankylosaurus
• Pteranodon
• Stegosaurus
• Velociraptor
• Tyrannosaurus
• Indominus Rex
• Vincent D’Onofrio (Vic Hoskins)
• Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan)
• Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard)
• Owen Grady (Chris Pratt)
• Jurassic World Logo (Wild)
• Amber Fossil (Scatter)

You’ll want to unearth as many Amber Fossils as possible because 5 or more at a time will dish out 1,000x your wager and they pay in any position on the board. The next-best is the Jurassic World Logo which awards 8.33x your bet for five on a payline. Following that we have the characters of Owen, Claire, and Simon giving you 6.06x, 5.83x, and 5x respectively for 5 of a Kind.

Please note that these crazy numbers are a result of this being a 243 payline machine. You should also remember that there is a wager multiplier of 30x each spin for every coin denomination increase that you enter, (so 2 coins x 30 = 60 coins total, 3 coins x 30 = 90 coins total, etc.).

In addition, as is the norm with 243 Ways, all wins must go from left to right.

Jackpots

Grab the tissues because many of you are going to be disappointed to learn that there isn’t a Jurassic World Jackpot included here and the only way to win big is to hit a hot streak in free spins mode. Before you blow your top and go all prehistoric, try to remember that if you’re getting 243 paylines it’s standard practice that you won’t be getting a jackpot too, so you shouldn’t get too upset.

It just seems to be an unwritten rule that casino software companies have come up with and us players have to (unfortunately) accept it. Yet another reason why we’re not fans of the 243 Way machines.

Bonus Rounds

Loyal readers of this website will already know that 243 line releases never seem to have a unique bonus round so you feel like you’re drowning in an abyss of constantly spinning reels. You don’t get a break from the whirling action and this can be very tiring, if not downright boring.

So you can probably already guess that there isn’t a Jurassic World Slots bonus round and it couldn’t be a bigger shame. Just imagine what the team at Microgaming could have done, even if they only put a small amount of effort into it. It’s actually pretty sad.

There is a decent nugget of fun when the Indominus rex crashes onto the screen and he can dish out up to a 1,000x multiplier on your total wager amount, which is of course a nice boost to the ol’ bankroll. He can pop in to randomly roar at the reels after any win in the regular mode so stay on your toes.

This machine also brags that its Wilds can stack, but this isn’t exactly a “jurassic” feature. Although it’s cool that 2 Wilds can morph together and pump up your balance, it’s just not enough to quench the thirst of those looking for unique areas and different types of action.

Free Spins

It’s not all bad and Jurassic World actually rewards you for your loyalty by giving you the power to choose which free spins mode you go to – after you’ve triggered it a total of 15 times, that is. Until then, it will randomly assign you an area and don’t worry, it remembers how many times you’ve triggered it even if you log off and come back later.

You are awarded a straight 10 games each time, with all three areas having their own unique rules and details. There aren’t a ton of differences between the modes and the one you like the best will simply come down to personal preference.

In Gyrosphere Valley you get increasing multipliers throughout the round with every losing spin pumping up the multiplier by 1x , up to a maximum of 7x, (which the game refers to as a “multiplier trail”). Don’t get too excited though because once you get a winning spin the multiplier is returned to the base amount of 2x: what a tease! And of course, this feature can’t be re-triggered. Lame!

Next we have the Creation Lab mode which has “Rolling Reels”, sometimes referred to in other titles as “collapsing reels”, and these can lead to some serious cash added to your balance. For those unfamiliar with this functionality, it’s when the symbols in a winning combination disappear after your balance has been credited with the win amount and then the ones above them fall into their places and award you with any new payouts that they create. This can happen indefinitely with them continuing to “collapse” until you’ve received a losing combination.

This one also has the “Amber Fossil Scatter” act as a “Cryo Wild” which will lock into place for 3 winning spins and then disappear back to the earth from which it came. Unfortunately, it will not appear as one of the falling symbols during Rolling Reels and you guessed it – it can’t be re-triggered.

The final freeroll area in Jurassic World is the Raptor Den, which you could argue is the best one of them all for a couple of reasons. First of all, unlike the other 2 modes it actually has a Scatter and it will pay you out for those wins in addition to normal ones.

Secondly, the Scatters will even lock into place as you roll until you get 3 or more of them on the board, which will give you an extra 5 spins every time. This is obviously a huge deal since the other 2 features don’t allow you to re-trigger anything. Thank goodness for small miracles.

