Space Donkey Slot Review

Space Donkey Slot Overview

Space Donkey is a new casino slot from NoLimit City with retro visuals and retro-like gameplay, yet a slot that feels very fresh.

Land-based slot machines and arcade game machines are very similar in looks. But despite that, not many slot games use retro visuals and gameplay. It’s not unheard of, though. Flame Busters is a classic, and Rat King is a recent banger, but the theme is still not explored as much as you’d think. Not only do the landbased machines look similar, but online slots are quite popular among the same people who lived during arcade game’s golden era, so it seems like a missed opportunity for many providers. Oh well, NoLimit has decided not to miss out on it. With Space Donkey, they’re mixing retro looks with modern mechanics. Let’s dig in!

Space Donkey is a video slot from NoLimit City with 6 reels, 6 rows, and 46656 payways. Players can choose between making a Min.bet of 0.2 and a Max.bet of 200. The game has a default RTP of 96.07%, but there are versions with lower RTP, so be on the lookout for that. With a Free Spins Frequency of 1 in 298, you can expect to trigger the bonus game once in every 298 spins, on average. Space Donkey is played at high volatility and can net you a max win of 14649x the bet.

NoLimit is really trying to bring that arcade game vibe here, so there are plenty of mechanics to keep you entertained. The features are Scatter Symbol, Abduction Wild, Hellfire, Hide N’ Seek, Seek N’ Destroy, and Bonus Buys.

Space Donkey Slot Information

Hovering above a river is you, the space donkey, looking down on the 7x7 grid. It’s a colorful game with a landscape that constantly changes as you progress along the river. This is a nice touch and not a very common one in slot games. Sure, this game is fully focused on its retro looks so the graphics are not magnificent or anything, but an ever-changing landscape is not something we see very often in slots. It makes the game feel less stale than it could’ve. 

Space Donkey 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 9, 10, J, Q, K, and A. A winning combination of 6 with one of these pays 0.25x-0.75x the bet. The higher-paying symbols consist of ammo, guns, aliens, airplanes, and space donkeys. Six-of-a-kind with these pays 1x-4x the bet. U.F.O Wilds, Choppers, and Dynamite Scatters are also present, but more on that in the features section. 

Space Donkey Slot Features

What is the max win in the slot Space Donkey?

You can win up to 14649x the bet.

What features are available in the slot Space Donkey?

The features are Scatter Symbol, Abduction Wild, Hellfire, Hide N’ Seek, Seek N’ Destroy, and Bonus Buys.

Scatter Symbol

Landing 3 or 4 Scatter symbols activates the Hide N’ Seek Bonus Game or the Seek N’ Destroy Bonus Game, respectively.

Abduction Wild

The Abduction Wild can land on reels 2-6. When it takes part in a win, it will remain and move downwards, abducting all paying symbols in its way, increasing its multiplier by one for each removed symbol. The multiplier then counts as a number of symbols on that position. 

Hellfire

In the base game, Chopper symbols may appear on reels 2-5.

3 or more Chopper symbols trigger Hellfire feature. First Chopper symbol will fire in 1 direction, second will fire in 2 directions and so on. Chopper’s multiplier will be added to all Wild and normal paying symbols in that direction.

Hide N’ Seek

Landing 3 Scatter Symbols triggers the Hide N’ Seek bonus game.

Scatters will convert to Traps in a 6×6 grid area where edges of the area are connected to the opposing edges. Each turn would display two values: ‘Direction’ and ‘Steps’, making the Monkey move around collecting the chest values.

Monkey will stop walking further once its life is taken.

Monkey will start with 3 lives. Monkey and Alien will lose a life when they encounter each other or walk into a trap. Trap would be removed when Monkey walks into it unlike Alien. When Monkey walks over a position, it will trigger/collect whatever ability the symbol holds. Removed symbols will trigger a drop on the reel, allowing new symbols to drop in. Trap symbols do not drop. The following symbols are available in the bonus:

• Traps: takes a life of the Monkey and disappears.

• Grey Chest: awards an extra life, multiplier value, an upgrade to Seek N’ Destroy or nothing.

• Golden Chest: awards multiplier value.

• Teleport: revealed from a Grey Chest and triggers Seek N’ Destroy immediately.

• Alien: takes a life of the Monkey.

• Magician: awards the total sum of all visual Golden Chests.

• King: multiplies the values on the Golden Chests with a random multiplier (from 2-10).

• Princess: collects value from adjacent Grey and Golden chests from all directions and kills adjacent Alien.

• Stone Monster: affects these 3 symbols on random positions-Golden Chest multiplier gets doubled up, Grey Chest opens up and Alien gets killed.

Alien attributes:

Moves one step towards Monkey after the Monkey has moved.

• On reaching Monkey: it takes a life from Monkey and disappears

• On reaching Chest: it adds the Chest multiplier to its value.

