Frogblox

Frogblox: Slot Overview

If frogs are yet to really capture your imagination, here are a couple of facts which might blow your mind from the Wildlife Conservation Society. Number 1: did you know that some frogs freeze almost solid in winter, then thaw unscathed when spring comes around? Perhaps gamblers in colder parts of the world can relate to that phenomenon. Two, frogs use their eyes to eat… yes, when a frog swallows food, it uses its eyes to help push food down to their tummies. Now we're primed; let's leap into Frogblox, an amphibian-themed online slot designed by ELK Studios that's almost as jam-packed with features as it is with jumping cutie pie froggies.

The world of Frogblox is hidden away in dense jungle, almost Jurassic in composition, where the foliage grows thick, and spiky crystals poke out about the place, randomly. Smashing stone blocker symbols is the order of the day, and Frogblox's gaming area contains a lot of carved stonework that feels vaguely Mesoamerican if it wasn't for the big frog carvings standing guard on either side of the mains reels. A mystery tune adds to the atmosphere, contributing to Frogblox's Dora the Explorer meets the Muppets feel.

Frogblox's active area is an interesting one. It's got a 6x6 main grid down the bottom and a 6-column, 2-row grid up top called the feature shelf. Frogs on the main reels are needed to pull features down from the feature reel into play. The bet levels here are 20 c to $/€100, and there are five bonus modes available from the X-iter menu. No matter the approach, Frogblox's RTP is 94%, and its math model is highly volatile.

Blocker symbols randomly land on the main reels as well as the feature shelf, but they can be removed as covered below. It means that ways to win vary, depending on how many live symbols or blockers are in place. For pay symbols, J-A are the lows, while highs are a blue gem butterfly, a red gem beetle, and a big red gem thingy. Payout values are 0.3x-0.4x the bet for 5 matching royals, increasing to 1 to 5 times the bet for 5 matching premiums. All pay symbols, blockers, and wilds can be 1x1 or 2x2 size. However, big symbols can only be created by the feature shelf.

Frogblox: Slot Features

Buckle up for a lot of features, not to mention about 50,000 uses of the word 'frog' as we tramp through this section.

Avalanche

All symbols part of a win explode and create space for additional symbols to drop. Blocker symbols connected to winning symbols explode, as well. Avalanches continue as long as new winning combinations land.

Feature Shelf

Frog symbols on the main grid collect features from the bottom row of the feature shelf or remove blockers if no features can be collected. Possible symbols on the shelf are global multipliers, big symbols, both ways, symbol multipliers, bombs, blockers, extra drops, and frogs. Frogs may even remain, jump to a lily pad, or turn wild after interacting with the feature shelf, depending on the feature:

• Global Multiplier - values are added to the global multiplier, which applies to all wins and are additive if more than one is pulled down.
• Big Symbol - a pulled down big 2x2 symbol crushes the frog and reveals a pay symbol or a wild. The frog may only pull one per win evaluation.
• Both Ways - wins become available both ways on the grid. The both ways remain until there is a win from right to left.
• Symbol Multiplier - collected symbol multipliers apply a ways multiplier to all wilds and paying symbols on the frog's column. Symbol multipliers are additive if more than one is applicable for the same symbol.
• Bomb - bombs remove all blocker symbols from the feature shelf. Bombs are activated by a frog in the feature shelf.
• Extra Drops – extra drops come into play after the avalanche cycle has ended and there are no more wins. The feature shelf is persistent during extra drops.
• Frog – the frog on the main reels can activate a frog on the feature shelf. The frog on the feature shelf interacts with all feature shelf symbols except blockers, bombs, and other frogs. The activated frog on the shelf is pulled onto the main grid.

Frogs on the main reels spit to destroy blockers on the feature shelf or pull down a feature symbol. They may also pull down another frog, causing a panicked collection of all feature symbols. Frogs that pull down a feature may explode and create a wild. If a frog interacts with another frog higher up on the same column on the main grid, the higher frog interacts with all feature shelf symbols except blockers, bombs, or other bombs. That frog is pulled down by the lower frog, which may turn wild.

Lily Pad

Frogs can jump to a lily pad symbol and reactivate from the new position. The frog's old position either turns into a wild, a lily pad, a pay symbol, or a new frog.

Free Spins

Clearing all of the blocker symbols from the main grid awards 6 free spins. The current global multiplier and any remaining extra drops are brought from the base game to the bonus round. The feature shelf is persistent through the round, and removing all blocker symbols from the main reels awards +6 free spins. The both-ways feature is persistent when collected.

X-iter

The X-iter offers several different game modes for various costs:

• Bonus Hunt – drops cost 3x the bet and have 4 times the chance of triggering the bonus game.
• Big Block – 10x the bet to guarantee a big symbol on the feature shelf.
• Frogception – 25x the bet for a game round with feature collect on the frogs.
• Bonus – 100x the bet.
• Super Bonus – 500x the bet for the bonus game with a starting x10 global multiplier.

Frogblox: Slot Verdict

Have you ever encountered the word 'frog' so many times in one place? Well, you have now, as Frogblox's game information is crawling with it. Frogs swarm its gaming grid, too – if you're fortunate because they are needed to make use of the feature shelf and the goodies it contains. Hopefully, you like bashing blocker symbols, as well, because these two elements, frogs and blocker destruction, are a couple of Frogblox's key pillars.

Admittedly, it is quite fun watching winning symbols destroy blockers, opening up the reels, so is hitting frogs and watching them dart their little tongues upwards to drag stuff from the feature shelf. There are a lot of features, as well, which naturally tend to get better the more that are interacting with each other. You don't need all of them firing together, necessarily, but linking global multipliers with symbol multipliers, with pay both ways, etc etc, is capable of creating a neat snowballing effect. ELK Studios is good at this sort of thing. See Tropicool, Tropicool 2, Dropz, or Illogicool for a diverse collection of playable 'feature shelf-style' examples. Frogblox sits about in the middle of them, being neither the best nor the worst of the bunch. Winning potential is impressive at 25,000x the bet, though seeing someone collect that amount would be like spotting the Isthmohyla rivularis tree frog in the wild, which was reportedly seen once during a 25-year stretch by WorldStrides.

After reviewing ELK Studios' Rogue Rats of Nitropolis literally the day before this one, Frogblox somehow, someway, had the faint whiff of filler about it. Maybe this is because the studio has set such a high standard for itself, and while Frogblox was good, it wasn't as smack to the face as good as Rogue Rats. Anyway, ELK Studios' filler wouldn't be the usual waste of space it can be, as Frogblox is still head and shoulders above a lot of the bilge out there, delivering an enjoyable amphibian ménage of looks, features, and block breaking.