Graphics

The graphics are pretty much how you would expect them to be, with the symbols appearing extremely detailed and the character images looking like high resolution promotional photos. However, because they didn’t put in the effort to create any crazy animations or “jurassic” battle scenes, they have to get a low grade for their overall graphics. With a blockbuster movie like this as source material and cutting edge technology at their fingertips, Microgaming definitely should have tried harder to impress us.

That said, the graphics that were included are nice, like the glowing light effects around the symbols in winning paylines and the animations on the Frozen Wilds in the free spins mode. But again, players are going to expect “nice graphics” from anything released after 2016, especially one that’s based on a Hollywood Blockbuster, so the disappointment in the air is palpable.

The best example of the designers’ laziness is during big payline wins since you only get images from the movie and it doesn’t play any video clips. Not showing exciting scenes from the big budget film that it’s based on is a real head-scratcher and totally preposterous to say the least.

The only saving grace for the graphics team is that there are numerous backgrounds and all of them are absolutely gorgeous. The details in the distance are spectacular and your computer screen seems more like a portal into another universe than an $80 monitor you bought at Walmart. Seriously, these settings definitely had a lot of time invested in them and the digital artists involved should be proud of their efforts.

Audio & Soundtrack

As has been the trend with branded gambling games of late, Microgaming composed all of the songs for the soundtrack themselves and recorded them in their private studios. It’s therefore hard to be too critical of the soundtrack because creating music is a very difficult and personal thing to do. However, it’s the job of this website to provide honest reviews and critiquing is a necessary part of the process.

So, the song in the Gyrosphere area is a hopeful melody that sounds triumphant in nature, but at its core it’s simply uninspired. The Creation Lab area is also tainted by another vanilla-sounding score hammered out by a skilled symphony, (or one dude in a sweatshirt on a Casio keyboard), but again it just blends in with the rest of the game. Not even deep, rumbling drum rolls could save it from the purgatory of absolute blandness – next time get more aggressive with that gong, son!

The highlight of the soundtrack is during the Raptor Den freeroll where you get a fast-paced song driven by a competent symphony with an anxious pan flute blasting ominously. Of course the skill and technique is nowhere near that of a pan flute Master like Zamfir, but it still does the job that it’s supposed to do within the confines of the song and the short amount of time in which it has to play. It’s the only track where the music composers stepped slightly out of their comfort zone to try something unique, leaving us to wonder what could have been created if they would have been more adventurous throughout the entire process.

Finally, when it comes to the win audios, they’re pretty loud and unnecessarily obnoxious. They’re trying to sound important and dramatic, but in reality it’s just a lot of noise in your face – please tone these down next time, Microgaming audio engineers.

Conclusion

If you liked the last release that was based on the original movie from 1993, you’re probably going to love Jurassic World Slots because it’s basically a straight-up skin of that. Of course, the characters are updated and the images of the dinosaurs are a little sharper, but with them both being 243 payline machines with no bonus areas or jackpots, they absolutely have the same general look and feel. And maybe that’s not a bad thing – it’s hard to imagine that a software company would intentionally copy the format of an earlier game that didn’t do well, right? Right?!?

The main problem here is that there isn’t a proper special feature, which is usually the most exciting part for most people. It just feels like you’re constantly spinning with no time to catch your breath. Sure there are lots of free spins to be had, but in this machine it’s like a giving a glass of water to a drowning man.

It’s unfortunate that this review had to be so scathing but with a blockbuster like Jurassic World and a budget the size of what Microgaming surely had at their disposal, the end result should have been much better. In fact, there are little annoyances that make it seem as if the user experience actually regressed since last time, with the bet sizes and turbo buttons now buried deep in the menu and not in the main controls. Everything just adds up to equal a frustrating and unenjoyable experience.

Hardcore fans and practicing palaeontologists might enjoy themselves for a little while but the initial roars will quickly turn into yawns. This one is all sizzle and no steak.

Next time bring Steven Spielberg in to produce the slot as well as the film – then we’ll have more than just a big steaming pile of dino doo doo.

Random Video of Jurassic World

Well we weren’t going to do it but I think we need a laugh after such a harsh review. Here are the funny guys from CinemaSins with “Everything Wrong with Jurassic World”. Enjoy!