Gonzo's Quest Megaways Slot Review by Red Tiger & NetEnt

Gonzo’s Quest Megaways has 6 reels and 2-7 rows to play on, with 117,649 paylines. A winning combination takes place when 3 or more matching symbols land left to right on adjacent reels. The first symbol must be on the leftmost reel.

Stakes start at 10p and go up to £100. On both the desktop and mobile versions of the game, you can use the up and down arrows next to the ‘stake’ button to see all available bet options.  

The RTP rate is 96%, which is about average for an online slot game. The rate can also be 94.66%, depending on which casino site you play at.

Gonzo’s Quest Megaways has a medium volatility rating and a decent max win of 21,000 x the bet. 

Gonzo’s Quest Megaways was released on 23 July, 2020, and is a sequel to the player favourite Gonzo’s Quest, which came out in November 2011. The latest game is also set in the ancient Mayan jungle. You join Gonzo, the Spanish explorer, as he ventures through the deepest jungle, searching for the lost city of gold. The graphics are sharper and more detailed in this game compared to the original. 

In the background, you see an ancient rune covered in Mayan art camouflaged by dense vines, which provide a canopy from the jungle’s sweltering heat. During the Free Fall free spins round, the colour scheme stays the same, although you are transported to an underground chamber in one of the ancient ruins.

The jungle is teeming with life, and you can hear birds and wildlife in the background. You can hear the relaxing beat of the drums which is typical of ancient Mayan music.

Animation on the screen comes from Gonzo as he scratches his beard, celebrates wins and picks up gold coins and bites into them to check if they’re the real deal!

The Mayan theme has been used to full effect on the grid, and Mayan masks represent the different symbols. They are all displayed in natural colours that suit the stone design. When the symbols in winning combinations explode and disappear, you cleverly get a glimpse of a golden temple on the horizon to suggest what may be out there, ready for Gonzo to discover.

Here are the values of each symbol:

• Bird: 3 = 0.1,4 = 0.2, 5 = 0.3 or 6 = 0.5 x bet
• Snake:  3 = 0.2, 4 = 0.3, 5 = 0.4 or 6 = 0.6 x bet
• Alligator: 3 = 0.2, 4 = 0.3, 5 = 0.5 or 6 = 0.7 x bet
• Fish: 3 = 0.2, 4 = 0.4, 5 = 0.6 or 6 = 0.8 x bet
• Mayan Mask 1: 3 = 0.2, 4 = 0.5, 5 = 0.8 or 6 = 1 x bet
• Mayan Mask 2: 3 = 0.4, 4 = 0.6, 5 = 1 or 6 = 1.2 x bet
• Mayan Mask 3: 3 = 0.5, 4 = 0.7, 5 = 1.2 or 6 = 2 x bet
• Mayan Mask 4: 3 = 0.7, 4 = 1.2, 5 = 2 or 6 = 4 x bet
• Mayan Mask 5:  3 = 1, 4 = 2, 5 = 5 or 6 = 15 x bet
• Question Mark Wild:  Substitutes for symbols above
• Free Fall Scatter:3+ symbols trigger the Free Fall feature

Gonzo’s Quest Megaways Mobile

The game has been designed using HTML5, which means that whether you play on a smartphone, tablet, or desktop.  You can be sure of an excellent experience which adapts to your device.

Below is a rundown of all of the bonus features that Gonzo'sQuest Megaways offers:

Megaways Feature

This popular feature involves a dynamic reel that offers thousands of ways to win. The number of symbols on each reel can vary, in this case, there are 2-7 rows. If you land a maximum of 7 symbols on each of the 6 reels, it offers a potential 117,649 Megaways to win.

Avalanche Feature

The original game was the first slot to have an avalanche feature. You may have seen this referred to as ‘tumbles’ or ‘cascading reels.’ Here the symbols fall into positions on the reels, instead of spinning. Symbols in winning combinations explode and then disappear. This leaves space for a second Avalanche of symbols for a chance of bigger wins. The Avalanches continue to come until there are no more wins.

Avalanche Multiplier

Winning ways trigger the Avalanche Multiplier feature. They increase the reward from each winning way occurring during the spin until it reaches the maximum multiplier. In the base game, the first win way increases it to X2, the second to X3 and the third to X5. These remain for the duration of the spin and apply to all subsequent wins. The Avalanche Multiplier resets after the end of the spin. 

