Gonzo's Quest Slot
| Software | NetEnt |
|---|---|
| Type of Slot | Video slot |
| Theme | Amazon Rainforest , Featured , Jungle |
| RTP | 95.97% |
| Volatility | Medium-High |
| Reels | 5 |
| Paylines | 20 |
| Scatter Symbols | Yes |
| Bonus Rounds | No |
| Free Spins Bonus Rounds | Yes |
| Wild Symbols | Yes |
| Maximum wager (per line) | 3 |
| Maximum Jackpot | 0 |
| Progressive Jackpot | No |
| Practice Play Version Available? | Yes |
| Autoplay | Yes |
Gonzo’s Quest, developed by NetEnt is a 5-reel video slot with 20 fixed paylines. Inspired by the Mayan tribe, Gonzo the greedy, Spanish conquistador sets off in search of El Dorado the lost city renowned for its gold and riches.
If you are up for an adventure and love exploring, you’ll find all of that and more with Gonzo’s Quest. Initially released in 2011, the slot gained a huge following thanks to its superb graphics and unique features. Gonzo’s Quest remains one of NetEnt’s most successful slots to date, delivering thrilling gameplay and a top prize of 25000x.
Who was the Inspiration behind Gonzo?
NetEnt draws its inspiration for Gonzo’s Quest from the story of Gonzalo Pizarro, born in 1510. He was a greedy young Spaniard who had a thirst for gold, money, and the finer things in life.
Gonzalo heard rumors of a lost city of gold named El Dorado and consequently, the greedy Spaniard set off in search of its hidden riches. Unfortunately, he came back empty-handed due to the fact the story was based on a myth.
NetEnt, inspired by the greedy Spaniard created Gonzo, the cartoon-style character in Gonzo’s Quest. The 3D animations are superb and immerse you in a Central American jungle, following Gonzo on his quest. NetEnt paid great attention to detail with both the design and theme, from the background visuals and old-style stone symbols to the Spanish music playing as the reels spin.
By far, the main attraction is Gonzo himself. He’s an animated character who is thoroughly entertaining throughout.
Gonzo stands to the left side of the reels overseeing gameplay. He’s a fun character who is constantly scratching his head, spinning his helmet, moonwalking, dancing, searching his map, and if you win, he gives an almighty fist-pump and collects your gold coins in his hat.
Set in a Central American jungle, Gonzo must navigate through the rough vegetation to reach the lost city of gold El Dorado. On the reels, the symbols are all designed as stone slabs and feature various masks and animals including birds, snakes, fish, and an alligator alongside a fire, a moon, and a heath. 5 heath symbols in a winning combination pays 125x the bet.
The wild is represented by the ? symbol, this substitutes all symbols to help with winning combinations. There is no scatter in the game.
Technical Details
The Gonzo’s Quest slot is played across 5 reels with 20 paylines. You can place a bet between 20p up to £50 per spin. If you choose to play the Autoplay you can select anywhere between 10 and 1,000 spins. However, the Autoplay can be set to end at various stages of the game, after a win, if the free falls trigger, if a win exceeds the fixed figure of your choice, or set Autoplay to end after your balance increases or decreases from the figure you initially set.
During the base game, it’s possible to land decent wins thanks to the medium variance and the avalanches leading to a top prize of 2,500x the bet. During the free falls, there’s the potential to reach up to a 15x multiplier, which can deliver the top prize of 37,500x on every free spin.
Gonzo’s Quest on Mobile
If you prefer to play on a mobile device, you’re in luck, NetEnt tweaked Gonzo’s Quest a couple of times to deliver the ultimate mobile experience and presented players with Gonzo’s Quest Touch. The mobile enhanced version allows players to enjoy an equally impressive gaming experience on mobile and tablet devices, the same as playing on a desktop. The high-quality graphics and animations are as clear and equally as responsive on a mobile or tablet device.
Play for Fun
We would always recommend playing a new slot game in demo mode before spending your cash. This gives you a feel for a game, gets to grips with its features, and gains experience.
Play between 100 and 200 spins for free before you play for real, this gives you a better idea of how many wins you’ll see over a certain number of spins. Equally, the more spins you play the chances of triggering the bonus feature is much higher. This gives you the opportunity to try out the free falls and additional multipliers, and if it lives up to your expectations.
Another bonus to playing more spins for free, you’ll determine how far your budget stretches.
Whether you are new to playing slots or a seasoned player, it’s always a good idea to take advantage of playing for free. Each slot comes with different base gameplay, features, and Autoplay function, playing for free helps determine if a slot lives up to your expectations or taste.
