Alchemy Gaming is a young and budding Microgaming partner, and they’ve made what could very well be their ‘breakthrough game’ with Africa X Up. The audiovisual presentation is impressive, not least since they’ve managed to avoid what could’ve so easily turned into a run-of-the-mill cliché. It’s all about climbing the Multiplier ladder, but you’ll only benefit from the achieved multiplier tier during the bonus round.
You have expanding wilds to help you out at all stages of the game though, and but you can expect a long and dangerous (for your bankroll, at least) journey over the base game savannah before getting even close to top-tier 25x multiplier. The paradox of not wanting to trigger the bonus round until you’ve reached a solid multiplier creates an interesting tension, but non-UK players can avoid this altogether by going for the bonus buy option.
The wild symbol can land on all 5 reels, and it expands to cover the full reel whenever it appears. As usual, the wild steps in for all regular pay symbols to help you form winning combos, and it’s also the highest paying symbol in the game by a slim margin. A screen full of wilds is worth 1,245x your stake.
Whenever you land twoX Up scattersanywhere in sight, you trigger theX Up feature. This awards an X Up token that’s crossed off in theMultiplier meterto the left. The more tokens you collect, the higher you climb in the Multiplier meter. It works as follows:
The multiplier level keeps increasing during base game play, but the actual multiplier will not become active until you trigger the bonus round. The achieved multiplier tier is stored per bet level, so you need to start over again if you change your bet size before you’ve hit the bonus round.
You need three X Up scatters anywhere on the same spin to trigger the Bonus Round, and this awards8 free spins. Whatever multiplier tier you have achieved will now be active, and boost all winning combos. Landingtwo X Up scattersduring the feature awards+2 extra spins, and it also helps increase the multiplier (if you’ve not already reached the highest level of 25x).
Non-UK players who don’t want to spend too much time collecting X Up scatters have another option. You canbuy the bonusround from the in-game menu, and all multiplier tiers are available for prices ranging from 18.67 to 300 times your stake. You also have a mystery option that will set you back 80x your stake, and this awards a random multiplier between 2x and 25x. The cost of buying the bonus round decreases the more X Up scatters you’ve already collected.
We grinded along in the base game for a while, and then we decided to simply purchase the bonus round. Of course, we went for the top tier 25x multiplier option, and the feature starts around 0:25 into the 2-minute highlights video. You can see for yourself how we fared by hitting the play button below.
Kudus to Alchemy for making something uniquely their own from the very common African/tribal theme, and avoiding clichés. The game has a silky smooth and pleasant pace, bordering on “oddly satisfying” with the turbo/autospin switched on, and there are no annoying “hiccups” along the way. The audiovisual presentation is excellent, and undoubtedly the best they have come up with so far. As for the game itself, an option to exchange a triggered bonus round for a certain amount of X Up tokens would probably have been a good idea.
It can take a very long time until you manage to get to the top tier multiplier, without “ruining it” with a bonus round trigger before that. Of course, you can increase the multiplier also within the feature, and big wins can certainly come from lower-tier multipliers also. You need the 25x multiplier to crack the30,000xpotential on a single spin though, and buying the bonus round seems like a tempting option (if available) after you’ve decreased the price a bit.
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