Description
Wacky Penguin City is a five-reel, pays-both-ways game from Swedish slot supremos Yggdrasil Gaming, offering a plentiful 243 ways of winning and theme, as the name suggests, on everyone’s favourite flightless Antarctic bird!
Here, an Emperor Penguin is the owner of the Chinese eatery which forms the backdrop to the game. There are a few cockroaches scuttling around and, unfortunately, the boss is also overworking some of his fellow-creatures until they’re exhausted. Can you help these birds escape the clutches of the wicked restaurateur?
How to play
Place your bets in the standard fashion, setting coin size and using Max Bet and Autoplay options if you wish before hitting Spin. Play from a tiddling 10p all the way up to a mighty £125, on any device you like: desktop, tablet or mobile.
Icons on the reels include the standard playing-card suits of clubs, hearts, diamonds and spades, alongside culinary items such as soup bowls, pots, cleavers, noodle boxes and sauce bottles.
Special features
Special symbols
The regular Wild only rocks up on Reels 2 and 4, and as ever it replaces all the game’s regular icons. If a Wild forms part a winning combo, it stays sticky for the following spin. And if you win on a Wild during the main game, you launch Penguin Escape mode. (See below.)
Meanwhile, the stacked (three-symbol) Emperor Wild only shows up in this mode on Reel 3, guaranteeing a win when it does so. This Wild shifts downwards by a single place on every spin. Bear in mind that the penguins won’t dare to make good their escape as long as the evil Emperor is on the reels.
Bonus features
Free spins
There is no free spins round in Penguin City.
Penguin Escape Mode
You play this on a different reel set, featuring the restaurant kitchen, which has penguins on the left, as the poor creatures try to escape to the safety of the reels by leaping from the kitchen shelf. But they’ll need to avoid the conveyor belts underneath.
On each whirl, a penguin jumps in a bid for freedom. If it fails, it drops into the hole between the two belts, where a grisly fate doubtless awaits. (Penguin pie, anyone?) If it escapes successfully, you get a sticky Wild if a spin wins; alternatively, a winning combo is created on a losing spin. The round ends once there are no new wins.
Jackpot
With no progressive jackpot here, the maximum payout is 1647x stake. This means that you could win a top prize of €1,205,875 when playing on maximum bet.
Return to Player (RTP)
There’s little to write home about here. RTP or Return to Player stands at a fairly average 96.2%. Penguin City is a medium-variance offering. The hit rate isn’t too bad, at 26.22% or more than one in four.
Verdict
It may not have a free spin round, but Penguin City is still worth a shot. You’ll enjoy it particularly if you’re new to slots, or just like to keep your playing simple. And, visually, it’s every bit as stunning as players have come to expect from this Scandinavian operator.
It was described by one reviewer as ‘one of the more entertaining low-paying slots’ they’d enjoyed in a while.
Equally, of course, you’ll love it if you’re fond of penguins! (Then again, isn’t everyone?) Try it out for free before parting with any reel money, and share your thoughts.
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