Wild Antics Slot
Wild Antics is a 5-reel, ant-themed video slot from Blueprint Gaming. The slot includes 20 fixed paylines and, as you might expect given the title, a wild symbol is also in the mix. There are also no less than four bonus features sewn into the fabric of the game, and an autoplay function for the terminally lazy.
Got ants in your pants and want to get started? OK – but it certainly pays to get up to speed before you commit real cash. What better way than by reading this review?
Game Features
Wild Antics is a non-progressive slot which can be played using wide stakes. Indeed, you can bet anywhere between 0.20 and 500 per spin. There’s also an autoplay button, which lets you play up to 100 automatic bets. Refreshingly, the game also lets you set an ‘autoplay session loss limit’ of 2x, 5x, 10x or 50x your bet. This certainly helps you put a backstop in place to stem the tide of your losses. A single session autoplay win limit can also be set, although this goes up to 75x bet.
Wild Antics is a Spin and Stop slot, meaning you completely control when the reels spin and when they stop. Whether you think this gives you an advantage or not, some players like to play fast and hit Stop quicker than the game does.
The 5x3 reel grid appears against a leafy backdrop, which ants playing golf on the grass in the background. The game is bright and colourful, with exceptional graphics and many fun symbols, including a slug, a ladybug and a caterpillar. There are also five playing card symbols, from 10 to A, and a blue ant wild.
The wild substitutes for all symbols except the game’s bonus icons. It also pays 500 for five, 200 for four, 50 for three and two for two. Other well-paying icons include the caterpillar (400/100/40) and the Wild Antics symbol (400/100/40/2), the latter of which appears super stacked on the reels.
The Ace and King symbols are linked, meaning the pay-table shows values associated with combinations ‘of a kind’. For example, two Kings and three Aces on adjacent lines would grant you the top pay-out. The ‘of a kind' rule applies to the other card symbols (10, J, Q) and also the ladybug and slug. The game’s return-to-player percentage is 95.513%.
Jet Pack Antics
Before Wild Antics begins, you’ll be shown three ants wearing goggles with jet packs strapped to their backs. ‘Jet Pack Antics!’ reads the sign, going on to explain: ‘Randomly during any spin, Adam the ant can appear and cause some crazy antics.’
It’s up to you to choose which ‘crazy antics’ you want to put in play. There are four choices: aardvark antics, frantic antics, colossal antics and wild antics. After you’ve made your choice, you’ll be taken through to the main screen.
A word on what each of the four options mean, firstly. Aardvark antics randomly turns reels wild. During frantic antics, reel symbols are shuffled into a series of winning combinations. Colossal antics causes ants to march onto the screen and award a number of wilds. And wild antics results in a number of positions being transformed into wild antics.
Free Spins and Roaming Wilds
When the bonus icon appears on reels one and three, it will grant free spins.
During free spins, you’ll notice ‘roaming’ wilds. All roaming wilds appear on the fifth reel only.
Any worker bonus wild that lands on the reels will remain in play, but not only that, the wilds will roam around the reels during every further spin, improving your chances of forming a winning combination.
Soldier bonus icons also roam, but they come, too, with multipliers which stretch from 2x to 5x. The colonel bonus wild, meanwhile, roams and expands to cover entire reels. In other words, 40 win lines will be active.
The last ‘special’ wild in the free spins round is the queen bonus. The symbol roams like the others, but anywhere the queen bonus appears expands the colossal wild. Like with the colonel, 40 win lines will be active.
During free spins, you should also watch out for jet pack ants, which can re-trigger any bonus!
Wild Fun
Ants may be small, but who says your winnings will be too? Wild Antics is an excellent game whichever way you look at it. With features such as expanding wilds and free spins, this is definitely one to check out.
