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23 July 2024 
Coba Slot Demo Gameplay
Coba Slot Review 2024
ELK Studios are jetting us off to the city of Coba, where a rather protective Quetzalcoatl is the only thing that stands between us and glorious treasure, in Coba!
The spirit of Mayan Snake God Quetzalcoatl has been a fierce protector of the Ancient city of Coba for thousands of years. In order to explore its dark and mysterious chambers, you must face Quetzalcoatl’s most dangerous traps if you hope to reach treasures amassing 25,000x.
We’ve always had a soft spot for an ELK Studios title, and its all thanks to clever mechanics, impressive graphics and entertaining soundtracks, but is ELK Studios a strong contender for Provider of the Year? ELK Studios has won players hearts with titles like Book of Toro, Pacific Gold and more recently, Phoenix Graveyard, but will Coba do the same?
In terms of theme, the title itself gives you the impression we will be dealing with a fair few Snakes, but fear not Ophidiophobia players, you have nothing to fear about these particular serpents. The background shows a beautiful view of the city of Coba, with an Ancient Pyramid, rocky mountains and a creepy looking sculpture. The reel set embraces a Gold frame, as does the Snake head on the right. In keeping with the Ancient jungle theme, all High and Low paying symbols have an Aztec design of some kind.
Will we be able to navigate around Quetzalcoatl’s perilous traps, and walk away with 25,000x? Let’s play on and find out!
Coba Base Game and Features
Coba is a 7×7 Video Slot with a Cluster Pays mechanic. In order to form a winning combinaiton, you will need to connect 5 or more of the same symbol types either Horizontally or Vertically on the grid. The minimum bet available here is £/€0.20 per spin and the maximum bet available is £/€100 per spin, with plenty of other options in between the two.
Like many ELK Studios titles, Coba has an Avalanche feature. Each time a winning combination is formed, all winning symbols will be removed from the grid and new symbols will drop down via an Avalanche, filling all empty spaces on the grid. Once an Avalanche occurs, it has the ability to create even more winning combinations.
In terms of symbols, all High-paying symbols fall to a collection of Aztec Gems. The Gold Gem has the highest pay value, followed by the Red, Blue and Green Gems. Low-paying symbols fall to Brown, Blue and Green tiles, each with their own Animal on them. There is also a Wild symbol present, which substitute for all High and Low-paying symbols. The Wild symbol may only appear during the Eat & Grow feature.
Eat & Grow Feature
To the left and right of the reel set, sits a total of 6 Snake Heads. In order to activate the Snake Heads, you will need to fill the Snake Meter with so many winning clusters.
The Snake Meter is comprised of 4 Levels. When Levels 1, 2, 3 and 4 are reached, 1, 2, 3 and 6 Snakes are unlocked respectively. Snakes are a cluster of symbols that slither across the grid before each win evaluation.
Snakes will be a minimum of 5 symbols long and will always form a winning cluster or become part of a much larger one. Each time a Snake is released, it will automatically be in Survival Mode, meaning that it will always survive the first Avalanche drop. In order for the Snake to survive another Avalanche, it must continue to eat its chosen High or Low-paying symbol.
If for whatever reason, a Snake does not slither over its chosen symbol, it will automatically die and be removed from the grid before the next Avalanche. Just like the old Nokia Snake game, if a Snake bites itself on the ass so to speak, it will also die and be automatically removed from play.
During the Eat & Grow feature, you may come across Multiplier Wilds. If 2 Snakes move across eachother, the current symbol position will be upgraded to a Wild Multiplier of x2. Additional Snakes that move across the Wild Multiplier will Double it. If more than one Wild Multiplier is part of a winning cluster, they will be Multiplied by each other.
Coba: X-iter Bonus Buy
Coba is another ELK Studios slot to feature the X-iter Bonus Buy option, which if you have access to it, lets you skip past the grind and dive staright into the Eat & Grow feature.
For those of you in the UK, you won’t be able to utilise it at all, but here is the options available to those within Bonus Buy territory.
- Pray to Quetzalcoatl – Releases 3 Snakes when you reach Level 1 and Level 2 on the Snake Meter. This option costs 2x your current bet.
- Viper Active – Triggers Level 1 of the Snake Meter, with 1 Snake active. This option costs 10x your current bet.
- Boa Constructor – Triggers Level 1 of the Snake Meter, awarding longer Snakes. This option costs 25x your current bet.
- Quetzalcoatl – Triggers Level 1 of the Snake Meter, with 3 Snakes active for both this level and Level 2. This option costs 100x your current bet.
- Coba! – Triggers Level 4 of the Snake Meter, releasing 6 Snakes. This option costs 500x your current bet.
Coba: Our Verdict
ELK Studios has really shined of late. Imaginative and innovative mechanics along with their renowned X-iter mechanics really makes ELK slots a pleasure to play, and Coba is certainly no exception.
If we were to compare it to anything on sight alone then we’d think of slots like Cygnus and IO, but playing it quicky disperses any of the suspicions that they’re in any way alike. Coba is another entirely mystifying slot from a studio that consistently stands out, and potential would suggest that it’s a cut above many of their other games too with a maximum win cap of 25,000x. Will such a figure come to fruition though?
ELK has put their money where their mouth is before in terms of maximum potential, so it could definitely happen for someone, and even if it isn’t you then you can at least bank on a slot that packs enough of a punch to make Coba a new favourite.
In terms of design, ELK tend to sway towards commonly used themes…(for better or worse). They have everything under their belt from Wild West to Asian, to Egypt and back again, yet admittedly, they have a few original ones too. Sadly, Coba isn’t that original with a commonly used Aztec/Mayan theme, so Coba won’t exactly ‘wow’ you from the start, but gameplay certainly could.
In terms of RTP, Coba sits firmly at 95%, which seems to be the standard norm for their games. Historically, we’d have said that this is fairly low, but considering how the RTP seems to be creeping down faster than fuel prices are rising up, we’ll take it.
Overall, Coba was another real gem from ELK Studios. Its generic theme might put you off, but if you give it a chance then complaints about the theme are quickly alleviated.
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