With some of their slot games really looking their age, Ainsworth have really had to up their game on the design front and they’ve done just that in Island Princess Quad Shot. Set against a misty jungle backdrop and flanked by stone statues and columns you’ll see royal symbols plus snakes, parrots, leopards and gemstones spinning around the reels.
Top of the payers is the jungle pyramid which will get you a payout of 12 times your total stake for a 5 on a payline combo in the base game. Helping to create those winners is the Island Princess of the title which is the wild. Rounding out the symbols is the coin scatter which pays 1, 5, or 10 times your total stake if you land 3, 4 or 5 anywhere on the same spin.
Hitting 3 or more of those scatters also triggers the game’s Free Games feature - your reward is 8 free spins. The paytable is tweaked slightly during this round. The jungle pyramid for example pays 16 rather than 12 times your stake if you land 5 across a payline. The coin scatters appear on reels 1 and 5 only during the free spins - land 2 on the same free spin and you’ll add 3 more freebies to your total as well as bringing extra wilds into play.
If you land a 5 in a row combination in the base game or feature, then you’ll also have a chance to land a potential jackpot prize thanks to the Quad Shot. If the 5 in a row is joined by a Bonus symbol in the Quad Shot reel to the right of the main set, then you’ll win a jackpot. Which one you win depends on which symbols formed the winning line and whether in included a wild. You could pocket up to £10,000 here.
The visuals in Island Princess Quad Shot are a big improvement on many of the developer’s other releases which often look quite tired. The soundtrack is generic but the occasional blast of pan pipe matches the theme. The simple gameplay is just what we’ve come to expect from an Ainsworth game. It’s all solid enough but not especially innovative. As usual, it’s the Free Games feature that offers the best chances thanks to the potential to add extra wilds.
The Quad Shot adds an extra dimension to Island Princess Quad Shot. Without it, we’d probably give this game a swerve. With those extra jackpots, it just about becomes a playable proposition. If you want princesses, Moon Princess by Play ‘N Go is a much more appealing game to play.