Description
Swedish slot geniuses Yggdrasil Gaming have come up with a cartoonish offering in Aldo’s Journey.
A 5×5 grid affair that follows the globe-trotting jaunts of the whimsical travelling merchant, who, try as he might, simply can’t stay in one place! It incorporates 65 Paylines and was released in autumn 2019.
Look forward to five free-spins modes and travelling to four different locations around the world, so don’t forget your passport! There’s also an enjoyable soundtrack in the background.
How to play
Play Aldo’s Journey from a mere 10p a go up to an extravagant £100 per spin. It’s mobile-friendly, although playing on a larger screen will obviously allow you to enjoy the graphics at their best.
Special features
Special symbols
The compass symbol is your Scatter here, and it’s your ticket to the free spins round, as described below.
Meanwhile, the gold coin Wild replaces other regular icons to make up your winning combos.
Bonus features
Free spins
Launch this when you bag a hat-trick or more of the Scatters on the middle three reels and enjoy seven free whirls. The playing grid is divided into different areas, and where the Scatters end up decides which of the five free-spins modes you play. These work as follows:
- Italy: Kick off with a 2x multiplier that goes up by a factor of one on every spin
- China: Enjoy a 2x multiplier on each spin – also Aldo will disperse some Wilds on the reels
- Persia: With each fresh whirl, a new sticky Wild rocks up on the grid
- Mongolia: All occurrences of a different icon will be taken away on every spin, plus a multiplier is added when just two symbols remain
- Journey mode: Here, first a 2x multiplier applies, before one of the other modes detailed above is launched
Wild Time! feature
This can kick off while you’re playing the free whirls games, any time when Aldo himself arrives on the middle icon. He will then bestow between three and nine Wilds, not to mention a 2x – 4x multiplier.
This stays for all spins in all modes mentioned above bar the Journey one. If this perk is triggered during that mode, three extra free whirls are thrown in.
Journey Wild feature
This can become effective on any spin. Aldo moves around the reels to a fresh place with each whirl, only stopping when the reels do, and where he can act as a walking Wild himself, moving a step at random in any one of eight directions.
As with a standard Wild, all symbols bar the Scatter can be replaced here.
Jackpot
This slot doesn’t feature a progressive jackpot. But there is a maximum win of up to 4,204x stake.
Return to Player (RTP)
You should find this is a mid-variance game, with an eminently reasonable RTP or Return to Player of 96.5%. The medium volatility can mean the bigger wins take a long time to hit, and you’re likely to see the smaller gains a lot more often.
Verdict
The very cartoony visuals give this slot quite a different look and feel to some of Yggdrasil’s other offerings, although the graphics and animations are, as you’d imagine, first-class.
It scores highly in the fun and entertainment stakes, too, suits all levels of player, and should have enough appeal to keep you engaged. Give it a go for yourself and see what you think. Remember to let us know how you got on.
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