Expert review by Tanvi Clarke
Temple of Nudges is one of the latest offerings by slot game specialist NetEnt. This 5-reel, 3-row slot offers a whopping 243-ways-to-win. When you play this slot, you will travel to the lush tropical rain forests of South America in search of gold. The Temple of the title is protected on either side by a menacing serpent with bared fangs. Venture through those temple doors to find an array of stone-carved symbols. But will you find the treasure? Read on to find out more.
With so many slots to choose from nowadays, bonus features can make or break a game. It has to be said that NetEnt hasn’t gone all out with the bonuses in Temple of Nudges. However, we would say that this shouldn’t put you off from giving this slot a go, as the bonus features it does have can land you in the gold, big time. We’ll tell you more in detail below, but to whet your appetite, there is a Nudge bonus as well as an ever-popular respins feature.
Known for their high-quality graphics, NetEnt does not disappoint with this new slot. Jungle themes are something that they are particularly good at, and the swaying leaves in the foreground are a nice touch. There are the usual low and high paying symbols, all appearing to have been carved from blocks of stone. Every symbol is very colourful, but only a limited palette of red, blue, green or yellow and verystylised designs are used – all of which is in keeping with the ancient native Aztec/Mayan theme.
The low-paying symbols are images of suns, snakes, birds and temples. All pay out the same amount. Land 3, 4 or 5 of these to net yourself 1x, 2x or 3x your original stake. The four high-paying symbols are armadillos, monkeys and sloths – which give you 2x, 4x or 6x your stake if you land 3, 4 or 5 on consecutive reels from left to right only – while the cougar gets you 3x, 6x or 9x your bet. What’s more, all of the pay symbols can be super stacked. There are no wilds or scatters.
Temple of Nudges does not have a free spins feature, but to make up for this, the gameplay offers a respins feature. Occurring at random either during the initial spin or after a nudge – more on that feature below – any symbol can suddenly be marked with the word “respin”. When this happens, any winning combinations are held in place and the remaining symbols spin again. This gives you the potential to land further matching symbols to increase your wins as there is quite a big difference in payouts for landing 5 as opposed to 3 of a kind.
While many slot games today come with standard or even progressive jackpots, Temple of Nudges is sadly not one of them. But don’t despair, as, instead, it offers a feature designed to maximise your winnings – the Nudge. Triggered every time you land a win, every reel will be nudged downwards by one row. New symbols fall in on top as soon as the initial win has been paid. If new winning combos are formed, these are also paid and a second nudge occurs. This is repeated until there are no more new winning lines.
You might think that the higher the number of betting lines (also known as paylines) that a slot has, the greater your chances of grabbing a win – and you’d be right. Temple of Nudges has a whopping 243 paylines, but, and it’s a big but, the payouts are rather paltry. A full screen (that’s 15 symbols) of the top-paying cougar will only get you 87.48x your bet. Given that the maximum bet is £250, the most you can get in a single spin if luck is on your side is £21,870.
One of the things that slot players are always keen to know is the return to player (or RTP) percentage. This gives them a good idea of how much they might expect to win back if they play for long enough. We think that Temple of Nudges has a pretty reasonable RTP of 96.03%, especially given the fact that it is by no means a complicated slot to play. So, for every £100 you play with, you can expect, with luck, to get back at least £96.03.
As well as RTP, what slot players also want to know is the volatility of any new slot that they come across. This is because it gives them an idea of how big and how often the wins may come. Temple of Nudges is a medium volatility slot. In plain English, what this means is that you can expect to get small wins reasonably frequently. Then, every now and again, the nudge and respins features will combine to land you a big or even a super big win.
So, what do we think of Temple of Nudges overall? The RTP of 96.03% is pretty reasonable and, as you’d expect from NetEnt, visually it looks great. However, it isn’t the world’s most complicated game, and, if we are honest, at times it can be a bit of a snoozefest. However, if you are the kind of player who likes to land small payouts fairly regularly, but with the chance of a bigger, but not huge, win, then this could be the slot for you.
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