Zanzibar Pokies
Named after a small island off the coast of Tanzania in East Africa, the Zanzibar video pokie by WMS Gaming is firmly set in the past, where richly decorated daggers, jewels and teapots add colour to the 5 reels. It could be set anywhere in the region, but Zanzibar has a romantic-sounding name, so that’s what they have gone for.
There’s a fierce Arabian woman armed with a sword heading the game, although it all gets a little more peaceful once it begins, livened up by wild symbols that replicate themselves across the reels and a free spins round where any wins get multiplied in value.
30 fixed paylines run from the left to the right and players will need 3, 4 or 5 matching symbols across one, in an unbroken sequence from the left to win a prize. The fixed lines makes the low limit bet 0.30, which can be raised to 90.00 per spin, making it suitable for casual players and high rolling gamblers alike.
Playing Zanzibar
All of this pokie has been designed with care and attention to detail, extending to the background of Arabian columns and doors. The reels look like they are made from embossed leather, which wouldn’t be very practical in real life, but it looks good here and sets the colourful symbols off nicely.
A review of the pay table shows what each symbol is worth and like many WMS games, it’s the job of the playing card suits Heart, Diamond, Clubs and Spades to create the lower-value lines, although it means that these will tend to be the most frequently occurring ones as well.
Mid-range winnings come from the pot, sword, teapot and drinking horn, all of which are beautifully decorated, while the most valuable symbols are of a necklace, the slightly odd image of a monkey holding on to a diamond, and an Arabian horse.
At the top of the table, we see a peaceful oasis symbol, that’s worth twice the value of the horse, and is able to substitute for any standard icon to help complete winning lines. This wild symbol can either fill in any gaps in lines of matching symbols, or extend a win across more reels, or even both at the same time. Landing a full line of the oasis across the reels will return a win equal to 1,500 the total bet, which is the top payout in the Zanzibar video pokie.
Zanzibar
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Bonus Features
The Sunset Palms symbol will only land on reel 3, but when it does, players are treated to Replicating Wilds, where the larger oasis wild will turn up in other positions across the game, potentially leading to multiple wins at once.
The Arabic woman turns up again, this time she is a scatter symbol, triggering a bonus game whenever she lands in 3 or more places at once, without needing to be across any paylines to do so. If she stops in 3 places, players are awarded 10 free games, while 4 scatter symbols will be the trigger for 20 spins and the best result comes from 5 scatters, which will launch 40 extra games.
What makes these even better is that any wins during this round will be doubled in value, and if 3 or more scatters appear at any point, the free spins will be retriggered, although the new round won’t start until the current one has finished. The Replicating Wild feature will still be in effect during the bonus games.
The Verdict
An exotic theme extends across much of this pokie, and the potential for big rewards adds to the overall appeal. A rich background image sets the scene very effectively, although some players will perhaps be a little disappointed to see the playing card suits that they have seen on countless other games, making up the majority of the winning combinations.
WMS Gaming are never very clear when it comes to bonus rounds either, so players who haven’t seen a review that outlines what they can expect are pretty much going to have to discover what extra features are there as they trigger them, but this shouldn’t really effect gameplay and is just an unusual quirk of this games developer.
Apart from these nagging details, we have a very well thought out online casino pokie, with some unique features and a decent return to player percentage.