Hula Balua Slot Review
We are gaming Tiki-style in today’s Hula Balua slot review. ELK Studios' Hula Balua slot machine is a volatile fruit-themed jungle game that features Avalanche Wins and a 6x6 Pay Anywhere grid. Big Symbols, which are formed when many symbols combine, increase the overall win multiplier. In the bonus rounds, the multiplier never resets, and each Super Bonus Round spin will always at least produce one large symbol. The maximum payout is 25,000 times your wager, and you can read our complete Hula Balua slot review below.
Hula Balua
Hula Balua RTP and Wagering
The Hula Balua slot machine utilises the Scatter Pays system and has a 6x6 grid. When eight or more matching symbols appear anywhere on the grid, a win is generated.
All budgets are accommodated by the stakes, which range from 20p to £100 every spin. Adjust your total stake by clicking the coins button to the left of the reels. There are 12 pre configured values that you can choose from.
When compared to several other popular UK slots and the industry average, the Hula Balua RTP of 94% is seriously below the mark. Though this return to player rate has been observed in numerous other ELK Studios games in the past, including Nitropolis 4 and Ashoka, it seems this poor statistic is not a deal breaker for a lot of slot game fans. While other providers might provide casinos with a variety of RTP variants, it is crucial to remember that all UK operators only offer this particular RTP version so you will have to decide for yourself whether or not this is a dealbreaker for you.
The hit rate is 27%, which indicates that on average, slightly over one-fourth of all spins will produce a winner. The provider has rated the volatility as being between medium and high, giving it a 7 out of 10. The maximum payout is a substantial 25,000 times the original wager. This is best accomplished in the Free Drops function, when, with any luck, you can take advantage of several retriggers.
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Hula Balua Symbols and Audio & Video Design
The online slot machine Hula Balua transports you to the Hawaiian rainforest, where Elmo the Sloth resides in his tiny treehouse near to a waterfall pond. The scenery is picture-perfect, and there is a variety of exotic fruits on the reels. Overall, the gameplay is eye-catching because of the sharp aesthetics and vibrant symbols.
The repeating music has a sometimes-tribal-like energy to it. As you spin away, there are bird sound effects, and the sound of the fruit landing on the grid is also a great touch. Considering how repetitive the music is, these definitely improve the audio as a whole. When you activate the Bonus Game feature, day turns to night and a House-like soundtrack plays as you take advantage of the free drops.
The paying symbols on the reels are all made up of various fruits. The star fruit sign pays 1 to 200 times the stake for combinations of 8 to 20 or more, making it the most lucrative. The full paytable for the Hula Balua slot is as follows:
Green Fruit
Pays 0.1-5x stake
Orange Fruit
Pays 0.1-5x stake
Pink Fruit
Pays 0.1-0.5x stake
Kiwi
Pays Pays 0.2-10x stake
Mango
Pays 0.3-15x stake
Grapefruit
Pays 0.5-25x stake
Starfruit
Pays 1-200x stake
Bonus Mask
Is the scatter symbol
Super Bonus Mask
Is the scatter symbol
W
Is the wild symbol
Hula Balua Mobile Features
All of ELK Studios' games are developed on the most recent HTML5 technology because it is a mobile-first supplier. As a result, Hula Balua is compatible with both iPhone and Android devices. Additionally, it is accessible on PCs, laptops, and tablets. The game is still totally playable on mobile devices, even though many players prefer playing games with a 6x6 grid like this on a larger screen.
Hula Balua Bonus Features
Just like the extensive bounty of the jungle, the Hula Balua slot machine features a plethora of bonus elements which are examined more closely in the sections below:
Avalanche Wins
Each time a player achieves a winning combination, winning symbols fly off the board, and new or existing symbols fall into the empty spaces. You can experience an endless number of winning streaks per round because this process keeps repeating as long as you keep winning with new symbols falling to fill in the spaces left behind by winning ones.
Big Symbol Multipliers
While most slots would refer to this type of symbol more creatively such as ‘colossal’, ‘mega’, or ‘giga’ symbols, the Hula Balua slot is a little more on the nose calling them ‘big symbols’. Big symbols can appear naturally or be produced when a group of matching pay symbols forms a square or rectangle on the grid. When a huge symbol participates in a win, it generates a multiplier equal to the number of spots it occupies, which is then added to the overall win multiplier.
As long as two or more matching big symbols appear close to one another, big symbols can also combine into even bigger symbols. In such a case, the multiplier rises in line with this development and is applied to the overall win multiplier if the new huge symbol contributes to a win. Between base game spins, the multiplier is reset, and matching symbols sprout in the spaces beneath big symbols.
Elmo Wild Drops
Elmo the sloth will occasionally appear on the reels before the symbols do. He will then travel one spot to the left with each subsequent spin until he enters his cabin and exits the grid. The wilds are persistent until used in a win (or until Elmo walks off the grid) and Elmo uses his magic wand to drop a random number of wilds into place before the symbols begin to appear.
Sticky Redrops
This feature is activated by the potion bottle that is half filled, and the potion bottle randomly chooses a paying symbol displaying it inside itself. As long as you land fresh occurrences of the chosen sticky symbol (or wilds), all instances of that symbol turn sticky and you receive fresh redrops. When the redrops stop, the victory is paid out, and the sticky sign can be improved. Additionally, sizes up to 3x3 are possible.
Free Spins
When three or more scatters are present, the Hula Balua Bonus Round is activated. Three, four, five, or six scatters award six, eight, ten, or twelve free spins, respectively. The Super Bonus Round is awarded if two scatters are vertically connected and activate the bonus round. Then, each free spin will always result in a huge symbol landing on it. In any case, the overall win multiplier does not reset, and when 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatters are visible, you win 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 more spins, accordingly.
X-iter Bonus Feature (Non-UK Residents Only)
While this feature is not available to UK players, we thought it worth mentioning for any of our international readers. In the Hula Balua slot, the X-iter Bonus and Feature Buy menu offers the following choices:
- Pay three times the stake to increase your chances of winning the bonus round.
- Pay 10 times your wager to receive a drop that is sure to contain a huge symbol.
- Pay 25 times the stake to activate Sticky Redrops.
- To get the standard bonus round, pay 100 times the bet.
- Pay 200 times the stake to enter the super bonus round.
Hula Balua Final Thoughts
The Hula Balua slot is a melting pot of random ideas and concepts which are not all that cohesive. The name summons images of a Hawaiian beach, while the symbols give us Tiki vibes, and then we are presented with a jungle setting with a sloth character…who has a magic wand. The magic potion is another confusing element. The bright visuals do help to make things a bit more cohesive, but still, it is not the strongest sense of theming we have seen.
One of the biggest negatives of this game is certainly the dismal theoretical RTP which at 94% is 2% below the current market average; the game does not even offer low volatility to account for this statistic.
On the more positive side, the cluster pays mechanic certainly offers a degree of excitement with each spin, and there is a great mix of bonus features and the 25,000x top prize stands out from the crowd. When it comes to whether or not this game is for you it is all a matter of weighing up whether the challenging stats override the bonus features and the payout potential of this slot.
Rating: 7.5
If you like Hula Balua, then check out these other Fruit Theme slot games
Hula Balua FAQ
Here are some of the most common questions we get asked about Hula Balua.
