Africa XUP from Alchemy Gaming takes us on a high volatility adventure to the plains of Africa where wins of up to 30,000x are possible!
Africa XUP has conventional and easy to understand gameplay, but that doesn’t mean it’s without surprises. Africa XUP has a number of different features to enhance your gameplay experience, with features like stacked wilds, and a bonus multiplier that can increase before you even enter Free Spins.
We’ve been to the African Savannah and experienced the beauty many times before, but we’re always happy to return once more for Africa XUP!
Africa XUP Slot Theme
Africa XUP has outstanding graphics and music. In the background, you’ll see the vast open African Plains, and the wonderous music to accompany such a wonderous theme does well to portray the magical nature of Africa.
Despite how well it’s been done, you can’t help but feel like you have seen it before. Many slots have utilised an African theme many times, so it’s hard to feel like you’re experiencing something new. This doesn’t take anything away from how meticulous Alchemy Gaming was about creating an immersive design, it just feels like it’s nothing new.
Africa XUP: Betting and Symbols
Betting options in Africa XUP are expansive enough to give everyone the chance to give this slot a try.
The lowest option here is £/€0.30 per spin, and the highest option is £/€21 per spin. There are a lot of options in between the two, so everyone should feel catered for in Africa XUP.
When it comes to symbols, you’ll see that the design of Africa XUP really shines with symbols that have been designed very professionally. The highest paying symbols are the African Man and Woman with the Lion and Cheetah in the background. Other high paying symbols are the Elephant, Rhino, and Bison.
Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10 make up the low paying symbols, and there’s a Wild which is represented by the shield symbol.
Africa XUP: The Base Game and Features
Africa XUP is a 5 reel slot with 243 ways to win.
Connecting wins will require you to match at least 3 symbols from left to right on consecutive reels, starting from the left-most reel. There are some decent rewards available for connecting full ways of high paying symbols, but the main Base Game attraction is the stacked Wild feature, which brings with it the potential to win big
Stacked Wilds
Wild Symbols may land on any reel in the Base Game, and when they do they’ll expand to cover the entirety of its respective reel.
More than one of these may land at one time, and there is even the potential to fill the screen with Wilds which will all expand, meaning you’ll win with 243 ways of Wilds!
The Stacked Wild Feature does well to bring an essence of excitement to what might have otherwise been a dull Base Game.
XUP Feature
To the left of the reels, you’ll see a Free Spins Multiplier bar.
This meter displays multiplier values of 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 7x, 10x, 15x & 25x. Its purpose is to determine a value for Free Spins when it is triggered, and progressing up the ladder will require you to collect 2 Scatter Symbols.
The higher the multiplier gets, the more pairs you’ll need to fill the meter for a higher multiplier. If you get all the way up to 25x, then Free Spins will trigger.
Free Spins may also trigger at any time if you land 3 Scatter Symbols
Africa XUP Free Spins
Landing 3 Scatters triggers 8 Free Spins.
During Free Spins, the round will be played with the multiplier that you reached in the XUP Feature. Sometimes slots do something somewhat strange in the way that you don’t actually want to trigger Free Spins early, and Africa XUP is one of those.
You’ll want to land 2 scatters as much as possible prior to the round to start with the highest possible multiplier. However, if you did trigger Free Spins early then fear not, because it may still be increased within Free Spins. Scatters appear on reels 2 and 4 in Free Spins – collecting these will contribute towards increasing your multiplier just as it does in the Base Game. It will also award 2 additional spins.
It can be immensely exciting when you reach the higher multiplier values, but it feels like you need to get a decent start prior to the round.
Africa XUP Bonus Buy
Those outside of the UK can utilise a Bonus Buy option to jump straight into the action.
When you buy the bonus, you can choose an XUP Multiplier to start at, and the cost will differ depending on which one you choose.
- 1x Multiplier – 18.6x Buy
- 2x Multiplier – 26.6x Buy
- 3x Multiplier – 38.6x Buy
- 4x Multiplier – 50.3x Buy
- 5x Multiplier – 61.6x Buy
- 7x Multiplier – 86.3x Buy
- 10x Multiplier – 120x Buy
- 15x Multiplier – 181x Buy
- 25 Multiplier – 300x Buy
- Random – 80x
It’s great that Alchemy Gaming have included the option to buy in at whatever level you choose. Even the cost for the top level isn’t too unreasonable.
Africa XUP: Our Verdict
Africa XUP from Alchemy Gaming makes a nice change of pace from their usual Jackpot focused slots.
The African aesthetic shown here may be nothing new, but Alchemy Gaming pulls it off with great visuals, meticulous character design and a great soundtrack. Great aesthetics can only take a slot so far, but Africa X UP certainly delivers with more on the gameplay front. The highly volatile gameplay makes Africa XUP a high potential game with its stacked Wilds and the incremental increase in the Free Spins Multiplier sets the scene for what could come to be a high action, high potential bonus round.
Wins of 30,000x make Africa XUP a highly attractive prospect, but you’ll need to fight your way to that 25x multiplier if you’re to get anywhere near it. The 96.37% RTP value of Africa XUP puts it well within the range considered average by players, so it may not be a bad wagering slot either.
Through testing the game, we saw just how volatile Africa XUP could be with bonuses that paid extraordinarily well, and those that left you disappointed and wanting more. The 25x Multiplier can sometimes feel like a myth. In The Base Game you can build your multiplier through 2 Scatters, but a third Scatter and your bonus starts with the multiplier obtained so far, and there’s a fairly high chance you’ll trigger it before you get to the 25x multiplier.
Overall, we think that Africa XUP is deceptively good. At first, it seems like a rather average slot with features that could fail to entice new players. However, a closer look reveals the true potential of Africa.