Jaguar Princess Slots
High 5 Games released the Jaguar Princess slots game in 2011, which may surprise fans of pop singer Katy Perry, who bears a striking resemblance to the dark-haired jungle queen. Perry's music video, "Roar", was released in September 2013 and it includes homages to several movies and characters. But you could make a case for a comparison to Tanya Roberts, too.
High 5 Games compared Jaguar Princess to two previous video games, Cats and Golden Goddess, so it also includes some homages. But all the jungle girls can be traced back to Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, who first appeared in comic books in 1935 and inspired two television series and a movie. And Sheena can be traced back to Tarzan and Jane.
Jaguar Princess mixes several big cats together so you're not entirely sure of where she is supposed to be from. Jaguars are from the Americas but people sometimes confuse them with cheetahs and leopards, which are from Africa and Asia. Jungle girls usually wear spotted clothing but we only see the Jaguar Princess' head, including her golden cat-like eyes.
The game features super stacks and a free spins bonus game. The game also integrates some short animation into its effects.
50 Lions
Buffalo
Let's Go Fish'n
Lucky 88
More Hearts
The Walking Dead
Mr Cashman
Pelican Pete
Pompeii
Queen of the Nile
Gameplay Features and Mechanics
Jaguar Princess is a 6-reel, 4-row video slot game set in an imaginary jungle world. The game uses 50 pay lines, pays left to right, and features 10 symbols plus a Wild and a Bonus game symbol. You can only win 1 prize per pay line and only the highest value prize is awarded, but you can still win 50 different ways on a single spin (not including the Bonus game).
After the Wild the Jungle Princess is the highest value symbol and it is the only symbol that awards a prize for only 2 consecutive tiles on a pay line.
Super stacks are long scrolls of the same tiles on reels. You might see 10-15 of the same symbol scroll down the reel after you click Spin. The player hopes to see the same symbol on all positions on all reels, which is a rare occurrence. Super stacks make it possible to win a lot of prizes on a single spin although the prizes tend to pay relatively little. On a 6-reel game you need at least 4-of-a-kind before you start to see large prizes on the pay lines.
The Wild symbol is the game's logo and it pays the best prizes. You only need 2 adjacent Wild symbols to win 5 times your bet per line. The Jaguar Princess comes in close behind with 4 times your bet per line for 2 adjacent symbols. But the Wild symbol prizes increase at a much faster pace (5, 20, 125, 250, and 500) than the Jaguar Princess (4, 10, 20, 50, 100).
The Wild symbol substitutes for every other symbol except the Bonus game symbol, a group of spears. You need to have at least 12 of these symbols on the screen when the spinning reels stop in order to trigger the bonus game. These symbols only appear on reels 2, 3, 4, and 5. The number of free spins you win is determined by how many symbols you won.
The three cat symbols are middle value symbols. They pay 8, 15, 30, and 60 times your bet per line for winning combinations of 3, 4, 5, and 6 respectively.
There is a second tier of middle value symbols that pay 4, 10, 20, and 30 times your bet per line for 3, 4, 5, and 6 tile combinations respectively. These symbols are the Necklace, Golden arm band, and Emerald ring.
The low value symbols are the A, K, and Q and they all pay a max of 20 times your bet per line.
When you win a large prize the game celebrates with an explosion of gold coins, golden arm bands, and emerald rings. You have to look closely to spot the rings because the gemstones are mounted on gold rings, but it's a nice touch to the special effect that makes the game a little unique among slot games.
Game controls are laid out across the bottom of the screen. From left to right you have two special widget windows and on the right are several additional controls.
The first widget window contains the controls that determine how much you bet. The active pay Lines indicator is controlled by up and down arrows. You scroll through options (1, 10, 20, 30, and 50 active pay lines) with the arrows.
The bet Per Line indicator is controlled by up and down arrows, too. You can scroll through the following values.
|
|
In a land-based casino the first thing you should do when sitting down at this game is check the betting controls to see what the last player left them at. You don't want your first bet to be 500 credits.
The second widget window shows you how many credits were awarded on your last spin and how many available credits you have to play with. There are no controls for this window.
To the right you'll see three buttons stacked together: Replay, Question mark, and Sound indicator. The Replay button is one of High 5 Games' special features. You can replay the last spin endlessly, which may give you a chance to see the animated videos over and over so you can pick out the details.
The Question mark brings up the pay table help system. There are 17 screens and most players will never scroll through them on first pass. If you scroll to the left when you first enter the help system you'll get to the rule descriptions sooner. If you scroll to the right you'll get to the symbol descriptions sooner.
The last two controls are Auto Play and Spin. The Auto Play button allows you to select from 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 spins. You pay for each spin but you don't have to click on the Spin button through those turns. You can stop the Auto Play at any time, and the Spin button counts down the remaining auto spins for you.
The Spin button doubles as a Stop button once the reels have begun scrolling. The game help system states that clicking on Stop does not alter the outcome of the game. It's just a feature to allow you to save time in-between spins by cutting short the animation.
Triggering the Bonus Round
12 Bonus symbol gives you 12 free games, but 16 Bonus symbols give you 16 free games. It's easy to see how many free games you get for 13, 14, and 15 Bonus symbols.
If your spin produces 12 adjacent Jaguar Princess tiles on 3 reels they will be briefly replaced by a stunning large portrait of the lovely lady and you'll see her golden cat eyes more clearly. Each of the cats also has a brief animation triggered by a 12-tile/3-reel prize.
The free spins Bonus game has its own set of symbols, essentially recolored and mirrored equivalent of the regular game symbols.
The game also has a soundtrack that is quite interesting. You hear a mix of animal sounds, chants, and occasionally a woman humming or singing in a strange language. It's quite enchanting and makes the bonus game more entertaining.
You cannot win another Bonus game while you are playing a Bonus game. The spear symbols are not part of the configuration.
Conclusion
There are slots players who just absolutely love these stacked symbol games. It does give one a slight thrill to see 15-20 tiles pay a big prize but the really big prizes are rare. You wish for the ability to honestly interrupt the game when the screen fills up with all of 1 tile. That kind of a random tease is simply due to the nature of super stacks. And it is frustrating when reel 2 lines up with an odd-man-out symbol while the other 5 reels all have the same cat or the girl.
Even when you don't trigger one of the large animations the cats and the girl all flare slightly when you win prizes with their symbols.
The tiles are colorful and create a vibrant contrast that keeps you from becoming mesmerized. The artwork on the important symbols is really good and you cannot help but wonder if something like that wasn't mentioned in a story somewhere. Each player will have their own favorite cat, all three of which are mysterious and intriguing. Kudos to High 5 Games for stepping away from the cartoon character meme and giving these tiles a book-cover feel and quality. You almost want to stop playing the slots and pick up an old copy of a Sheena comic book, but not quite.