Jelly Belly Megaways: Slot Overview

If you've ever wanted to know what it was like to live in a wobbling world where practically everything is made out of lovely hunks of jelly, look no further. Thanks to software developer NetEnt, players can pretend they're a citizen of Jelly Belly Megaways, an online slot which exists in such a reality. NetEnt has many long years of dropping charming slots with charming characters like Wild Turkey, Flowers, or Finn, so it's got experience in this area, and Jelly Belly Megaways definitely has charming personalities. It's also a game that puts a major emphasis on hitting consecutive Avalanche wins, as they are needed to naturally trigger free spins and, once there, build a win multiplier. It's a bit different, you'll see.

When Jelly Belly Megaways loads, its jellified characters come bounding out of the castle towards the foreground like a bunch of Teletubbies. The game world looks like one of those places where you could wander around chomping bits off the scenery, like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Room – 'Everything in this room is eatable, even *I'm* eatable. But that is called "cannibalism," my dear children, and is in fact frowned on in most societies.' Players leaping into Jelly Belly Megaways might find it hard not to want to nibble the jelly people but try to refrain from doing so since they appear on pay symbols, which are needed for wins and Avalanches.

In this jellied world, participants are able to select a bet from a limited stake range of 10 c to $/€4 per spin. A bonus buy has been supplied as well, where for the low price of 20 times the bet, you can gain access to the free spins round. The minimum number of free spins is 3, though, so it might not be quite the bargain it first appeared to be. Whether buying free spins or not, Jelly Belly Megaways' default RTP is 96.08%.

The highly volatile jiggling gaming takes place on a 6-reel Megaways set, one which lands 2 to 7 symbols on each reel every spin. Ways to win vary, depending on the number of symbols on the grid, reaching a maximum number of 117,649. Wins pay left to right from the leftmost side of the grid, and winning symbols are removed by the Avalanche mechanic. After symbols are removed, others drop in to fill the empty spaces, and Avalanche sequences end when no new win appears. Five cute-as-a-button objects are the game's low pays – clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, and stars, then five jelly characters are the high pays. Hit a 6-of-a-kind winning way of low pays, and the reward is 0.6 to 0.8 times the bet, or when made up of high pays, the rewards are 1.5 to 20 times the bet. A jellied dragon character is Jelly Belly Megaways' wild, which substitutes all pay symbols. Wilds land anywhere on the first five reels.

Jelly Belly Megaways: Slot Features

Random wilds are one of Jelly Belly Megaways' features, as is a free spins round where an increasing multiplier is introduced into the game.

Random Wilds

At random, a Jelly Dragon may fly by to drop at least 2 wild symbols anywhere on the first 5 reels.

Free Spins

Getting at least 3 consecutive Avalanches in the base game triggers free spins – the more Avalanches that consecutively occur, the more free spins. So 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7+ Avalanches award 3, 5, 8, 10, or 15 free spins, respectively. An increasing multiplier is available in free spins, activated when at least 3 consecutive Avalanches occur. Getting 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7+ consecutive Avalanches grants a multiplier of x2, x3, x5, x15, or x50 respectively. The multiplier applies to the current free spin and is reset for the following free spin.

Feature Buy

For the cost of 20 times the bet, players buy guaranteed access to the bonus round with at least 3 consecutive Avalanche wins.

Jelly Belly Megaways: Slot Verdict

Jelly Belly Megaways turned out to be a more interesting game than it first appeared. Initially, the cuteness overload proved to be almost too much to bear, like NetEnt was trying to use extreme adorability to bludgeon potential players into submission then dump subpar gameplay on them. Jelly Belly Megaways remained adorable throughout, but its features have been adjusted to deliver high levels of replayability, and backed with the sort of big win number that provides motivation to keep battling through the treacly setting.

One thing about Jelly Belly Megaways, which stuck out at the start while trolling through the options and rules, was the 20x bonus buy. Was it broken? Is that a typo? Cos 20x seemed a steal in this day and age. Think of Nine To Five's 1,370x the bet one spin God Mode bonus buy as an extreme example on the opposite end of the buy spectrum. However, 20x might equate to 3 free spins, which isn't as great a value as first presumed, perhaps, but it is possible to get more than 3, so who knows? The bonus buy might turn out to be a bargain. Or not. Anyway, hitting 3 consecutive Avalanche wins is quite low for triggering free spins as well. As such, players can expect to spend a fair amount o time dipping into and out of the bonus round. During the bonus is where another notable twist kicks in. That is, the way you have to construct a win multiplier (it lasts for the current spin only), again through hitting consecutive Avalanches. All in all, it's quite clever stuff.

What might help keep the engagement level buoyant is Jelly Belly Megaways' 20,000x the bet max win. When factoring in this sizable figure, the way Avalanches lead to free spins and win multipliers, not to mention the high cuteness quotient, Jelly Belly Megaways could be one of those games that's as appealing to casual gamblers as to the more dedicated.