| Reels: 5 | Min/Max Credits: 0.01 – 0.25 |
| Paylines: 15 | Jackpot: 200,000 credits |
| RTP %: 95.53 | Software: Microgaming |
Big Kahuna Snakes & Ladders is the 2008 sequel to Microgaming’s hugely popular Big Kahuna pokie machine first released in 2003. Like its predecessor, it is themed around visiting a Hawaiian tropical paradise with a colourful, almost cartoonish aesthetic. This definitely lends it a fun, positive vibe that can make it more enjoyable to sit and spin for long play sessions.
As for the gameplay itself, Big Kahuna Snakes & Ladders extends the 9 paylines of the original to 15 in total this time across five reels. Bets range from as low as 1 cent for a minimum 1-payline bid to as high as $75 per spin. With numerous special features such as free spin rounds and the eponymous Snakes & Ladders bonus game, as well as quality-of-life options like autoplay, this pokie promises a good time for beginner and expert players alike.
Big Kahuna Snakes & Ladders Theme
One of the biggest standouts for Big Kahuna Snakes & Ladders is its fantastic theme. You really feel like you’ve been transported to the South Pacific thanks to everything from the lush jungle background, to the bright, warm colours chosen for everything, to the sound effects that play each time you win.
The story is simple: the Big Kahuna’s tribal mask has been stolen, and you need to navigate your way to the top of the mountain in order to retrieve it. Along the way, you’ll encounter everything from jungle boys and girls to delectable tropical fruit to lizards and monkeys.
These symbols seem apt for the setting, and it’s hard not to chuckle when you get a winning combination only to be assaulted by the sounds and animations of celebrating monkeys. Big Kahuna Snakes & Ladders also looks great on smaller mobile screens, letting you easily play on the go without downloading any special apps. It’s difficult to think of another pokie that feels better than this one to play.
Tips To Win Big Kahuna Snakes & Ladders
It’s easy to get started with Big Kahuna Snakes & Ladders:
- First, you select the desired value of each coin from a range of 0.01 to 0.25 and how many coins you want to stake per line from 1 to 20.
- Then, you choose how many of the 15 paylines you want active. The more paylines you play, the higher your bet but the greater your odds of winning.
- Once you’ve set your overall bet somewhere between 1 cent and $75, you spin the reel to get the fun rolling.
There are over 30 winning payouts. Symbols such as tiki masks, monkeys, and the jungle boys and girls tend to offer more coins for their combinations. Conversely, a variety of tropical fruit pieces are tied to lower rewards.
The Big Kahuna himself is on the wild symbol, which can be used in lieu of any other symbol to earn a win. The sole exception to this is the scatter symbol representing the Snakes & Ladders mini game (discussed in greater detail below). Using a wild as part of a winning combination acts as a multiplier, doubling your payout and granting you a substantial boost to your earnings.
Like in most games, getting five wilds unlocks the jackpot. Unfortunately, Big Kahuna Snakes & Ladders does not implement a progressive jackpot, so you won’t see this amount going up over time. Even still, a jackpot will net you 5,000x your stake. That’s 100,000 coins if you’re using the maximum bet, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at.
Big Kahuna Snakes & Ladders Special Features
What really sets Big Kahuna Snakes & Ladders apart, however, are its special features. The first of these is how it handles its free spins. Instead of tying these to scatter symbols like most pokies, you instead receive them seemingly at random. This adds an extra element of excitement each time you play since you never know when Lady Luck will strike.
While free spins are active, you’ll get five bonus chances to form winning combinations. Any payout you earn is doubled. This includes the usual multiplier offered by wilds, meaning that a win with a wild during a free spin rewards a whooping 4x its usual value. Jackpots are also doubled on free spins, increasing the maximum to a potential 200,000.
On top of randomised free spins, this pokie machine also includes a special bonus game inspired by the childhood game Snakes & Ladders. This is the purpose of the scatter symbols—land one in the first, third, and fifth reels, and you’ll immediately activate the game. Play is simple. You roll five dice and move that many spaces along a board. Hit a ladder, and you follow the ladder further along the board. Land on a snake, and it takes you back toward the start. Roll a six, and you get an extra roll.
Despite its relative simplicity, this bonus game adds a nice break to the usual process of spinning pokies. It also gives you a great shot to earn extra credits based on how far you manage to progress, with a maximum payout of 100x your bet if you make it all the way to the end. That means you could win as much as 30,000 if you’re playing the max bet of 20 credits per line.
Conclusion
Unlike many sequels, Big Kahuna Snakes & Ladders undoubtedly lives up to its predecessor and might even surpass it. It has the same enchanting theme while also incorporating wild fun thanks to its bonus game and the unexpected nature of its free spins that allows them to pop up when you least expect it.
Despite the lack of a progressive jackpot, the top prize of 200,000, along with a possible bonus of 30,000 from the Snakes & Ladders mini game, offers great potential for gigantic payouts. Attend a Hawaiian luau yourself by checking out this entertaining pokie on the web, mobile, or desktop.
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