In an industry where competitors take heavy inspiration from one another, can Rich Raptors take a bite from Dinopolis without anyone noticing?
I started my iGaming career with Push Gaming - it’s why I don’t review games by them, and admittedly it may make me a bit biased, but I can’t be the only person linking the visuals of Rich Raptors to Dinopolis, right? Dinosaurs in a luxurious, art deco setting? It’s a little on the nose - especially as this game came out just after the Dinopolis sequel - Dino P.D.
But the visuals don’t make the game - so is it a cheap way to get people to play the game, the Video Brinquedo’s ‘What’s Up?’ to Pixar’s ‘Up’? Or does Rich Raptors stand on it’s own 2… or 4 feet?
I wish I could tell you that the games own personality comes through, that despite the obvious inspiration the game wins you over with great mechanics and interesting character design - but it just doesn’t.
Initially, the game looks good - but then you notice it. The Dinosaurs are just different colours with different clothes - they’re all facing the same way, have the same smug look on their face and all look practically the same. Dinopolis aside - I’m a bit of a dino-geek and there's plenty of variety to work with - Triceratops, Raptors, Sauropods, Iguanodon - the game doesn’t do anything with this - they chose 1 design - made small adjustments and slapped them in.
The 6 x 4 reels give a welcome 4096 ways to win, medium to high volatility. Raptor symbols pay between 1.6x and 5x for a 5 of a kind win - which feels low - but you are likely to hit a win every 1 in 5 spins (approx). The wilds also only land on reel 4, 5 or 6 - so they only help to expand you win - they dont help you land them in the first place.
The meteor shower feature is alright, but nothing to write home about. A meteor symbol appears on reel 4, 5 or 6 and when it triggers it removes some non-winning symbols to allow new symbols to cascade downwards - hopefully landing you a win.
Land 3 bonus symbols in the base game to enter the Free Spins. The bonus symbol is actually beautiful - I like what was done here. The player is given 10 free spins and the Free Spins feature is pretty decent - but it still didn’t blow me away.
Meteors land and knock non-winning symbols off the reels and make way for new symbols while also increasing the multipliers - a persistent and standard multiplier - each removed symbol increases the multiplier by 1, up to 100x. I like multipliers, but 2 multipliers gets a little confusing - especially as one resets between spins. The meter to the left increases with each bonus that you land - 3 give you 3 more free spins, 6 gives you another 3, 10 gives you 4. Look, if you’re new to slots and you play Rich Raptors, it’s not going to be a turn off, but it’s not going to make you an avid fan either. It’s ok, it’s playable, but it’s not very exciting. The visuals are ok - but they lack personality. Maybe calling it a Video Brinquedo version of Dinopolis is a little harsh - but it is just a LITTLE harsh.
Check the game out for yourself and leave a comment whether you agree or disagree, but remember, while you might get lucky sometimes, the casino always wins in the end!
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