Earthquake

During play, the grid may randomly start to shake. Here, all low-paying symbols are destroyed, allowing only high-paying symbols to take their place in the following respins.

Wild Symbols

The question mark symbol depicts the Wild symbol. Wilds do not break or explode when they’re part of a win. Their number is limited to two on the reels at a time. The first one can land on the first three reels, and the second one on the second three reels. A Wild can substitute for both paying symbols and Free Fall symbols.

Free Fall

Landing 3 or more Free Fall scatter symbols—depicted by the gold coin—triggers the Free Fall feature. Alternatively, you can land at least 2 Free Fall symbols and a Wild to trigger this round. Each symbol that participates in the win gives you 3 Free Spins. In Free Fall, the progression of the Avalanche Multiplier is as follows: Avalanche 1 = x3, Avalanche 2 = x6, Avalanche 3 = x9, and Avalanche 4 = x15. If you land Free Fall Scatters during the bonus round, you’ll receive more free spins or free falls. There is no limit to this. Once the bonus round is complete, you will return to the base game. The triggering feature symbols are destroyed, so you have another chance to create a win. The multiplier from your last free spin is applied on all avalanches until there are no more wins left.

Gonzo’s Quest was a landmark game because it was the first to use cascading symbols instead of the conventional reel spin. It's hard to imagine nowadays not having the option of avalanches (or tumbles or cascades, as they are sometimes called). They are such a bread-and-butter feature. They are popular because they give another chance for bigger wins, and I, for one, am a big fan of them. 

The graphics are definitely at the higher end of the scale for quality.  The designers have used intricate Mayan imagery. And little touches like Gonzo moving around the screen and glimpsing the golden temple in the grid’s background when the winning symbols explode were the icing on the cake. The ancient Mayan theme was also a big yay from me as it’s such an interesting part of history.

The RTP has been increased for this sequel, from 95.97% for the original game to 96% so that’s a big thumbs up. The combo of the medium/high volatility with the 21,000x max win works well with the top features thrown into the mix. If you don't know much about the original game, you can read OLBG’s review of Gonzo’s Quest.

The features were entertaining. The Earthquake feature only happened once, but when it did, it was exciting to see the lower-value symbols replaced by higher-value symbols. The Avalanche Multiplier means that a win increases up to X5 in the base game for every avalanche and X15 in the Free Fall bonus round which was a decent touch.

Megaways games are hugely popular, and it's not hard to see why. I recently wrote this article about the best Megaways slots if you want to findout more.

All in all, I’m struggling to think of a negative to try and balance this review. Red Tiger Gaming and NetEnt have kept all the good stuff from the original and added in the superb Megaways eature. It has created an excellent slot experience which is bound to end up a player favourite.

The slot review was written by our slot game experts on the OLBG Expert team. Beginning with Jenny Mason our prime Slot reviewer who has 17+ years in online gambling, working for top UK brands. Jenny is an expert in slots and bingo. It was then verified by Chris Taylor from our OLBG Expert team who who written over 10,000 slot game reviews in an iGaming career spanning over 2 decades. 

Jenny Mason

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Jenny Mason has more than 17 years of experience in the online gambling industry and has worked for some of the UK’s top betting brands. She started at OLBG in 2014 and her role involves creating great content and looking after the marketing activity. Jenny is knowledgeable in all areas of online sports betting and has an interest in slots and bingo.

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🎰🍒🍀 Jenny has become an expert with online slots completing hundreds of our various new slot reviews and creating and writing some of the slot articles found on site. She has become a firm fan of NoLimitCity and Hacksaw gaming slot in this process and always awaits the new releases with much anticipation

Chris Taylor

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Chris Taylor is an industry veteran originally from Gibraltar. Having worked in the online gambling industry since 2004, Chris loves slots and has reviewed over 10,000 online slot games. Running a slots-focused website for 13 years, Chris is the go-to guy for everything slots-related. 

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Chris’ online gambling career has spanned more than 2 decades. This includes working for online casino sites, consulting for software/slot providers and running his own slots portal. 

With a passion for slots, Chris reviews games from an honest and blunt point of view to give readers an accurate portrayal of the slots they might play. The slot games are just the start as Chris deep dives into the slot sites to provide factual and insightful information as to where to play the games he so loves.