Joker Flip

Joker Flip: Slot Overview

Casino game maker Play'n GO works to a famously busy schedule, and one way of ensuring the production line is steaming along is by cloning the odd slot here or there. One such clone is Joker Flip, which sees Invading Vegas Las Christmas getting a jokerfied makeover while retaining pretty much everything else, such as respins, walking wilds, mystery symbols, wild multipliers, and flipped free spins.

Judging by some of the symbols and background images, it appears that Joker Flip is held in a casino town, maybe Las Vegas, maybe not, one with palm trees, fountains, skyscrapers, and a giant Ferris wheel. Joker Flip's action takes place on a clean, clear day, in a clean, clear city, that rang a small bell of remembrance for Relax Gaming's slot Chip Spin - in form, not function. The agreeable setting formed a positive first impression, though enthusiasm did ebb away when it was clear a repeat performance of Invading Vegas Las Christmas was coming up.

On the setup side, Joker Flip is played on a 5-reel, 3-row gaming panel, making use of 20 paylines for awarding wins left to right from the leftmost reel onwards. Behind the joker skin costume is a medium volatile math model, producing a maximum RTP of 96.2%, with lower models to be on the lookout for. The stake range is 10 to $/€50, and neither ante bet nor feature buy is available.

Fruit-incorporated jewellery items are Joker Flip's low pay symbols, showing cherries, plums, lemons, and watermelons, while the high pays are Bars, chips, dice, gold bars, and 7s. When winning combinations consisting of 5 matching low pays hit, the payout equates to 0.8x the bet for all types, whereas, for the high pays, the top rewards are 1.6 to 8 times the bet. Wilds may appear on all five reels, substituting anything except scatters and paying out 30x the bet for a line of five wilds.

Joker Flip: Slot Features

Joker Flip keeps the features as they were, which means players are able to access mystery symbols, wild multipliers, Lock On Respins, walking wilds, and retriggerable free spins.

Mystery Symbols

Mystery symbols reveal pay symbols or wilds - possibly with an x2, x3, x5, or x10 multiplier. Any wins including multiplier wilds have the win multiplied by the value displayed on the wild. When more than one multiplier occurs on a winline, the multiplier values are added together. If regular pay symbols are revealed, it will be of the same matching type. For the mystery symbol feature, the most displayed symbols have a higher chance of being displayed as the mystery symbols once revealed.

Lock On Respin

A respin is triggered on the middle reel when the leftmost and the second reel show full stacks of the same symbol, including wild symbols, but no win is achieved. The other reels lock in place during the respin. Free spins can be triggered by the respin feature. Stacked high-pay symbols can land on the last 2 reels in the base game or will land on the first 2 reels in free spins.

Walking Wild

Landing a stack of wilds on the middle reel during a respin creates a full reel walking wild. The walking wild moves to the right with each subsequent respin in the base game until it reaches the rightmost reel. The reels respin when the walking wild stops. As the walking wild walks, it leaves between 3 and 12 mystery symbols in highlighted positions. An extra respin occurs on all reels when the walking wild has stopped on the last reel. Scatters cannot land while the walking wild is active. Walking wilds never place a mystery symbol on the reel it moves towards.

Free Spins

Hitting 3 scatter symbols triggers 12 free spins, where the reels are flipped, reversing their order. If 3 scatters land during the near win respin feature, free spins trigger but not the walking wild feature. During free spins, walking wilds move left instead of right until reaching the leftmost reel. The round can be extended by landing 3 scatters, awarding an extra +12 free spins each time, up to a maximum of 120 free spins.

Joker Flip: Slot Verdict

While trying not to be too judgemental from the get-go, since Invading Vagas Las Christmas made a sour mark the first time around, there were zero expectations that Joker Flip would make a more favourable impression. After reviewing what the game can do, those expectations were more or less met. There was nothing in Joker Flip that pushed it beyond what its mould slot was capable of achieving, emotionally or mechanically. Digging deep to find positive feedback, Joker Flip does appear clean, clear, and inviting, so for a casino town experience with jokers, it doesn't look awful.

When in action, Joker Flip isn't awful either per se, but it struggled to raise the pulse rate much. There are flickers when full-reel wilds are trundling about the grid, dumping mystery symbols revealing wild multipliers, fair enough. But the fun parts were few and far between. A situation not helped by the low in this day and age max win of 2,500x the bet. Another possible make-or-break factor is the theme. The joker concept may imbue Joker Flip with some sort of mainstream appeal for some gamblers, but it also emits low levels of creative energy, even for a cloned slot.

If you were under the impression Play'n GO is stuck in a rut pushing out mediocre to okay to occasionally kinda good slots (rarely), then Joker Flip is only going to fuel those thoughts. Casual players with a soft spot for jokers might be entertained by the light vibe, and walking wild, mystery symbol sprinkles, but despite any positives, Joker Flip is little better than mass-produced tat.