• On reaching Magician, King, Princess or Stone Monster: it adds ×1 to its value

• On reaching Trap: it dies, leaving a Golden Chest on its starting position. It then equally spreads its value to adjacent Golden Chests or retains the entire value.

• If killed by Princess or Stone Monster: same behaviour as when it reaches Trap.

Once vanished, Alien may respawn in coming avalanches taking the value of the symbol it appears on.

When teleport is discovered, the feature will end immediately and Seek N’ Destroy is triggered. Monkey’s extra life (beyond 1) will convert to extra Monkey shield(s) in Seek N’ Destroy.

Seek N’ Destroy

When you land 4 Scatters, the Seek N’ Destroy bonus game is triggered. If you get even more Scatters, you'll get extra Monkey shields.

The bonus game has 5 rows and 6 columns. In columns 2 to 6, there are random multipliers from 1 to 10. There are Aliens in this game, and they move closer to the Monkey every turn. The Monkey, on the other hand, jumps to a random row each turn and shoots to kill the Aliens and destroy the Mothership.

Every turn, Aliens with multipliers appear from the horizontal launcher tubes. When you kill them, their value gets multiplied by the multiplier of the column they are in, and you get rewarded.

These Aliens can have different amounts of lives. Sometimes, you might also find Booster symbols in the launcher tube. These can give you a shield or upgrade your weapon.

The game ends when the Monkey runs out of lives or when "Monkeypendence Day" is triggered.

On each “spin”, the following things happen:

• Monkey moves to a random row.

• Aliens/Booster symbols move one step to the left.

• Launch tubes spawn a new wave of Aliens.

• Random weapon is chosen and fired straight ahead by the Monkey.

• Any killed Alien’s value(s) is awarded after being multiplied by corresponding column multiplier.

These different weapons are available:

• Link Gun: Takes a life of all Aliens of the same kind. If no Alien is present, it will fire at 2 Launch tubes. Fires twice if upgraded.

• Laser Gun: Takes a life of all Aliens in the same row including launcher tube. Also kill Aliens of adjacent rows if upgraded.

• Nuke: Takes a life of all Aliens in one column. If no Alien is present, it will also fire at neighbouring Launch tubes. Fires twice if upgraded.

• Rail Gun: Kills an Alien. Fires twice if upgraded.

The Launcher tube has different levels with 3, 4, 5, 4, and 3 lives, starting from the top row. When the Monkey fires a weapon, it takes away one life from both the Launcher tube and the Mothership.

When a Launcher tube is completely destroyed, you get a reward of 100 times your bet for each destroyed tube. Additionally, it wipes out all the Aliens in the rows nearby and gives you their values. After it's destroyed, the Launcher tube won't produce any more Aliens.

If an Alien reaches the left edge of the Launcher tube on the same row as the Monkey, it will take away a shield or a life from the Monkey. However, if you come across Booster symbols in this situation, they will give you either a shield or upgrade your weapon.

Lastly, there’s the Monkeypendence Day. The Mothership has 25 lives which decreases by one for every time a launcher tube is shot. When Mothership or all Launcher tubes are destroyed, bonus round will end and a random multiplier (5, 10, 15, 20) will be awarded which is multiplied to the accumulated bonus win. Monkey’s extra life (beyond 1) will convert to extra Monkey shield(s) in Seek N’ Destroy.

Bonus Buys

If you want to jump straight into action, the following 3 Bonus Buys are available at various costs:

79x = Activates the Hide N’ Seek Bonus Game

272x = Activates the Seek N’ Destroy Bonus Game

143x = Activates the Lucky Draw, where you have a 2/3 chance to trigger the Hide N’ Seek, and 1/3 to trigger the Seek N’ Destroy.

Space Donkey Slot Conclusion

If you just read through the explanation of the various bonus games, we’re impressed. It’s a lot to take in, and we don’t blame you if you’d rather just explore the game on your own. Understanding every little mechanic of the game would take some serious research, but you really don’t need it. As you partake in the different features, you’ll start understanding what the main objective is, and it’s not as hard to follow as it might look at first. 

During our session on this game, our confusion on why this theme is not used more has only strengthened. We love graphically strong games (such as Money Train 4), but there’s definitely a place for games like this as well. A game with retro visuals is also not automatically a game with bad graphics. Space Donkey genuinely looks really good, and its bright colors are very eye-pleasing. NoLimit has done wonders when it comes to the animations and how the grid and landscape move, coming close to thematic perfection.

If we were to mention one thing, except the scenery, that we love about this game, that would be the fact that it has two different bonus games. Many games nowadays have a “super bonus”, but it’s usually just a boosted version of the regular bonus. Here, it’s a completely different feature with other mechanics, which is a nice change of pace. 

Space Donkey by NoLimit City takes you on a retro adventure with two different bonus games and a whole lot of firepower.