9k Kong in Vegas

9K Kong in Vegas: Slot Overview

King Kong might be more closely associated with New York City, but this time for his return visit to the United States of America, the oversized primate is heading to none other than Las Vegas in 4ThePlayer's 9K Kong in Vegas. Is he there to paint the town red or just smash it to bits? For the most part, he's pretty benign, as he accompanies players through events such as a Big Win Repeater and free spins with a unique highest-win repeater feature.

Judging by the colossal gold chain Kong's got dangling around his neck, the great ape appears to have had a run of good luck. He seems fairly congenial, though he bobs away pretty hard to the side of the game grid while staring intensely out. Drawing our attention away from him for a moment to take in the sights of 9K Kong in Vegas, 4ThePlayer has crammed in a number of Strip icons, as well as flashing lights, signage, and neon. There's a vaguely Dinopolis look about the game, with just a hint of Tropicool thrown in for good measure. The final deft touch is a loungey soundtrack that makes it feel like you're checking in at a hotel lobby before dropping the bags off to get all wild and crazy Sin City style.

9K Kong in Vegas is played on a 5x5 gaming area, which has 1,024 ways to win. Beneath the glitz, the game runs on a highly volatile math model while producing a theoretical return to player value of 96% when playing in the default way or buying either of the two features. Regular bets range from 40 p/c to $/€70 per spin, increasing by 50% when the Xtra Bet is enabled – the details of this are covered in the next section.

Wins are formed by landing matching symbols in adjacent reels starting from the first reel onwards. Eleven pay symbols appear in the game. In ascending order of value, there are clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, chips, dice, cocktails, bananas, flamingos, dinosaurs, and Kong at the top. Landing a five-of-a-kind winning way pays from 1 to 4.5 times the stake. Last but not least is the Kong Wild, which is able to substitute for any pay symbol to help make winning ways.

9K Kong in Vegas: Slot Features

Repeating the past plays a big role in 9K Kong in Vegas. Here we'll look at its Big Win Repeater, free spins with Free Spins Repeater, and a couple of feature buy options.

Big Win Repeater

A big win is classed as 10x the bet or higher. Win this amount, and the Big Win Repeater feature is triggered. When active, a wheel spins with two possible outcomes. Landing on Repeat Win re-awards the original amount, and the wheel will spin again. You can keep spinning until the wheel stops on Collect. Then the total win is paid, and the feature ends.

Free Spins

Landing 3 scatters on reels 1, 3 and 5 awards 10 free spins. Free spins use a concept called Highest Win Repeater. The highest win achieved so far is saved in the highest win panel. When wins form on the reels, they are paid out in addition to the highest win value. If the win from the spin was higher than the highest win value, it will then become the highest win value. When free spins end, a wheel spins with three possible outcomes. Collect ends the free spins bonus round. Alternatively, you can win 5-20 free spins with the current highest win or 5-20 free spins where the highest win is reset to 0. The Free Spins Repeater triggers every time free spins end, even if free spins have already been re-awarded.

Xtra Bet

When the Xtra bet is activated, the chances of triggering free spins is boosted to 150% in the main game. Also, during the Big Win Repeater of the Free Spins Repeater phase, the Xtra Bet provides an extra chance to spin the wheel. The first time it lands on Collect, players can spin the wheel again when the Xtra bet is active.

Buy Feature

Players may have the chance to buy two features. These are a spin which guarantees a win of at least 10x the bet, thereby triggering the Big Win Repeater for 50x the bet or free spins for 85x the bet.

9K Kong in Vegas: Slot Verdict

Nostalgia can be a powerful emotion, which like all feelings, can have positive and negative aspects. Positives include the warm fuzzy feeling that reminiscing about the past can produce. Actually, repeating the past has been creeping into online slots as of late. Hacksaw Gaming explored the idea in Itero and Break Bones, and 4ThePlayer themselves have engaged in a spot of virtual time travel of sorts in 10X Rewind. Once again, the studio has found a way for players to repeat the past, or at least, repeat wins in a unique way.

Does it work? Like all new inventions, it may take time to work that answer out. There are definite plus points; one is that players do not have to agonise over deciding whether to spin the Big Win Repeater or not. It is not a gamble wheel. It spins, and you either collect or add more coins to the pile. Presentation-wise, the way Kong climbs the building for each wheel spin or free spins round, as well as the game's general leisurely pace might be a little slow going for some. Others, well, they may love the way the action gets drawn out in a quasi-animated film manner. Demoing is probably the best way to work out which camp you fall in. The same goes for the way the Win Repeater felt like it had been balanced by a relatively low hit rate, leading to a seesaw ride as the various gaming elements sought to find some sort of equilibrium. Of course, in the real world, a 9K Kong in Vegas session has the ability to swing all over the place. It's got the goods to go off, hence the name, with a max win of 9,216x the bet.

Whether 9K Kong in Vegas ultimately appeals or not, it is interesting to see what 4ThePlayer is up to. They're not really a team content with doing the same thing twice in terms of gameplay, which is ironic given their penchant for time travel and features that repeat. The same goes for theme and presentation, also often exploring something a little bit (or a lot) out there. All of this applies to 9K Kong in Vegas, which, while possessing hits as well as misses, is another example of 4ThePlayers' creative impulse firing off on a new tangent.