Adventure Awaits in NetEnt’s Temple of Nudges Slot

Once again NetEnt have outdone themselves in creating a visual masterpiece in their latest jungle themed slot, Temple of Nudges. Never happy to rest on their laurels NetEnt have built their latest casino game around an interesting mix of features and game play mechanics.

Spoiler alert, the main feature is the nudge feature, however even here they have not implemented it in the usual fashion. Whatever you think you know of online slots Temple of Nudges will challenge your assumptions. But is every that glitters gold?

Welcome To the Jungle

If NetEnt slots were restaurants at this point they would automatically be awarded a Michelin Star simply based on past design excellence. With Temple of Nudges the same is true. Set in a deep lush forest where all the natural forest fauna live and move is an ancient temple dedicated to the spirit animals of this wild land.

From the gentle fluting, to the quiet forest sounds, everything about the Temple of Nudges adds to your sense of wonder. Landing a winning combination on the reels will see the symbols flash with briefly with an arcane power, while the logo rumbles as it parts to reveal your win total. As always NetEnt’s audio and visual design team have created a wonderful world for us to play in.

The temple setting is bold and solid, filling the screen with Aztec or perhaps Mayan inspired stone carvings. The cracked 5x3 game grid is flanked by menacing guardian snakes, ever vigilant, waiting for someone to be found worthy of their hidden treasures.

Temple of Nudges boasts one the smallest symbol sets we’ve seen so far with only 8 unique symbols. There is the option of a symbol being awarded a “Re-Spin” banner which could technically double that count. However since these Re-Spin symbols don’t appear on the pay table we’re treating them as labels not new symbols.

The designs of these symbols are gorgeous in their simplicity. The four high value Spirit Animal symbols are a Cougar carved from red stone, an Anteater in yellow stone, a light green stone Sloth (by far the cutest symbol) and finally a wise blue stone Monkey. The so called low value carvings are a red tribal Sun, a golden Bird, a green Snake and a blue Temple. The combination of statues and carvings goes well with the overall ancient temple setting.

A World of Nudges and Re-Spins

Slots are not all about the aesthetics and emotions they evoke, and here Temple of Nudges sets itself up to compete with the heavy hitters. It offers a 96.03% RTP and allows you to stake up to €250.00 per spin. In addition the huge stake limit it also offers 243 paylines, though these are not fixed. A win is triggered when 3 or more matching symbols appear in any position on adjacent reels. Any reel where there is not a symbol matching those on the reel to its left will break a winning combination.

You will also notice that there are no Wilds and Scatters on the reels, also no free spins are up for grabs which could the fatal flaw in Temple of Nudges feature design. The main reason for this that the game focuses on the following 2 features:

1. Nudge feature

Rather than an activated feature or one where you get to personally decide which reel to nudge in Temple of Nudge it is implemented more like a cascading reels feature. When you trigger a winning pay line the entire bottom row of symbols is nudged down. This allows a new set of symbols to hopefully complete more winning combinations.

The feature continues to nudge down the rows of symbols until there are no longer any winning combinations available on screen. This does leave you begging the gods for winning combination in the upper rows of the reels.

2. Re-Spin feature

The re-spin feature is randomly triggered on any winning screen. When you land a winning pay line a banner reading “Re-Spin” can magically appear on any symbol on the reels. Here is where it gets interesting, the symbol type that it appears on has nothing to do with which symbols are affected by the re-spin. Rather all symbols matching those which made up the winning combination to begin with become sticky, and the balance of the symbols will spin again.

This feature can be re-triggered and will continue until no more Re-Spin symbols appear on the reels. While this feature does not occur frequently when it activated it can lead to some appealing payouts.

There’s a Grumble in the Middle of the Jungle

Loading up Temple of Nudges is exciting for two reasons, first it’s a hot new NetEnt slot, and second it looks and sounds amazing. However that’s where most of the excitement ends. Due to the subtle nature of their treatment of the jungle/temple theme there is very little onscreen excitement, add to that the lack of a landscape change which features like Free Spins bring, and Temple of Nudges offers little in the way of distraction while you wait for a Re-Spin or a potential big win.

While it is touted as a medium volatility game you can expect long stretches of play only punctuated by tiny returns on your stake. In our playthroughs we found that at the max bet all we did was burn through credits. However playing at lower stakes did allow for more gameplay which resulted in a few big wins, and far more re-spin triggers.

Temple of Nudges slot is worth playing if you’re a fan of jungle slots machines, ancient civilisation themes or even just of NetEnt as a casino game provider. We would however suggest you use it as a relaxation slot, one where you play at lower stakes while taking a break from some of the more frenetic video slots on offer.