Wild Ape

Wild Ape Slot Review

Dusk settles over a dense jungle, a grid framed in knotted gold bamboo, and a warm glow breaking through the mist behind hanging vines. It’s a handsome scene, but the game underneath it is doing one big job with a small grid: everything here, from the stacked symbols to the reels that grow taller mid-feature, exists to feed a single animal.

That animal is the gorilla at the head of iSoftBet‘s paytable, and it’s the thread the whole design hangs from. Wild Ape runs on a 5×3 grid at 96.01% RTP, and it’s a slot that knows precisely which symbol you’re rooting for. Sister titles like Hot Spin Megaways and Aztec Gold Mines take the studio’s feature-first instincts in other directions, but in this one the whole design belongs to the ape.

The Jungle Base Game

Five reels, three rows, and a cast pulled straight from the canopy. The gorilla leads the paytable, flanked by a crocodile, a lemur and a toucan, with the royals from ace down to ten filling the rest. Tree trunks and hanging vines frame both sides of the screen, and purple and pink flowers crowd the lower corner.

The wild substitutes for every symbol except the Bonus symbol, and it never has a pay row of its own; it’s there purely to complete combinations for the animals and the royals. The gorilla, meanwhile, stacks on the centre reels. Those stacks are ordinary payers in the base game, but they’re the raw material for everything that happens later.

Payouts are shown in coins and multiplied by the selected coin value. Symbol pays are multiples of the total bet:

• Gorilla: 0.1x for two, 2x for three, 10x for four, 25x for five
• Crocodile: 0.1x for two, 2x for three, 7.5x for four, 20x for five
• Lemur: 2x for three, 5x for four, 15x for five
• Toucan: 1x for three, 4x for four, 12.5x for five
• Ace: 1x for three, 4x for four, 10x for five
• King: 0.5x for three, 3x for four, 7.5x for five
• Queen: 0.4x for three, 2x for four, 5x for five
• Jack: 0.3x for three, 0.75x for four, 3.5x for five
• Ten: 0.2x for three, 0.5x for four, 2.5x for five

The top of the ladder is respectable without being dramatic. Twenty-five times the bet for a full line of gorillas won’t turn heads on its own, and the royals taper down to 2.5x at the bottom. That’s a paytable built for features to do the lifting, which is exactly how this game is arranged.

Stacked gorillas on the middle reels are the visual signature of the base game. When several land together, the frame fills with fur and gold, and the anticipation is entirely about what those stacks might become once a feature arrives. The crocodile can sit alongside them on the right-hand reel, a reminder that the second tier of the paytable is never far away.

Free Spins Extended Reels

More lines, more wins: that’s the whole promise of the free spins round, and it’s delivered by making the grid physically bigger. When the feature runs, the reels extend to add symbol positions, which increases the number of potential win lines across the layout.

The base game’s three rows per reel grow into something taller, and every new position is a new route for a combination.

It’s worth spelling out how the two halves reinforce each other. Wilds substitute for everything except the Bonus symbol, and an extended grid gives each wild more positions to bridge.

Wild Ape Respins

The respin feature unleashes the wild ape, turning every ape symbol on the grid wild for the duration of the respins. Given how the gorilla stacks in the base game, that’s a mechanic with obvious teeth: all apes become wilds at once, and stacked apes become stacked wilds.

By effect, the round works like this. The reels spin as normal, the ape transformation takes hold, and any subsequent respins play out across a grid where every gorilla is now a wild. Because those gorillas favour the middle reels, the centre of the screen becomes the engine of the whole round.

The transformation is the point, an ape-to-wild idea expressed over a shorter burst of play. Both features lean on the same stacks, which means the symbol the base game is built around is also the one worth the most once the features arrive.

The Bonus Wheel

Land the Bonus symbol on reels 1, 3 and 5 in the same spin and the Bonus Wheel spins. That’s a three-reel scatter pattern, which keeps it an occasional event rather than a routine one. The wild can’t substitute for the Bonus symbol, so there’s no shortcut to it either.

As the third feature alongside the extended reels and the respins, the wheel gives the game another route to a payout that doesn’t depend on the gorilla. Between the growing grid, the all-ape respins and the wheel, this is a 5×3 game carrying more machinery than its footprint suggests.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7.1/10

This is a game about patience and one primate. The base game fills the middle reels with gorilla stacks and waits, and the features reward the waiting by turning those stacks wild or growing the grid around them. That’s the whole appeal, and it’s a coherent one: a slot where you always know exactly which symbol you’re rooting for.

The extended reels are the best idea here, because they give the free spins a purpose beyond bigger multipliers; the game you’re playing physically changes shape. The Bonus Wheel is the weak link, needing symbols on three specific reels at once and sitting apart from everything the ape does, which makes it the round you’ll see least and feel least.

It suits players who enjoy a long build around a single symbol, and who don’t need the base paytable to carry much on its own. The mist and the bamboo are the dressing; the stacks are the game. For the patient, the ape delivers.

Wild Ape FAQs

• What is the RTP of Wild Ape?

  Wild Ape runs at an RTP of 96.01%.
• What is the grid size of Wild Ape?

  Wild Ape uses a 5×3 grid in the base game, with three rows visible per reel. The reels extend during features to add symbol positions and increase the number of potential win lines.
• Who makes Wild Ape?

  Wild Ape is made by iSoftBet, a studio whose catalogue also includes Hot Spin Megaways and Aztec Gold Mines.
• When was Wild Ape released?

  Wild Ape’s release date is 5 June 2019.
• How do you trigger the Bonus Wheel in Wild Ape?

  The Bonus symbol needs to land on reels 1, 3 and 5 in the same spin to trigger the Bonus Wheel. It’s a three-reel scatter pattern, so it doesn’t come around every session.
• What does the wild substitute for in Wild Ape?

  The wild substitutes for any symbol except the Bonus symbol, helping to form winning combinations across the grid.
• What do the extended reels do in Wild Ape’s free spins?

  During the free spins feature the reels physically extend to add symbol positions, increasing the potential win lines.
• What does the Wild Ape Respins feature do?

  Wild Ape Respins turns all ape symbols on the grid wild during respins. Because gorilla symbols stack on the middle reels, a single respin round can turn stacked apes into stacked wilds.