One of the main topics dominating the news today is climate change. Experts say some of today’s significant weather and weather-related hazards, such as droughts, result from climate change. This concept, however, is a relatively new phenomenon.

Back in the day, there was no such thing. It is in this era when everything was just free-flowing that inspired Relax Gaming to design The Tumbles slot, released on 3 September 2024.

The Tumbles slot is set during the Ice Age period. Glaciers and snow-infested mountains during this era are common, as depicted by the game’s graphics. Of course, the temperatures, too, are on the low side, but don’t be deceived; the action on the reels is super-hot.

Just to demonstrate this, on any spin, whether playing in the base mode or bonus features, you can win up to 5,000x the bet.

The title of this slot and the incorporated Ice Age theme don’t really match. However, players will be impressed to learn that the title is, in actual effect, very relevant owing to the fact that the slot uses the tumble reels mechanic.

Before we explain how the mechanic works, we want players to note that the game plays out on a maximalist 6 x 6 reel format with up to 46,656 ways to win.

Returning to the issue of the tumble reels mechanic, a winning combination emerges whenever three or more identical symbols land adjacent to each other, starting from the leftmost reel. Payouts are held at this point but all the winning symbols and any ice or stone blocks next to the winning symbols will explode and disappear.

This necessitates new symbols to land, hence the evaluation of new winning combinations. The cycle continues as long as new winning combinations emerge after the evaluations. The cycle only ends after landing a non-winning spin. At this juncture, the sum of all previous payouts won are added and awarded.

Players can gain more control of the gaming session and play The Tumbles slot while abiding by their bankroll management when they check and possibly tweak the following in-game settings:

• Autoplay Feature: Opt whether to spin the reels manually or automatically. The automatic route allows players to spin the reels up to 1000 times without any interruption. Stop loss functions are available to guard against any significant losses.  
• Bet Options: On the betting options front, players can choose from a low of 0.20 coins to a high of 200.00 coins.

A combination of special and standard symbols appear on the reels during gameplay. These are as follows:

• Wild: The wild is represented by a golden portrait bearing a red ‘W’ inscription. Wilds only appear on reels 2 to 6 and substitute for all symbols.

• Multipliers: Multiplier symbols appear on reels 2 to 6 at random. Multipliers carry random values ranging from 2x to 10x. Multipliers may appear along standard symbols; they can appear as inactive icons on ice or stone blockers and land as high-value multiplier icons once ice or stone blockers are destroyed. Inactive multipliers become active when winning combinations adjacent to them emerge. Only active multipliers are considered when it comes to win-line evaluations. The sum of all active multipliers is added and applied to the payout at the end of a winning spin.

• Standard Symbols: Standard symbols come in the form of five different human characters and playing card suits.

• Free Spins Feature: Three bonus symbols landing on the reels simultaneously help trigger this feature and award eight free spins. Each bonus symbol beyond the 8^th awards one extra free spin. Active multipliers landing in the free spins feature are added throughout the round and apply to the win at the end of each spin. When all stone blocks are destroyed, a 10x multiplier symbol is guaranteed to land when new symbols fall in. Each bonus symbol that lands during the round awards one extra free spin.  

The Tumbles slot is an exciting slot machine to play. What I found most impressive about the game is:

• The tumbles mechanic makes winning successive payouts one after the other possible.
• Incorporating a buy feature makes it possible to gain instant access to the free spins round.
• Very decent RTP sitting at 96.10%.