Roaming Reels Slot Review

The African plains has been a popular theme in the online slots world, with many top developers using it in their games. Ainsworth is no exception. Roaming Reels takes place in the plains of the Serengeti and several of their symbols are references to the country’s attributes.

Furthermore, the slot is pretty simple and straightforward. There are in-game features that you can take advantage of and there is little to no learning curve when discovering how the features work.

However, because of how prevalent the African theme is within slots, we wanted to see how the Roaming Reels slot compared to other titles with a similar concept.

Thus, our review will be a holistic examination of the symbols, bonus games, payouts, and  more. And by the end of our review, you’ll have a good idea of whether or not Roaming Reels is for you.

Are you ready? Let’s get started!

Roaming Reels Overview

Roaming Reels was released on October 15th, 2011 by Ainsworth. While Ainsworth has produced several top-tier slots, such as Dragon Lines and Mustang Money, Roaming Reels has also become a fan favorite due to its simplicity and quality gameplay.

The slot itself has 5 reels and 3 rows, with 100 adjustable paylines to win from. Considering that most slots will only offer around 15-20 paylines, Roaming Reels is pretty generous with their payouts.

However, this also means that you’ll need to bet more since your bet is applied to each payline that you play. Luckily, you can adjust the number of paylines you want to bet on, all the way down to a minimum of one payline per spin.

The betting range for Roaming Reels is also quite generous with a minimum bet of $1 per spin and a maximum bet of $75 per spin. 

This means that the game can accommodate both high-stakes players and low rollers. If you like to keep your money close to you, you can bet small amounts that are as low as $1 per spin.

However, if you like to take risks and you want to go all out, then you also have the option to bet as much as $75 per spin.

While other slots might have lower minimum bets and higher maximum bets, this is still a pretty large range. Thus, you can play both high-stakes and low-stakes when using the Roaming Reels slot machine. 

Symbols and Values

There are 13 symbols that you can find within the game whenever you’re playing Roaming Reels. Of these 13 symbols, 12 will pay money if you manage to land them in a payline.

The paying symbols are split into six themed symbols and six deck-based symbols. Thus, six of these symbols take from the African theme while the other six are symbols that you would find in a deck of cards.

All the deck-based symbols as well as the gazelle and emu will pay 5X your line bet for three symbols in a payline. 

On the other hand, the tree symbol is the highest-paying symbol with a multiplier of 2,000X your line bet for five matching symbols in a payline. 

The tree symbol also acts as the scatter symbol. Hitting three of these on the reels will unlock the bonus game which we’ll talk more about later.

If you’d like more information on the different symbols and their respective payouts, be sure to take a look at our paytable below!

The wild symbol is the lion. The lion does not pay out and the symbol will only appear on reels 3, 4, and 5. This means you’ll need to hit at least two consecutive symbols for your wild to be effective.

Luckily, wilds are often stacked when they show up on the reels. This means that you have the chance to hit multiple paylines at once when the wild symbol does show up.

Roaming Reels Bonus and Features

Roaming Reels only has one bonus feature which is a free spins bonus round. To activate the free spins round, you’ll need to land 3-5 tree symbols on the reels. 

The more scatter symbols you hit, the more free spins you’ll receive. Here are the following numbers:

• 3 Tree Symbols: 8 Free Spins
• 4 Tree Symbols: 12 Free Spins
• 5 Tree Symbols: 20 Free Spins

The paytable during the bonus round is a little different, with the most notable exception being the paw symbol. Landing three paw symbols will pay you 20X your wager rather than the original 5X multiplier.

Thus, you can be paid out more for your time whenever playing the bonus round. Furthermore, you’ll also have the opportunity to retrigger free spins when playing the bonus game.

If you manage to land three more scatter symbols, then you’ll receive an additional five free spins to use during the session.

While there is only one bonus game available in Roaming Reels, we’re really glad that it’s simple to understand, easy to use, and provides plenty of winning opportunities.

Roaming Reels RTP & Volatility

Roaming Reels has an RTP of 94.14% and a high volatility. An RTP of 94.14% means that, for every $1,000 wagered in the long run, players can expect to receive a return of $941.40. 

Given that most online slots have an average RTP of 96%, this puts Roaming Reels slightly below average.

However, this projection isn’t fully accurate since you need to account luck as a factor. The RTP is an estimate, meaning that it’s pretty much an average of the winnings produced in the long run.

This means that things such as hitting a jackpot or going on a hot streak aren’t fully taken into effect. The first time you play Roaming Reels, you might manage to hit five of the tree symbols, putting you over the RTP.

However, the second time you play, you might not hit anything, meaning that you could quickly go below budget and thus, sink under your projected RTP.

Therefore, we recommend that you take RTP with a grain of salt. While it’s great for projecting estimates, it’s entirely possible that you can win more or less than what the RTP tells you. 

Roaming Reels’ high volatility means that the slot has much more risk associated with it than your standard slot. However, this also means that the rewards are much higher. (1)

Therefore, players who prefer to take a few big wins over a steady stream of small wins will love to play Roaming Reels.

