J-POP Slot Overview

J-POP is a new casino slot from ELK Studios where we set off on a mission to the planet of Jellon, where the inhabitants use Porta-loos as entry points to Earth. 

After some darker/mysterious releases in Cygnus 3 and Coba Reborn, ELK is switching lanes, leading us into a more colorful world. Hula Balua was the latest stop, in which we were reintroduced to Elmo from Tropicool. That was a blast. And with candy, funny-looking monsters, and a max win of 25000x the bet, J-POP is sure to be as well. For enthusiasts of the Gold-series, we advice you to take a close look at this one. Let’s dig in!

An image of the base game view in J-POP

J-POP is a video slot from ELK Studios that features a setup of 6 reels, 4 rows, and up to 262.144 ways. Players can choose between making a Min.bet of 0.2 and a Max.bet of 100. The game has a disappointing RTP of 94%, but ELK makes up for it with medium/high volatility and a max win of 25000x the bet. 

One thing’s for sure: there’s no lack of mechanics in this colorful setting. The features are Wild Symbol, Scatter Symbol, Big Symbol, Big Drop Symbol, Walking Wild Symbol, Grid Flip Symbol, Wild Box Symbol, Free Spins, and X-iter Feature Buys.

J-POP Slot Information

One of the absolute highlights of J-POP is J-POP. What’s that, you may ask? Well, we assume it stands for Jellon-Pop, and it’s absolutely banging. How good a genre of music is will differ since it’s subjective, but the quality is high, and not another non-copyrighted sample that many providers use. This adds another layer of greatness to the game, making it easier to get into the vibe. 

J-POP can be played on all common mobile devices and desktops. A winning combination is created by landing 3 or more matching symbols on consecutive reels, starting from the leftmost reel. 

The lower-paying symbols include J, Q, K, and A. Six-of-a-kind with these pays 0.2x the bet. The medium-paying symbols are made up of candies in various shapes and colors. A winning combination of 6 with one of these pays 0.25x-0.5x the bet. The higher-paying symbols are depicted by the inhabitants of Jellon. Six-of-a-kind with these pays 1x-5x the bet, with the red fella being the highest-paying symbol. There are also a bunch of other symbols, but we’ll get to that in the next section.

J-POP Slot Features

What is the max win in the slot J-POP?

You can win up to 25000x the bet.

What features are available in the slot J-POP?

The features are Wild Symbol, Scatter Symbol, Big Symbol, Big Drop Symbol, Walking Wild Symbol, Grid Flip Symbol, Wild Box Symbol, Free Spins, and X-iter Feature Buys.

An image of the big symbols dropping

Wild Symbol

Wild symbols enable more winning combinations by substituting for other paying symbols. 

Scatter Symbol

The Scatter symbol is a tape with “BONUS” written on it. Landing 3 or more triggers the Free Spins feature. 

Big Symbol

Like in many ELK games, symbols can come in 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, and 4x4 size to enable some juicy hits. 

Big Drop Symbol

The Big Drop symbol triggers a drop of big symbols that crushes away 1x1 symbols and then becomes a Wild symbol itself. 

Walking Wild Symbol

The Walking Wild symbol is a sticky Wild symbol that increases its multiplier by +1 for each winning combination it’s part of. After each win, it walks 1 step to any adjacent symbol. The Walking Wild symbol will temporarily adopt the size of any symbol it walks onto. 

An image of the walking wild feature

Grid Flip Symbol

The Grid Flip symbol triggers the columns 1 and 6, 2 and 5, and 3 and 4 to switch position on the grid, and then becomes a Wild symbol itself. 

Wild Box Symbol

The Wild Box symbol places a random amount of Wild symbols on the grid when contributing to a win. 

Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, 5, or 6 Scatter symbols, awards 10, 12, 15, or 20 Free Spins, respectively. During Free Spins, a safety level is in play. Every winning Free Spin advances the safety level one row, making the grid bigger, increasing your chance to land the different feature symbols, and creating big hits. 

X-iter Feature Buys

The following five feature buys are up for grabs at various costs:

3x = Activates the Bonus Hunt, greatly increasing your chances of triggering the Free Spins feature.

10x = Guarantees that a Big Drop symbol will land.

25x = Guarantees that a Walking Wild symbol will land.

100x = Triggers the regular Free Spins feature.

500x = Triggers the Super Free Spins feature, where you have a guaranteed Walking Wild. 

J-POP Slot Conclusion

Unfortunately for ELK, their J-POP genre can probably not be trademarked. Just like Korea has its K-pop, Japan has J-pop. It entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s, but there’s now a new guy on the block. We’re not too invested in the OG J-pop, but we will still go out on a limb and claim that J-POP is much better.

Mechanically, the game feels more like a mix of previous ELK games than a brand-new one. We’ve seen Big symbols and Walking Wild’s many times before, so there’s not a whole lot of innovation going into this one. However, the mechanics interact very well with each other, so despite it not feeling too new, it’s certainly going to be another enjoyable game to play. 

Not long ago, we reviewed ELK’s last Gold game in Valhall Gold, but to be fair, this feels like another one in the series, just minus the Gold. But it’s an extremely popular slot series, so we’ll let it slide.