King of the Party

King of the Party: Slot Overview

Software provider Thunderkick continues its exploration of the popular scatter pay mechanic with the release of a boogying on down online slot, King of the Party. The last scatter pay slot the studio released was Xterminate, which, while equipped with an innovative multiplier feature, might have been a little too innovative for some tastes. Too, something, anyway. King of the Party, on the other hand, is a more conventionally designed slot, matching the scatter pay wins system with easy-to-follow rising win multiplier and free spins features.

The party in this game isn't a low-key get-together of mates at someone's house but a full-blown rave where the revellers are animals rather than people. Hey, this approach worked pretty well in Push Gaming's DJ Fox, so why not here? A crowd has gathered to enjoy a lion DJ up on stage surrounded by sound equipment doing his thing while a 6-reel, 5-row gaming grid hangs suspended above the scene. It's all quite party-ish, or at least party-ish enough to carry on and see what else might arise.

As a scatter paying slot, King of the Party does not have a set number of paylines or ways to win. Instead, when at least 8 matching pay symbols land on the grid, anywhere in view, they create a winning combination. Pulling levers on the back end is a highly volatile math model, pushing out an RTP figure of 94.32%. If that number is not a concern, then players may choose a stake of 10 c to $/€100 to see if they can get the party hopping.

The pay symbols used in King of the Party are spades, diamonds, clubs, hearts, stars, lizards, cats, hogs, hyenas and lions. When 8-9 matching pay symbols are in view in any position, players win 0.2 to 3 times their bet. Should 12+ OAK hit, the payout is 1 to 50 times the bet. Not all scatter pay slots have wild symbols in their midst, but King of the Party does. The wild substitutes for all other symbols except the scatter.

King of the Party: Slot Features

Avalanches, win multipliers, wild explosions, Overlay Multiplier symbols, a free spins bonus game, a feature buy, and BET+ make up King of the Party's list of features.

Avalanche & Win Multiplier

Winning combinations have their payout value multiplied by the multiplier value displayed beneath the reels. Winning symbols are removed after they have paid and replaced by symbols dropping down from above. Winning Avalanches also increase the win multiplier, which is reset at the end of each base game spin.

Overlay Multiplier Symbols

Random pay symbols may have an Overlay Multiplier on them. All Overlay Multipliers on winning symbols are added to the win multiplier prior to payouts.

Bonus Game

In the base game, landing 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatter symbols triggers 10, 15, 20, or 25 free spins, respectively. During the bonus round, landing 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatters awards a further 3, 5, 7, 9, or 11 free spins. The feature starts with the multiplier achieved in the base game, and the multiplier does not reset until free spins end. Lastly, in the free spins bonus game, wild symbols explode if not part of a winning scatter, and all symbols except scatters are removed from the wild symbol's row and reel. This triggers a new Avalanche. If any Overlay Multipliers are removed by the explosion, they are added to the win multiplier.

Feature Buy and BET+

Players may buy the free spins bonus game for the cost of 100x the bet, where the RTP is 94.54%. For BET+, there are three options:

• Bonus Boost - each spin is 2 times more likely to trigger the bonus game and costs 1.4x the bet. RTP 94.35%.
• Bonus Boost Plus - each spin is 5 times more likely to trigger the bonus game and costs 2.5x the bet. RTP 94.43%.
• Party Mode - each base game spin guarantees at least 2 Avalanche features and costs 5x the bet. RTP 94.46%.

King of the Party: Slot Verdict

Yeah, it seems that Thunderkick has well and truly joined ELK Studios in a race to the dirt in terms of return to player values. The game's return figure stuck out like a sore thumb and left a manky stain over everything else King of the Party brought. What it brought wasn't massively exciting, to be honest. Yes, yes, we probably resisted the innovations in Xterminate, and here we are complaining about vanilla features (by comparison). Apologies, Thunderkick, if it feels like you're copping flak no matter the approach, but when King of the Party's elements are all rolled together, it didn't put on the wildest of soirées.

For sure, King of the Party has the ability to go ballistic, but it lacked the slick explosiveness of, ohh, let's say it, Gates of Olympus, for example, where massive multiplier symbols could fall from the sky at any moment. However, having access to a rising win multiplier in all phases of play is no bad thing. Especially since it can be fed by Avalanching wins and Overlay Multipliers. Having wilds helps, too, and you don't see them in every scatter-paying slot. They must make the maths trickier to square. Free spins pile on the final layer of icing through their explosive wilds and the all-important non-resetting win multiplier, making it arguably the best spot to achieve King of the Party's 5,000x the bet full potential.

Okay, King of the Party puts on a pretty decent shindig. It might be more conventional than Xterminate, but each of its parts are solid performers, and the animals getting their groove on puts a light-hearted spin on things. When considering all the factors, King of the Party isn't the rage-up of the century, but it's not a bad get-together either, though the RTP dip is like a dead fly in the punch bowl.