Roaming Reels Device Compatibility

Because Roaming Reels is a fan favorite from Ainsworth, you can expect to find this slot at your local mobile casino. Currently, Roaming Reels is compatible with Android, Windows, and iOS devices. 

Therefore, all you need to do is boot up a mobile browser, log into your favorite online casino, and you should be good to go.

If your favorite online casino offers an app on the app store, then you can also go this route. However, chances are, most online casinos would rather optimize their site for a mobile browser.

The reason being is that the iOS app store tends to only allow casino apps that are licensed, regulated, and within the United States, meaning that offshore casinos would be hard to be approved.

With Android devices, Google only just recently started to allow real money casino apps on their play store. Therefore, most online casinos have yet to develop an app for Android users to enjoy. (2)

Luckily, playing from a mobile browser should be more than enough. Given how popular mobile casino gaming has become, just about every reputable online casino has taken steps to ensure that their site is compatible with every major type of mobile device.

Therefore, no matter where you are, chances are, you’re going to be able to play Roaming Reels. It doesn’t matter if you’re at a restaurant, on the road, or with some friends.

All you need to do is open up your casino in a mobile browser, load up the game, and you can start playing within seconds!

Overall Rating

Here at Gamblib, we like to compile our overall rating of a slot game based on four areas: user experience, game features, payouts, and sounds & visuals.

We applied these ratings to the Roaming Reels slot. That way, we can come up with a definitive ranking to help you determine whether or not you want to put your money here.

The setup of the game was pretty clean and simple. Everything was easy to access and there were no unnecessary features. 

You had six clickable buttons on the front screen: one to spin the reels, one to autoplay, one to adjust bet amounts, one to adjust paylines, one to turn sound on or off, and one to get more info.

With only six buttons, Roaming Reels was able to provide our team the information we needed to have a satisfactory gaming experience. 

While nothing was over the edge, the slot also wasn’t too simple, allowing for a nice middle ground that players can utilize when they play this slot.

Roaming Reels only has two real in-game features: stacked wilds and a bonus game. The stacked wilds aren’t always guaranteed and the bonus game feels pretty standard.

However, what we liked was that there wasn’t a learning curve to the bonus game or stacked wilds. The first time we played the game, it felt like we already knew what was going on.

The bonus game was simply a free spins round with the ability to win extra when you matched the right symbols. The stacked wilds did exactly what they said they would do. They stacked on reels to give us more winning paylines.

These two features, while simple, helped elevate the game and kept it entertaining for us without making things too complicated. 

We’re not going to lie. The possible payouts for the game were quite impressive. With a 5X payout for the lowest-paying symbols, it felt like we would get rewarded just for hitting a payline.

However, with a high volatility, it’s not as easy to hit paylines as one might think. Thus, while we got rewarded when we did hit them, it did take some time.

The bonus game certainly did help with their free spins. However, aside from the paw symbol, no other symbols had larger payout multipliers compared to the base game.

Overall, the payouts could be solid at times. However, we did find ourselves going on cold streaks every once in a while. 

The sounds and visuals of Roaming Reels were pretty basic. While the symbols were well-designed, there was no background music for us to listen to and the sounds lacked creativity.

There were a few themed sounds that occurred whenever you hit a payline. However, spinning the reels and hitting paylines were the only sources of sound in this game.

Luckily, the game made up for it with intricately drawn symbols. The themed symbols well represented the African theme and even the deck-based symbols had their own little flair.

For instance, the King symbol had a crown placed on top of the letter while the Queen had a rose indented within the writing. 

Therefore, we think that the slot gets an A+ for their efforts with the graphics. However, the slot still feels incomplete without the proper background music and sounds. 

Overall, Roaming Reels is a slot that has little to no learning curve. As soon as you start playing, everything should feel familiar to you after a few spins.

Everything in the game is pretty simple but mostly in a good way. There’s no confusion around finding the information you need, such as payouts or paylines.

However, one area where we did think that the slot could’ve improved was with the audio. There was no background music and there were only a few sounds that came with the game.

Nevertheless, we still found Roaming Reels to be a thoroughly entertaining slot. And when comparing it to other slots with an African theme, we found that it matched up well with the competition.

So, if you’re looking to explore Serengeti plains and potentially win big, it might be time to take your chance with the Roaming Reels slot machine.

Roaming Reels FAQs

Where can I play the Roaming Reels slot for free?

You can play Roaming Reels for free here at Gamblib. We offer one of the largest selection of free online slots for players to play.

Can I play the Roaming Reels slot machine for real money?

Yes, you can play Roaming Reels for real money at a reputable online casino. To find a reputable online casino, we recommend checking our list of top casinos to play at today.

Is it safe to play Roaming Reels online?

Yes, it’s perfectly safe to play Roaming Reels online, so long as you’re playing from a trustworthy online casino.

Can I play the Roaming Reels slot using Bitcoin?

Yes, you can play the Roaming Reels slot using Bitcoin if the online casino you’re playing at offers Bitcoin as a deposit option.