Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar slot swings into action at Microgaming casinos

A little while ago, Microgaming managed to secure the license to the Tarzan brand after agreeing a deal with Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc, who owned the rights to the famous jungle hero. As part of the deal, the company released the first Tarzan slot a few years back, which met with a somewhat muted response and which seems to have disappeared from Microgaming's back catalogue.

However, that may well be because they had grander plans for the series than the original game and after entrusting Gameburger Studios to come up with a new title, the end result is the impressive looking Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar slot.

The game has been one of Microgaming's highest profile slots of the year and was featured at the ICE 2020 exhibition at the start of the year. It is a medium volatility slot which offers 5x3 reels and 20 non-selectable pay lines, as well as the chance to win up to 12,500x your stake in the Free Spins bonus round, plus 5,000x your bet on the Scatter Pays bonus.

So, does the new Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar prove itself to be the king of its particular jungle? Or is this slot one you should swing by and avoid? We decided to take a closer look to find out for ourselves.

Overview

• Game: Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar
• Developer: Gameburger Studios
• Reels: 5x3
• Pay Lines: 20 (non-selectable)
• Minimum Bet: 0.20
• Maximum Bet: 20.00
• Jackpot: 12,500x
• Free Spins Bonus: Yes
• Other Bonuses: Yes
• Progressive: No
• Volatility: Medium

Presentation

It is fair to say that the Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar slot has been presented very nicely indeed. Set against the backdrop of, you guessed it, a jungle. The game starts with Tarzan swinging from behind and over the reels holding onto his vine rope and you will see him again when you trigger one of the main bonuses of the slot.

The Scatter Pays meter is shown to the left of the main reels and you can see the Free Spins and Multiplier Reel hiding behind the main reel set at the top of the screen. The controls for the reels are located at the bottom of the screen and what is nice is that rather than have some cheesy music playing, Gameburger have gone for a more atmospheric approach using sparse sound effects to bring the slot to life and it is definitely a case of where less is more.

One small gripe is that I would have liked to have seen a bit more interest in the jungle backdrop than just a relatively static picture most of the time, but that really is splitting hairs as overall, the slot looks and sounds great.

What is on the reels?

In terms of the symbols on the reels, we start with just four lower value symbols and these are your playing card symbols, but they have been designed to look like they are camouflaged in the jungle. You can win from 0.25x your bet up to 3.25x your bet with these symbols.

The four main characters in the slot are the higher value symbols and they include Tarzan's nemesis, known as "The Belgian", Jane, the High Priestess La and Tarzan himself. The latter being the highest value symbol. Wins on these higher value symbol range from 0.75x your bet up to 37.50x your bet for five Tarzan symbols across the reels.

There are three other symbols on the reels in the game, a Wild, Free Spins Scatter and standard Scatter and each of these is linked in with the main bonus features of the slot.

Wild features

The standard Wild symbol in the game is the Black Panther symbol, which is used as a standard substitute for any of the eight standard symbols in the game. You can also land up to five of these Wild symbols across the reels to trigger the biggest value wins in the game which range from 6.25x your bet for three Wilds, up to 62.5x your bet for five Wilds on a pay line.

The other Wild Feature in the game is the Random Wilds bonus which can trigger on any spin. When the bonus triggers, you will see Tarzan once again swing out across the reels and when he does on each swing across the reels, two or more Wilds will be dropped onto the reels. You can land a maximum of 15 Wilds in this bonus and of course, the more Wilds Tarzan drops on the reels for you, then the more chance you have of landing a big value win.

One nice touch is that this bonus can also trigger during the Free Spins bonus round as well as during the base game, which is not always the case with this type of bonus.

Free Spins features

The Free Spins bonus game is triggered when you land the three Free Spins Scatter symbols on the second, third and fourth reels on a single spin. When you do, the Free Spins and Multiplier Wheel will move from behind the reels to in front of them and you will get to spin the wheel.

The wheel will then come to rest on a number of Free Spins and a multiplier amount. You can earn between 10 and 30 Free Spins from the Wheel Spin and you can earn a multiplier of between 2x and 10x the standard bet amount.

Your Free Spins will then be played and the good news is you can re-trigger this bonus from within Free Spins, and you can also trigger the Tarzan Random Wilds bonus too.

The other bonus to note in the game is the Jackpot Scatter bonus. This is a Scatter Pays feature which means that if you land three or more of the Jackpot Scatter symbols anywhere across the reels, you will win a cash prize, which starts at 1x your bet but which can increase up to 5,000x your bet if you can land nine of the Jackpot Scatter symbols anywhere across the reels on any spin.

Best feature of the Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar slot

Gameburger Studios have crammed a large amount of bonus features and the like into their Tarzan Jewels of Opar slot and I have to say the end result is hugely pleasing. All the bonus features play a very key role in the game and it is hard to say which feature is the best out of them all, but I think with the Random Wild bonus active, plus the chance to re-trigger the feature from within the bonus round, allied to the fact it is the round where you can land a shot at the top jackpot prize of 12,500x your bet, the Free Spins round is just about the best part of the slot. However I would add that the quality of the game is such to make that a very close run thing.

Conclusion

If Microgaming have withdrawn their original Tarzan slot to make way for this new game, then they will be delighted with the finished product. Tarzan Jewels of Opar has all the ingredients of a fantastic modern slot. It looks and sounds great, it has a wide selection of bonus features and, pleasingly, these features are generally accessible throughout the entire game. Add to that medium variance and a still sizeable top jackpot prize and you have a game that is sure to appeal and which is a very strong contender for our October Game of the Month prize.