Royal Potato

Royal Potato: Slot Overview

A quick confession, we did not think we'd be starting the day Googling the history and interesting facts of potatoes, but thanks to up-and-coming software provider Print Studios, here we are. You can't beat a good origin story, which takes us back around 10,000 years to when potatoes were originally domesticated in an area of South America incorporating parts of Peru and Bolivia. From there, the tater made its way across the planet, becoming the fourth largest food crop in the world, now starring in its very own online slot.

The motivation for this deep dive into the humble root vegetable was prompted by Print Gaming's third release Royal Potato. This one sees the studio build on their previous game Crystal Golem while fusing elements of Push Gaming's 'Fat' series into its free spins bonus round. Visually, Royal Potato has a warmer, more inviting look to it than Crystal Golem, where Print brings players right down to ground level for a potato's eye view of the game. Fortunately, when down here, players don't spend their time looking at regular spuds. Print Studios has personified their potatoes and put them in a hierarchy, so there are King potatoes, Queen potatoes, guards, nobles, and so on. It's all delightfully bizarre and gets better the deeper you travel into the tuber kingdom.

Royal Potato's game grid is larger than Crystal Golem, made up of 5 reels, and 4 rows, with 14 SuperSpinner positions appearing between the reels (more on that below). Accompanying the graphical refinement, Royal Potato's stats are well respectable as well, starting with a theoretical average payout of 96.27%, rising to 97.14% when buying the free spins round. Potential has seen a significant rise, while volatility comes in at a medium/high setting, which was particularly noticeable when buying the feature.

Playable from 20 c/p to €/$50 per spin, crossing the game grid are 30 paylines for players to land winning combinations of three to five of a kind on. All symbols have been custom designed for Royal Potato and include four low pay flower symbols worth up to 1.5 to 3 times the stake, four mid pay characters called Kennebec, Russet, Yukon, and Desiree worth up to 6-12.5x the bet; then there are two high pay Kings and Queens. The latter two are worth 25-50x the bet when hitting five a kind. Wilds do not appear in the base game, but a Jumbo symbol wild is instrumental during free spins.

Royal Potato: Slot Features

The trio of features used in Royal Potato are SuperSpinners, a Royal Levy, and Free Spins, where a growing Jumbo Wild Symbol takes centre stage.

Superspinners

Between the reels are 14 SuperSpinner positions, available in the base and bonus game. Not every SuperSpinner will be active on a spin, and their values vary as well. If a winning line crosses through an active SuperSpinner, the prize value is multiplied by the number on the SuperSpinner. If the winning line crosses more than one SuperSpinner, the multiplier values are applied to the prize value in succession.

Royal Levy

When King or Queen symbols land, they may randomly trigger the Royal Levy feature. When activated, each King or Queen symbol reveals a random prize, which is multiplied by the sum of all SuperSpinner values in view.

Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols triggers the bonus round, awarding 10, 12, or 14 free spins, respectively. Kicking off to Pachelbel's classical piece Canon, otherwise known as the Wedding song, the round starts with a sticky 2x1 Jumbo symbol in the centre of the grid. The Jumbo symbol is wild, though only substituting for the symbols highlighted in the symbol panel located next to the reels. In the beginning, these are the two lowest value pay symbols. When a win is achieved using these highlighted symbols, the Jumbo symbol grows, and it substitutes additional symbols from the paytable as indicated on the panel. Each time the Jumbo grows, extra free spins are awarded as well. At its maximum, the Jumbo symbol reaches 5x5 in size, covering the entire game grid.

Buy Bonus

Where available, Royal Potato may ship with bonus buy functionality. If so, players have the option of buying free spins for the cost of 93x their total stake.

Royal Potato: Slot Verdict

It's a mark of creativity when a studio can take a regular everyday item, and construct something fun to play around it. Print Studios has constructed an entire kingdom for their potatoes, one that looks excellent while being playfully silly at the same time. Not only does personifying potatoes inject life into a relatively plain object, but it also helps cushion the blow (slightly) in what can be a ruthless game.

Thanks to the reduced-price tag, higher RTP and bigger potential, buying free spins is an even greater temptation than it was in Crystal Golem. Tread carefully, though, because the bonus game was about as volatile as it gets. The first trigger during testing showcased much of what free spins have to offer, rolling their way to a solid 450-500x win, upsizing the potato three times, taking around 20 spins to do so. The next couple of triggers returned less than 20x the bet, the fourth returned nothing at all, whereas the fifth pulled it back with another 3 upsizes and a sizeable payout. From then on, it was a real roller coaster of results. Due to the wild potato's central position, getting it to 3x3 size helps connect multiple wins on each spin, while reaching 4x4 or beyond can turn the game into a real tater bonanza. On the negative side, larger Jumbo symbols do block non-highlighted symbols making it difficult to win from them.

The possible elephant in the room is the obvious link to Push Gaming's 'Fat' series. However, since Print Studios has a few ex-Push members in its ranks, is some crossover to be expected? Anyway, Royal Potato does things a little differently. For instance, the Jumbo symbol isn't wild for everything like Fat Rabbit, but it is generally handier than the mystery symbol we got in Fat Drac. Like those games, Royal Potato is a real hoot when the Jumbo symbol gets its upsizing on. Keeping in mind SuperSpinners remain in play during free spins, Print has slapped on a 30,000x win cap as a form of growth control.

Royal Potato can be tough, yet it can also be highly rewarding and was a fun game to review. The tidy evolution of the Fat Rabbit mechanic, the inclusion of multipliers, plus solid stats make this a real French Fry drenched in salt and aioli experience.