Royal Nuts

Royal Nuts: Slot Overview

No, not a game about a king's reproductive organs; Royal Nuts is an online slot made by veteran developer NetEnt, which homes in on nuts of the edible variety. However, you probably wouldn't want to eat the nuts in this game because the studio has humanised them by adding on eyes, mouths, and royal regalia such as crowns. These nuts then have charm, and they star in a charming game that boasts three different types of wilds and offers what NetEnt calls 'nutty action'.

At a stretch, iSoftBet did that Nutcracker slot, and there are some 'Do-nut' slots wafting around, but rarely, if ever, do gamblers get the chance to try their luck alongside the humble nut. Perhaps humble isn't the right word in this instance, though, since the nuts in this game are the monarchical rulers of their realm. However, they don't appear to take themselves too seriously since Royal Nuts is a friendly atmosphered game, where the nuts are here to have fun and are accompanied by pleasing if simple visuals and equally pleasant audio interspersed with fun trumpet blasts to indicate certain features, and a leap into rave mode when celebrating larger wins.

A 5-reel, diamond-shaped grid is Royal Nuts' gaming area, where the symbols are set up in a 3-4-5-4-3 pattern. A total of 36 paylines run along this diamond grid, awarding wins left to right, starting on the leftmost reel. Technically, Royal Nuts accepts stakes of 20 c to a maximum of $/€100 and is rated as being medium volatile. Three RTP options have been designed, where the most optimal value is the 96.05% version.

Royal Nuts' low pay symbols are 10, J, Q, K, and A playing card ranks, while its high pays are three Royal Nut character symbols. Wilds are a prominent part of Royal Nuts, and they are able to substitute for any of the regular paying symbols.

Royal Nuts: Slot Features

One mission of Royal Nuts is to transform those Royal Nuts symbols into Golden Wild Nuts, which come in three varieties. This happens randomly in the base game or via a collection feature in the free spins round.

Golden Wild Nuts

In the base game, the Golden Wild Nuts feature may randomly trigger, activating different kinds of wilds. Next to the grid, the 3 Royal Nuts high pay symbols on display highlight and indicate the Golden Wild Nuts transformation for each symbol. These three possibly wild types are:

• Regular Wild - A Royal Nut transforms into a wild.
• Stacked Wild - A Royal Nut transforms into a Stacked Wild, able to land in random stacks of 2 to 4 symbols high in the base game or up to 5 symbols high in free spins.
• Expanding Wild - A Royal Nut transforms into an Expanding Wild, which expands to cover all positions on its reel.

Free Spins

In the base game, landing 3, 4 or 5 scatter symbols anywhere on the grid awards 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. In free spins, gem symbols may land on the reels. These are collected by their respective meters when they do. Next to the grid, the Royal Nuts collect these blue, red, or green gems according to the colour of each Royal Nut symbol. A white gem increases all 3 Royal Nuts meters by +1. When a collection meter accumulates 2 gems, the Regular Wild is activated. Collecting a further 2 gems upgrades the wild to Stacked Wild, and another 2 collected gems upgrades to Expanding Wilds. Scatters do not appear during free spins, so the feature cannot be retriggered.

Free Spins Buy

It is possible to use the bonus buy option to buy entrance to the free spins round for a cost of 65 times the bet.

Royal Nuts: Slot Verdict

Around the time of Royal Nuts' review, NetEnt's release schedule had been pretty inconsistent. Some decent stuff, such as Casino Nights, had been mixed in with some less intriguing stuff, like Ticket To Wild, though overall, there hadn't been anything hugely standout-ish for a while. Royal Nuts wasn't a major standout either, but it was one of the better slots, and several factors contributed to making it so.

One positive factor was Royal Nuts' affable presentation. Fruit you get a lot of in slots; nuts, though? Not so much. As such, it was hard to draw thematic parallels with many other games, but one that did spring to mind (it's not about nuts) was NetEnt's own Bee Hive Bonanza. The two games share a cutesy look, regal characters, and fairly uncomplicated, yet enjoyable, gameplay. The nut characters and their nutty world do well to draw you in, and neat moments such as the musical touches help slap a smile on the face while there. Royal Nuts' sights and sounds have been ideally matched with the uncomplicated gameplay, where random Golden Wild Nuts sprinkle salt on the base game while the progressive gem hunt adds flavour to the free spins round. Not a lot that is extraordinary, yet good for a few laughs when all is going well and for producing wins of up to 5,774x.

So, is the time of the nut's overthrow of fruit as the dominant online slot culinary delight upon us? Probably not, because while fruits are bold, bright, and colourful, nuts are arguably a bit drab-looking by comparison. That could be why NetEnt gave the nuts in Royal Nuts a humanised makeover, injecting extra charisma while also helping them contribute to a cutely playable slot.