KONG is the name of a slot machine from Playtech, a title that is based on one of the famous King Kong movies, the one from 2005. The main character here is a mutant gorilla, a huge creature that is taken out of the jungle by curious men and transported to New York. He escapes and wrecks havoc in the city. The game uses the movie as direct inspiration, with pictures of the actors being used for almost half of the regular symbols. The game is not as attractive as it could’ve been, but I’m sure that if you enjoyed the movie you will appreciate the slot as well.
A 5 reel slot machine, Kong places 20 paylines in front of you, with symbols appearing on them including wilds and scatters, while the features they trigger bring two modes (Jungle and City), each one with its own way of playing the slot. The best jackpot it has to offer is worth $15,000.
Features of KONG
The wild symbol is a big reason why I like this game, especially since it can act as a trigger for wild jungle respins. The other major symbol is the scatter, with its cash prizes and with the Skull Island bonus feature that gets triggered by it. You also have both the Jungle Mode and the Big City Mode, each one with its own paytable and symbols.
The Kong wild is a memorable symbol, for more than one reason. It’s not just the wild symbol, the one that can give you more prizes as you keep playing this game, but it’s also the symbol that can trigger respins. When it acts as a wild, the Kong symbol substitutes for regular icons, with the exception being the Logo scatter. When it forms its own combinations, it gives you 7x to 3,000x the line bet, for two to five symbols.
Get three or more wilds, and you will be rewarded with the Wild Jungle Respins. You get three respins for free from it. During Jungle Mode, they will have frozen wilds in place. During Big City Mode, they will get stacked wilds that change their positions.
As for the scatter, the image representing it is that of the Kong Logo. The name of the feature comes from the ability it has, to appear in scattered positions and still be capable of giving away its prizes. These prizes vary based on the number of symbols that are present at the same time, 5x to 100x the triggering bet offered for three to five Logos.
Jungle Mode
The scatter symbol is the one that can take the player from one mode to another. You start in Jungle Mode, with the switch to Big City Mode being made once you go through a bonus game that is triggered by the scatter. You get back to Jungle Mode in the same way.
The Skull Island Bonus is offered by the scatter symbol in Jungle Mode. The requirement is for three scatter symbols to make an appearance. During this feature, you have to pick various locations from the map, which will reveal King Kong or an animal. You are asked to get three matching symbols.
Big City Mode
This second mode has its own features, including slightly different wild respins. The scatter symbol’s feature is called City Tower here. Once again, you need three scatter symbols, whose presence will trigger the bonus game. Inside, you have to attack three of the planes that are coming at King Kong. If you manage to knock them down, you get prizes for each one.
Betting options and jackpots
The line bets go from $0.01 to $5 in Kong, the total bets going as high as $100 as a result. You use a single coin for each active payline, so the line bet is also the denomination range.
A 3,000x top prize is on the line in this game, capable of rewarding its players with up to $15,000 cash. The prizes are not impressive, but the wagers are not that high either.
Design and symbols
The developers seem to have put quite a bit of effort into the design of this slot. Based on one of the recent movies, Kong has pictures of all the major actors and of King Kong in its symbols. A high number of playing cards is also used, unfortunate since so much effort has gone into building up the list of features available inside. There are two different modes that you go through, each one changing the look of the game (from jungle to big city).
Symbols: King Kong (wild, 3,000 coins), Logo (scatter, 100x round’s wager), Ann Darrow (1,000 coins), Jack Driscoll (600 coins), Carl Denham (500 coins), Captain Englehorn (300 coins), Ace (150 coins), King (100 coins), Queen (75 coins), Jack (50 coins) and Ten (30 coins).
Is It Worth Playing?
Kong should be on your list of must play slots. It’s not only a great looking slot, it’s also full of features and it has two versions for each part of the game, depending on the mode that you play it in. The prizes are the same in both of them, but it’s more entertaining this way and chances are that you’re not going to get bored easily.
King Kong, the 2005 Film
Based on the pictures with actors that are used, and on the features included in the game, the inspiration for this slot machine was the 2005 film, called King Kong. It was a remake of the original film from 1933, with much better special effects and with a huge budget at the director’s disposal. Speaking of the director, it was Peter Jackson, a well known name in the movie industry. The actors were well known as well, including names like Adrien Brody, Naomi Watts or Jack Black.
Though it had a large budget, of over $200 million, the movie also managed to gross a large amount in movie theaters, over $550 million being the total amount obtained worldwide. An additional $100 million were received from sales of DVDs later on.
The KONG slot machine is offered through the Playtech platform, so if you want to play it for real or just to practice, look out for casinos that use it.
