The Tumbles

The Tumbles: Slot Overview

Few studios have mastered the tumble technique quite like Relax Gaming has, and this time, the studio has turned its attention to prehistoric times in order to craft another one. Was the team watching the animated film The Croods, starring the voice of Nicolas Cage, around the time it made The Tumbles? Possibly, as the vibe rang bells. Maybe even Ice Age; who knows? What we know is that the clock gets wound back many thousands of years, and the temperatures dip for players looking to take on The Tumbles, with its mix of cascades, multipliers, and free spins.

The Tumbles is cold for its base game, where snow and ice cover the surfaces. But it moves somewhere warmer for the free spins round, where the ice has melted, giving way to grasslands, hills, and river. Funny, back then, humans probably migrated away from the cold areas to the hot. In the future, should global warming toast the earth, we'll all be heading in the opposite direction. Well, funny is not the right word, but it's interesting to see how we scurry about the planet at the whims of nature. Humanity might have come a long way from our bone through the nostrils, inventing fire days, but we're far from being the masters of the universe we sometimes think we are.

In the main game, The Tumbles' 6x6 matrix drops in a mix of active symbols and ice blockers. Blockers do not contribute to wins, but they can be destroyed. Up to 46,656 ways to win are possible when all positions on the grid are active. Players are able to wager 20 c to $/€200 on each base game spin, as well as buy free spins when in the mood. With a maximum RTP of 96.1%, The Tumbles is a medium volatile slot.

Stone-backed clubs, diamonds, spades, and hearts are the low pays, awarding 0.2 times the stake for 6 OAK. The five members of the Tumble family are the high pays, awarding 0.4 to 1 times the bet for a 6-matching symbol winning combination. Wild symbols exist on all reels except the leftmost reel, substituting for all pay symbols.

The Tumbles: Slot Features

How The Tumbles works is that matching symbols on three or more adjacent reels starting from the leftmost side creates a win. The winning symbols and any ice or stone blocks next to a winning symbol are destroyed, and new symbols tumble down to fill the spaces, providing more chances to win. Blockers do not fall in on cascades.

Multipliers

Multiplier symbols are present on all reels except the leftmost reel. Active multiplier values are added together and applied to the total win at the end of a spin. Multipliers may land in an active state alongside other active symbols or land in an inactive state within ice or stone. Additionally, a multiplier is awarded when all ice or stone blockers are destroyed. Only active multipliers are applied to the win. An inactive multiplier becomes active when a win takes place adjacent to one. Multiplier values are x2 to x10, and an x5 to x10 multiplier is awarded in the main game when all of the blockers are destroyed.

Free Spins

A total of 8 free spins are awarded for landing 3 scatter symbols. An extra free spin is awarded for each scatter beyond three. Free spins have less blockers, more multipliers, and higher average multiplier values. Also, active multipliers landing in free spins are added to the total multiplier, which persists till the feature ends. The total multiplier applies to the total win at the end of each free spin. When all stone blocks are destroyed, an x10 multiplier symbol is guaranteed to land when new symbols fall in. +1 extra free spin is awarded for each scatter landing in the round.

Feature Buy

The feature buy may be used to instantly enter the free spins round. For 50x the bet, a spin is played, landing at least 3 scatter symbols.

The Tumbles: Slot Verdict

The Tumbles was nice, but nothing special. Relax Gaming has blown absolute doors off in the past when using tumble mechanics, see Ancient Tumble or Cluster Tumble for example, so The Tumbles felt middling by comparison. There's nothing wrong about the game, but nothing super duper right about it, either. The Tumbles gets the job done, smashing blockers and popping out multis, but it all seems a bit basic for Relax Gaming if you get the meaning. As if the team could have knocked this one out a few days before the deadline easily rather than tax their design capabilities to create.

This isn't a criticism of The Tumbles as such since it looks, sounds, and plays just dandy. It's not massively volatile, and its familiar theme means it may suit a more general gambling audience - one that might not be overly keen on being brutalised by a highly volatile slot or confused by wild subject matter. Cartoon prehistoric imagery is well known from the movies, giving The Tumbles a friendly, recognisable look. The same applies to the gameplay, being friendly, recognisable stuff which had a comfy old baseball cap fit to it.

The Tumbles is well made and all, quite fun, capable of cascading and multiplying along nicely, but a win cap of 5,000x the bet plus day-to-day features cemented the game's status as a low ambition slot by Relax Gaming standards.