Wild Antics Slot – Free Demo

An Anthill on 20 fixed lines

Blueprint Gaming take a swing for the peculiar in Wild Antics. I played 430 spins at a stake of 2.00, starting from a balance of 1,000.00. As the name implies, gamblers make a journey to the Anthill, but the slot itself is more traditional, featuring a 5 reel, 20-payline layout with lots of familiar visuals to tackle. Wins pay left to right on adjacent reels, and only the highest win on each line is paid.

In the middle of the setting is the 5x3 playing grid with 20 fixed paylines. During Colonel Ant Free Spins and Queen Ant Free Spins the grid grows to 5x4 with 40 paylines. When it comes to symbols, it is chiefly insects with lots of card royals tossed in for good measure, and low pays include A, K, Q, J, and 10. Three of a Q, J or 10 on a line return 0.2x the stake, while three of an A or K return 0.5x. Top pays are a snail, a ladybird, and leaves and a caterpillar as the most lucrative, and combinations of five of a kind have payouts spanning from 5x to 20 times the stake. Leaves are the only regular symbol that pays for two on a line, at 0.1x the stake.

On one side, cautious bettors can join in with spin prices of 0.20 credits. Or for big spenders, it is up to 500 credits a spin. Across the 430 spins of this session, 860.00 was wagered and 760.00 came back. Curiously, given the backdrop, the slot has a medium volatility graded at 3/6, easing the journey possibly.

Four ants and a jet pack

Wilds are significant in Wild Antics with numerous types turning up, and the first is your run of the mill ordinary wild. The Wild pays in its own right as well, 2.5x the stake for three on a line and 25x for five. It can stand in for any symbol except the Aardvark Bonus and Ant Bonus symbols to create a winning combination, and during Soldier Ant free spins, a Roaming Wild may also collide with another, adding a 2x to 5x multiplier. Wild Pixies has Roaming Wilds that jump to random positions every spin in its free spins, and Release the Kraken Megaways has Wilds that roam to random positions during its Wild Respins.

Following up is the Jet Pack Ant. It can exit the Anthill on any base game spin, and when it does, a chosen ant uncovers one of four features:

• Aardvark Antics, where a random number of reels become completely wild.
• Frantic Antics, where symbols are rearranged into wins until the Aardvark shows.
• Colossal Antics, with random Colossal Wilds added.
• Wild Antics, with random Wilds added.

Access to the free spins feature arrives with 10 spins. It is activated by an Aardvark Bonus on reels 1 and 3 plus an Ant Bonus on reel 5. Bonus symbols landing during the round do not retrigger it. The Jet Pack Ant may award another shot at free spins at the close of the round, and the ant on reel 5 selects the variant, from Worker Ant, Soldier Ant, Colonel Ant, or Queen Ant free spins.

The Minty Summary: Seven free spins games turned up in 430 spins, with gaps between them of 10 to 78 spins, and on three of the four Worker Ant rounds the Jet Pack Ant started a second game for 20 spins in all. The richest of the seven, a Soldier Ant round on spin 126, paid 43.0x the stake, against a cap of 50,000x.

Seven trips into the Anthill

Wild Antics is rather a novel slot to play despite the traditional structure. What renders it so is the peculiar backdrop, as well as the random as heck characters inhabiting it, and it surely makes a pleasant switch to explore somewhere else. The session drew Worker Ant Free Spins four times, Soldier Ant Free Spins twice and Colonel Ant Free Spins once.

The gameplay is quick-moving, and straightforward. Of the 430 spins played, 145 paid something, and 75 of those paid less than the stake. Additional depth is supplied by the Jet Pack Antics assortment of features. In Queen Ant Free Spins, the Queen symbol grows the Roaming Wild up to a 4x4 Colossal Wild, and in Colonel Ant Free Spins the Colonel Ant Wilds expand to cover the entire reel.

Wild multipliers can be just as exciting, with the chance of x5 the win on the cards should wilds collide, and the max win potential of up to 50,000 times the stake is the stated cap.

Having stated that, it's tough to see how one could even get close to that figure, and whilst playing the slot, it appeared improbable to be able to even hit half of that. The best spin of the session paid 86.80, or 43.4x the stake, on spin 126 with Soldier Ant Free Spins included. It's all about the free spins here. The seven free spins games in the session paid 289.20 between them, 38% of everything won. Payouts were rather underwhelming for the most part, however, and the math model rather harsh. The balance ended at 900.00, a session return of 88.4% against the stated 95.50%, and the longest run without a win lasted 12 spins. Albeit a touch too stingy for my taste, Wild Antics is overall an odd release with a distinctive theme.