The Goonies Return Slot Review

Blueprint Gaming is a prolific UK developer that we have not talked about much in the past. They are a part of the famed German Gauselmann Group and are primarily known for their Jackpot King series. Blueprint has a portfolio of over 260 reel-spinning games, and in October 2018, they released a slot inspired by the 1985 Richard Donner cult classic – The Goonies. It proved to be a smash hit and remains highly played today. A year later, they let loose a Jackpot King version of the same game, and now, two years after it, an official Goonies slot sequel appears on the World Wide Web. Goonies Return graced online casino lobbies everywhere in September of this year, quickly rising into the top thirty rankings and not falling out of the top fifty ever since. Let us look if its status is a fluke, a result of bonus tie-ins, or well-earned.

Theme & Design

Few people know, but Chris Columbus, the director of Home Alone and the first two Harry Potter movies, wrote the screenplay for the Goonies. It tells the story of a few kids from Astoria, Oregon, who find an old treasure map and dive into a quest to unearth a long-lost pirate treasure while being chased by a family of criminals. In 2017, the Library of Congress selected this movie for preservation, stating that it was historically and aesthetically significant. Anyone that grew up in the late 1980s or 1990s would likely agree with this categorization.

Blueprint has once again attempted to capture the feel of the adventure film by incorporating its logo, sound bites from the movie, and screenshot cutouts. Naturally, the famous truffle shuffle gif gets featured here, the same as in the original game. The reality is that audio-visually, Blueprint’s development teams have not done much to differentiate this release from their 2018 one. It has the same soundtrack and presentation. However, the painterly graphics are a bit different now. Though, we are not sure that players would necessarily say that they are better. In our opinion, they are crisper and cleaner. The 2018 game was a bit visually busy.

The button’s interface on Goonies Return is unique because the spin button has gotten integrated into the map graphic on its right side. It has a glowing green play icon inside a circular shape. The bet adjuster is transparent and on the left side of the game screen. The settings bar is under it, and the auto-spin function is in the lower right corner. You can mute the music by clicking the hamburger/setting icon and pressing the first option that appears, the speaker.

Specs & Gameplay

Goonies Return features the standard five-reel, three-row layout. It is a medium variance game with twenty paylines accepting bet sizes that range from $0.1 to $100. The RTP here is the industry average – 96%. The max win potential is x50,000 a player’s stake, capped at $250,000 per spin. Wins here happen when you form winning combos of three to five matching symbols on one of the twenty defined paylines.

The low-paying tokens of Goonies Return are A-J royals, paying prizes of x2.5 to x5 for five-of-a-kind. They get followed by Data, Mouth, Mikey, and Chuck, the film’s main protagonists, who can bring rewards of x10 to x25 a player’s stake. An old coin serves as this game’s Wild, substituting all other symbols except for the Scatter. Landing five Wilds on the reels produces a win of x20 a gambler’s wager. The same goes for the pirate flag, Never Say Die token. The Scatter here is One-Eyed Willy or a pirate’s skull.

Bonus Features

Now, here is where this slot shines. It has six bonus rounds and six One-Eye Willy modifiers. We will kick things off with the latter. Modifiers can activate on any base spin, at the start of it, or in a no-win scenario. When that occurs, this mode lets players choose one of three keys, which will reveal one of the following modifiers:

• Truffle Shuffle Wilds – Chuck places random Wilds on the grid. It can also turn them into x2 multiplier ones.
• Hidden Riches – A stone pillar drops a Mickey Wild in the middle of the grid, and all other high-paying symbols that hit on that reel rotation morph into Wilds.
• W-Invention – Data KO’s the grid so that it displays matching symbols on two or more reels.
• Lucky Coins – Gold coins land on the reels revealing either a cash value or the same pay token.
• Bonus Boost – Random Scatters appear.
• Win Spin – Sloth does his Tarzan routine before the reel grid, adding pirate flag tokens that guarantee a win.

Aside from these modifiers, four random ones can transform a losing reel rotation into a winning one. Shooting spikes will replace entire reels of symbols to form a win. Cave Collapse shatters tokens, putting new ones in their place, creating a prize combo. A scythe substitutes whole rows for a secured reward, and Dynamites Sticks explode a random number of symbols onto the grid for a guaranteed win.

When you hit a winning combination resulting in a prize of more than x15 your wager in the base game, you get presented with the option to gamble your payout for potentially getting to spin the One-Eyed Willy Bonus Wheel. Landing three or more Scatters also provides you with this opportunity. The features available via this Bonus Wheel are:

• Booby Trap – Players get presented with a key that they can turn either left or right. Once they pick which way to turn it, it will reveal a multiplier, a new feature, or the end of the mode.
• Waterslide to Wealth – The mode entails moving along a water slide collecting rising multipliers toward a second stage, the Big Money Bonus game, where a substantial money multiplier awaits or entry into a new bonus feature. Coming across the collect symbols ends this mode as well.
• Skeleton Organ Spins – Players get awarded five complimentary reel rotations, and new Skeleton symbols become active, which are sticky and can appear stacked. When these symbols land, players get to choose a key on an organ, which reveals a random token and transfers all skeletons on the green into it. At the end of this round, a player gets presented with gold doubloons and asked to pick one. These can lead to the end of the feature, a new bonus game, or extra spins.
• Fratelli Spins – It initially awards eight on-the-house reel rotations with Fratelli symbols in play. If a Super Sloth Wilds hit in this mode, it will mark its position with a unique border. Once the initial eight free spins get used up, a respin will occur on all marked Super Sloth Wild positions. Each one can uncover a cash symbol or Wild. If five cash tokens get revealed, the Momma Fratelli Money Spins get triggered, and each reel position morphs into a mini cash reel with three awarded respins. If a cash symbol lands during the mini-round, the number of complementary reel rotations resets to three. At the end of the feature, again, keys get presented, and the possible outcomes are more spins, a new bonus feature, or the conclusion of the mode.
• Final Voyage Spins – The round starts on a 5×4 layout with five free spins. There is a ship trail at the bottom of the new reel grid, and a stacked Inferno Wild appears starting from the leftmost reel. It moves across the screen on every spin turning character symbols into Wilds. So, at the end of this bonus, every protagonist is a Wild. Once the ship finishes its journey from left to right, players get presented with five coins. Picking one can end this mode, give them more spins, or a new bonus feature.
• One-Eyed Willy Riches – Spinners can enter the One-Eyed Willy Riches in multiple ways. By landing five Scatters or by getting lucky at the end of another feature. It is a hold & win scheme, kicking things off with three rotations, played on an entirely new grid. Hitting character and cash tokens resets the spin counter to three. Goonie symbols are active here, and each one has a unique power. The grid in this feature can expand to a size of 9×4. Once the final spin concludes, a Big-Win animation plays.

Whenever a bonus mode activates in Goonies Return, players can choose to gamble it, hoping to win a better one or a Mystery prize. That only does not apply when they snag the One-Eyed Willy Riches feature.

GOSU Verdict

Awesome. That is all we have to say. Online gamblers that enjoy diverse slots will be head over heels in love with this one. It almost has too many bonus features to count. So, before laying down any money on it, it is wise that everyone goes through its help page, reading up on how everything works. That is if our review did not suffice. Goonies Returns remains faithful to the original but adds its twists, producing a roller-coaster of thrilling moments. Trust us. This one is a nail-biter.

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