Gonzo’s Quest Pokie Machine
Look at any reviewers’ list of Net Ent pokies and Gonzo’s Quest is bound to be somewhere near the top. It’s become one of the cornerstones of their range and one look at the stunning 3D effect graphics is enough to see why, but digging a little deeper, we find some equally impressive features including Tumbling Reels and a free spins round with multipliers of up to 15x applied to winnings.
It’s set in the heart of the Central American jungle where a conquistador named Gonzo is searching for the lost city of Eldorado. We won’t dwell on the actual history as it’s not pleasant, but players can hopefully find their own pots of gold at the end of their quest across the 5 reels and 20 paylines that run across the game. Coin wins come from 3 or more of the same symbol stopping across any payline in an unbroken sequence from the left side, but there’s a wild symbol that can help this and scatter payouts occur in any positions.
Even before the game begins players will see that they are in for a treat, as an excellent opening sequence sees Gonzo jumping ship and heading off on his travels and once loaded up, players will see reels surrounded by the lush jungles, while our main character stands to the side of them, doing a little dance to celebrate wins. Above the reels is a multiplier table that runs from 1x to 5x and we shall see how this works in a minute. It’s a mobile-optimised game, and to fit it onto the smaller screens there’s no sign of Gonzo in this format, but it still plays well and has the same rewarding features available.
Playing Gonzo’s Quest
Because all lines are active, players will need to stake at least 0.20 on a spin, but free Gonzo’s Quest video pokies are also provided if they simply want to test it out first and the high limit has been set at 40.00. Symbols mainly consist of stone blocks each of which has an Aztec-style mask carved into it and rewards for landing these range from 3, 10 or 50x, to 50, 250 or 5000x, depending on which one stops on 3, 4 or 5 reels across a payline.
Rather than spinning down reels, the blocks drop down into place and any time a winline is formed, there’s a little rumble before the ones that were part of the win explode. This leaves empty spaces into which any blocks above will fall, while new ones appear from the top of the game potentially creating another winning combination. Net Ent call this feature Tumbling Reels and it’s proved popular across a number of pokies.
It’s also the reason for the multiplier table above the reels, as each successive win caused by Tumbling Reels will become more valuable. The first is a standard win, but the second is doubled, the third tripled and should players get to a fifth successive win, there’s the maximum 5x multiplier applied to it.
Helping them to get extra winlines is the question mark wild symbol that’s not actually worth anything on its own, but will substitute for all apart from the scatter if it’s then possible to complete a win or stretch a line across further reels to the right side.
Gonzo’s Quest
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Free Spins Bonus
A golden mask landing on 3 or more reels across a line will trigger 10 Free Falls which is a fancy word for some free spins. It’s a pretty fancy round however, as the multipliers for any successive Tumbling Reel wins is increased, with the first being at 1x, the second at 3x, then 6x, 9x and finally the top multiplier of 15x.
More Free Falls can be retriggered from within the round, so players could get another 10 added on to the end of any still in play.
The Verdict
The Gonzo’s Quest video pokie was an immediate hit when it was one of the latest releases from Net Ent and has stayed popular ever since. It’s got just about everything that many online pokie fans are looking for, such as stunning animations, a nice backstory, lavish design and excellent gameplay.
Thrown in some nice features such as Tumbling Reels with multipliers and those Free Falls where even higher prizes can be collected and it’s no wonder this is such as successful game. (Although it’s worth nothing that standard reels are used in the bonus rounds, so wins are on average no more or less frequent.)
The fact that it’s also playable on mobile devices only serves to broaden the appeal even further and it’s a game that all pokie players should try out at least once, although they are likely to keep coming back once they see how it all works.