Wild Antics

Wild Antics Slot Review

An orange anteater leans in from the edge of the screen, snout curling over the gold reel frame, while ants crawl along the leaves that hold the logo up. Wild Antics is a game that trusts its randomness more than its paytable. Outside the Wild, the line pays are modest and fairly flat, and nearly everything memorable comes from a jetpacked ant turning up when nobody asked him to. That’s a risky way to build a slot, and it mostly works.

This is a bright, glossy cartoon of a 5×4, 20-line game from Blueprint Gaming, cut from the same cloth as Ted and The Goonies. Wins pay left to right across 20 lines, with stakes chosen from a total-bet menu whose options depend on the operator and currency. The ants do the rest, and they don’t wait for permission.

Base Game & Features

Wild Antics runs on a 5×4 grid with 20 win lines. The reels spin and stop at random, and a line of two, three, four or five matching symbols starting from the far left reel on a played line pays. Only the highest win is paid on each line, line wins are multiplied by the value bet on that line, and wins across all lines are added together, with scatter wins added to any line wins.

The paytable reads as multiples of the total bet, and below the top entries it steps down steadily:

• Wild: 1x for two, 100x for four, 250x for five
• Caterpillar: 20x for three, 50x for four, 200x for five
• Wild Antics leaf (super stacked): 1x for three, 50x for four, 200x for five
• Ladybird: 10x for three, 40x for four, 150x for five
• A / K: 5x for three, 20x for four, 100x for five
• J / Q: 2x for three, 5x for four, 50x for five

The Wild and the Wild Antics leaf are two separate symbols. The Wild holds the top line pay at 250x for five, and it substitutes for every symbol except the four bonus symbols (Worker, Soldier, Colonel and Queen). Below it, the caterpillar and the non-wild Wild Antics leaf both pay 200x for five. The leaf is marked as super stacked on the paytable, which gives it a presence on the reels that its modest three-of-a-kind value wouldn’t suggest.

Beneath the ladybird, the ladder drops off fast, with the royals sharing rows as A / K and J / Q, so the bulk of the table sits in the middle and lower rungs rather than at the top.

Jet Pack Antics

Randomly during any spin, Adam the Ant can appear and cause some crazy antics, triggering one of four features. The trigger is random, and each variant changes the board in a different way:

• Aardvark Antics: randomly turns reels wild and boosts up to 40 extra winlines
• Frantic Antics: shuffles reel symbols into a series of winning combinations
• Colossal Antics: ants march on screen and award a number of colossal wilds
• Wild Antics: transforms a number of positions into Wild Antics

Aardvark Antics is the one that looks most generous on paper, pairing wild reels with up to 40 extra winlines. Frantic Antics works differently, shuffling the reel symbols into a series of winning combinations. Colossal Antics is the loudest, with ants marching on screen to award colossal wilds, while the Wild Antics variant transforms a number of positions into Wild Antics.

Because all four come from the same random appearance, the base game never quite settles. A quiet run of spins can end with a shuffled board or a set of colossal wilds, and there’s nothing on the reels to signal which is coming.

The highest entry on the paytable is 250x for five Wilds, with the caterpillar and the Wild Antics leaf below it at 200x each. With 20 lines in normal play, and extra winlines on offer when Aardvark Antics lands, the more interesting totals tend to come from several lines paying together rather than one big hit.

Wild Antics Free Spins & Bonuses

The main bonus uses a three-part trigger: bonus scatter symbols on reels 1 and 3, plus a special bonus symbol on reel 5. Which ant appears on reel 5 decides which of the four bonuses is awarded:

• Worker Ant Bonus symbol awards the Worker Ant Free Spins Bonus
• Soldier Ant Bonus symbol awards the Soldier Ant Free Spins Bonus
• Colonel Ant Bonus symbol awards the Colonel Ant Free Spins Bonus
• Queen Ant Bonus symbol awards the Queen Ant Free Spins Bonus

The spin count attached to each bonus isn’t printed on the information screens. What the screens do describe are two free spins formats built around wilds that stay on the reels.

Roaming Wilds

In free spins featuring Roaming Wilds, any Wild that lands in view remains in play and roams around the reels during each spin. That gives the round a sense of momentum: wilds that arrive don’t simply vanish at the end of the spin, and their wandering keeps the board shifting.

Multiplying Roaming Wilds

The multiplying version runs the same roaming system with a twist: any Wild that roams to the same position awards a win multiplier ranging from x2 to x5. It’s the more dramatic of the two formats, since a multiplier on top of a wild-assisted line can lift an ordinary win well beyond its paytable value.

Bonuses can also be re-triggered, and the agent is the ant again: the game warns players to watch out for Jet Pack Ants that can re-trigger any bonus. It’s a neat way of tying the random base-game character into the free spins.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7.2/10

Wild Antics is a game of waiting, and the reason to wait is that the waiting gets interrupted in four different ways. The anteater watches, the reels tick over, and then a jetpack shuffles the board into wins, turns reels wild with extra winlines, or drops colossal wilds without warning. That unpredictability is the whole appeal, and Blueprint lean on it hard.

The bonus rounds are the best-built part: four ant-ranked bonuses, wilds that stay in play and roam, a version where they multiply wins from x2 to x5, and Jet Pack Ants able to re-trigger any bonus. The paytable is the let-down – the top entry is 250x for five Wilds, and most of the table sits well below it.

It’s for players who enjoy a cartoon grid and the surprise of a random modifier, not for anyone chasing big line hits. The colony stays busy even when the reels don’t, and on its own terms that’s enough.

Wild Antics FAQs

• How many paylines does Wild Antics have?

  Wild Antics is a 5-reel, 20-line slot, with wins paying from the far left reel along the win lines.
• What is the grid size of Wild Antics?

  The game runs on a 5×4 grid: five reels and four rows, with wins paying from the far left reel across consecutive reels.
• Who makes Wild Antics?

  Wild Antics is made by Blueprint Gaming, the studio behind titles like Ted and The Goonies.
• When is Wild Antics released?

  Wild Antics’ release date is 2 October 2015.
• How do you trigger the free spins bonus in Wild Antics?

  Land bonus scatters on reels 1 and 3 together with a bonus symbol on reel 5. The ant on reel 5 (Worker, Soldier, Colonel or Queen) determines which of the four free spins bonuses you receive.
• What is Jet Pack Antics?

  Jet Pack Antics is a random feature. Randomly during any spin, Adam the Ant can appear and trigger one of four features: Aardvark Antics (reels turned wild and up to 40 extra winlines), Frantic Antics (symbols shuffled into winning combinations), Colossal Antics (colossal wilds) or Wild Antics (positions transformed into Wild Antics).
• What are Roaming Wilds in Wild Antics?

  In free spins featuring Roaming Wilds, any Wild that lands in view remains in play and roams around the reels during each spin. In the multiplying version, any Wild that roams to the same position awards a win multiplier from x2 to x5.
• Can the Wild Antics bonus be retriggered?

  Yes. The game states that Jet Pack Ants can re-trigger any bonus.