Gameplay
The features in Gonzo’s Quest are by no means unique, but after the release of this highly animated slot, it quickly gained momentum and became one of the most famous slots ever to land at an online casino. The superb graphics coupled with an avalanche feature, increasing multipliers after each avalanche, and the free falls (free spins), it remains one of the most played slots to date.
Symbols
Matching symbol wins pay from 3 to 2,500 coins, and there’s a wild symbol that substitutes for every single other symbol as – surprisingly – there’s no scatter function here. However, the absence of this seemingly ubiquitous feature doesn’t mean that Gonzo’s Quest is in any way all style and no substance – far from it, in fact. Adding a scatter would just over-egg the pudding and detract from the game’s most impressive feature.
Avalanche Feature
After forming a winning combination, the Avalanche feature triggers. Each time you win, the symbols involved in the win explode and disappear and new symbols fall to fill the empty spaces. If the new symbols form a winning combination, the avalanche happens again. This continues until no more wins occur. Another plus during the avalanche feature, multipliers come into play. On each successive avalanche, the multiplier increases up to 5x.
The first avalanche – A multiplier of 1x your bet, and a free fall multiplier of 3x
The second avalanche – A 2x multiplier and a free falls multiplier of 6x
The third avalanche – A 3x multiplier, plus a 9x free falls multiplier
The fourth avalanche – A 5x multiplier, and a 15x free falls multiplier.
Free Falls
There are also free falls (spins) to be had by lining up 3 or more of the sun god symbols. You’ll be given up to 10 falls with multipliers that increase if you keep winning, worth up to 15 times. Once your free falls have stopped there’s a nice animated sequence with your bounty poured out in gold coins, caught by Gonzo in his hat. If the free spins went as well as they conceivably could, you’d end up with the 2,500 coins on a 15 times multiplier at bet level 5 – that’s 187,500 coins.
Conclusion
Although Gonzo’s Quest first hit our screens back in 2011, it became a huge hit from the get-go and is still one of the most popular slots found at online casinos today.
Other cosmetic touches like the lush, soothing rainforest sound effects and Gonzo breakdancing across the screen when you land a really big win all contribute to a world-class production that will keep you riveted to the screen for hours. Although Gonzo is an unlikely protagonist – ransacking innocent native communities in the Amazon would not make anyone a hero these days – you’ll be intrigued by him the moment the intro to this exemplary game starts up, and after a few spins, he’ll seem like your oldest friend…
Whether you are a high roller, or a casual slot player Gonzo’s Quest will appeal to everyone. Although the slot does not deliver jackpots, the avalanches, free falls, and increasing multipliers more than makes up for the lack of jackpots.
Gonzo’s Quest Series
Like many quality software providers, after the success and popularity of one of their products, they tend to expand into a series. NetEnt capitalised on Gonzo’s Quest popularity by developing a couple more slots in the series, Gonzo’s Quest Megaways and Gonzo’s Gold.
Gonzo’s Quest Megaways
Developed by NetEnt’s studio partner Red Tiger Gaming, Gonzo’s Quest Megaways stays true to the original slot both in terms of design and theme with the exception of the Megaways mechanic. Gonzo is present at the side of the reels, his animated personality continues to create a fun aspect along with the sharp, highly detailed graphics.
One of the major changes is the sheer number of winning ways. In Gonzo’s Quest Megaways these can reach as high as 117,649, depending on the number of symbols on each reel per spin.
There are a couple of extra features:
The Earthquake Feature – During a cascade, only high-value symbols appear in a cascade
Unbreakable Wilds – Wilds remain on the reels during successive cascades
The rest of the gameplay remains true to the original slot including the cascading reels and increasing multipliers worth up to 15x during the free falls feature.
Gonzo’s Gold
Now a fully established brand, the next installment in the series, is Gonzo’s Gold. The conquistador is back for the third slot release in search of Incan treasure. Gonzo’s Gold is a cluster-style slot played on a 5×5 grid. This time there are no avalanches or multipliers, which seems a shame as this catapulted the original slot to become one of the most popular slots to date. NetEnt has taken Gonzo’s Gold in a new direction with the addition of a free spins round with expanding symbols, unfortunately, these are common in many slots today and are by no means unique.
A random symbol is chosen before the free spins commence to become an expanding symbol boosting your chances of landing much more lucrative wins.
Gonzo’s Gold is a decent slot but I do feel it’s let down by the lack of features, considering the popularity and iconic status Gonzo’s Quest still commands today.
