Hot Safari

The safari theme has been used quite a bit in the online slot world, and the Pragmatic Play game Hot Safari is a good example of that. While the theme itself isn't all that different from what we've seen before, the feature set and the approach to the game play is quite different, and that helps to make it stand out. This is a good game to try if you're looking for a different type of gameplay that's jam-packed with features and ways to win.

Game Format

At its heart, this game is a five-reel, three-row title with 25 paylines. However, there is a sixth reel as well, which shows up on the far-right side of the regular reels, and we'll discuss that below. Bet sizing is based on a certain size coin per payline, and that ranges from $0.01 to $0.50 apiece. This gives the game a betting range of $0.25 to $125 per spin since players can bet up to 10 coins on each payline. This is a really good way to handle bet sizing since it makes it easy to pick a precise bet size that works for you.

The sixth reel on the right-hand side of the screen is not a normal reel. Instead, it lists multipliers that players can earn on all of their wins. The multiplier that shows up on the middle of the five symbols listed on that reel is the multiplier for all of the payouts on that particular spin. It's possible to use these multipliers to get payouts worth up to 10 times your normal wins on these games, so it's pretty clear that there are ways to connect to make some pretty large payouts in this slot (more here).

Regular Payouts

There are five animals that show up on the reels that are the top paying symbols in the game. The elephant pays a solid 400x payout for five of a kind. You can also earn 250x for five of the rhino. The zebra is good for 200x for five of a kind, and five of the gazelle gives players a 150x win. The final upper-end pay is 100x for five of the meerkat.

The A, K, Q, J and 10 symbols round out the lower end of the pay schedule. You can get 75x for five of the red A's or 50x for five of the orange K. The yellow Q pays 40x, and the blue J gives players 30x. The lowest five-of-a-kind payout in the game is 25x for five of the green 10.

Wild Symbols

The lion is the wild symbol in this game, and he has the same payouts as the elephant, so he effectively doesn't have his own wins. Nevertheless, five of a kind pays out 400x. This wild shows up on all reels, and if it lands in the center of a reel, then it expands to cover that entire reel.

There is a super wild symbol that shows up sometimes on the sixth reel. If you get it on the center position, then you get the Super Wild Bonus feature. The way this works is that a wild randomly appears on all five reels, and if it lands on the center reel, it expands as usual. This gives players a chance to get some pretty strong payouts overall.

Scatters and Free Spins

The scattered baboon shows up on every single reel as well. Three or more gives players a set of 10 free spins. What's cool about this is that players can extend their series of free spins by re-triggering the feature indefinitely. While there are no multipliers or extra goodies during the free spins, they are still valuable because they also pay you back your triggering bet for starting the bonus feature, so it's a complete and total freeroll.

Overview

Hot Safari by Pragmatic Play (formerly known as Topgame, details available here) is a solid overall game with some interesting features that leads to atypical gameplay. This is the kind of innovation that we would like to see in the industry as a whole with the sixth reel for multipliers and the expanding wilds one-third of the time that play into the overall theme.

This is a high-quality game, and it goes to show what this company is really capable of in the video slot department. We recommend that players at least take a look at this game so that they become familiar with this arrangement of features since it's a bit different than what's available anywhere else at the time of this writing.