Hong Kong-based AvatarUX are known for their expanding reels PopWins mechanism which they incorporate into a lot of their games including this one, the TikiPop slot machine. If you’ve played any of their slots with this special feature before, you’ll know that when you spin in a winning combination the reels begin to expand and symbols beginning to pop. this will give you up to five rows of potential winners in the base game and up to seven rows during the special free spins round.
The game itself is set against a backdrop depicting what look like the ancient ruins of a lost city. As you might expect with the whole lost civilization theme, this is all framed very nicely with some nice shiny gold. The graphics, as with all the online casino software developer’s other games, are excellent and the soundtrack really gets the anticipation levels rising.
During the free spins round the special PopWins mechanism can produce wins of up to 32,000x your stake!
The PopWins mechanism is unique to AvatarUX and if you’ve never played it, you’re in for a treat. When you spin in a winning combination the symbols in that combination will pop and be replaced by two random symbols in place of the original symbol on the same reel. Not only will that expanding the number of possible ways to win, it will also trigger a free respin. Land another win and the whole process will repeat itself once again.
During the base game in TikiPop, it is possible for the reels to expand to a maximum of five rows high. If you reach that limit then all wins from the series will double in value. When your luck eventually runs out, which it surely will, the reels will then reset to the original three rows after a loss.
To trigger the free spins bonus round you need to land three of the golden Tiki characters. However, before the feature begins you get the option to gamble for extra games by spinning a wheel. You start out with seven free spins but can take a fifty-fifty chance to get that up to eleven free spins. If you win the gamble, you’ll be offered another fifty-fifty gamble to increase your free spins to fifteen free games. You don’t have to take the gamble and you won’t even need if you spin four or five golden Tikis. They will give you eleven and fifteen free games respectively without having to gamble for it
During the free games the PopWins mechanism works slightly differently. Firstly, instead of only going five high, the reels can now go seven high which gives you 33,614 ways to win. Secondly, instead of the reels resetting after a losing spin, they just go down to the height of your shortest reel. This obviously keeps you right in the thick of things and increases your chances of landing a nice little windfall.
The other thing to note during the free games round is that there is a special golden symbol that appears only in these free games. It will pay up to 10x your stake when you land between three and five on the five reels.
The TikiPop slot machine is a fantastic game to play and will keep you well engrossed with its excellent graphics and exciting features. Stakes range between 0.20 and 20.00, so this is not really a slot machine for high rollers but there are some potentially big prizes up for grabs, especially if you get a little run on the multipliers. You can win up 32,000x your stake. The Return to Player percentage is 96.1%, which is not bad for a game with so many huge multipliers up for grabs. If you like the whole lost city-type theme or you just like the adrenaline-rush of some hefty multipliers, you will love this game!