Jungle Spirit: Call of the Wild

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Jungle Spirit: Call of the Wild is a NetEnt slot that trades the usual five-reel symmetry for something less predictable. The grid runs 3-4-5-4-3 across its five reels, giving the centre column more room than the edges and creating 243 ways to win. With an RTP of 96.47% and medium volatility, this 2017 release sits in comfortable territory for session play while still packing enough punch through its expanding reels and totem-based free spins to reward patient betting.

What sets the Jungle Spirit slot apart from other jungle-themed games is how its features work together. There are no wild symbols here at all. Instead, NetEnt built the entire bonus structure around symbol expansion and a butterfly mechanic that fills reels with matching icons. It is a design choice that felt unusual when the game launched and still gives it a different rhythm compared to slots that lean on wilds and multipliers.

Jungle Spirit Slot Features

Butterfly Boost

During any base game spin, butterflies can drift across the reels and settle on random positions. When they land, they transform the symbols beneath them into a single matching type, which can create new winning combinations or extend existing ones. This triggers without any player input and works independently of the other features, so it can turn a losing spin into a paying one with no warning.

Symbol Expansion

When a winning combination lands in the base game, any symbol involved in that win can randomly expand to fill every position on its reel. This applies to both high-value animal symbols and the lower-paying card suits. The effect is particularly powerful on the wider centre reels where the 3-4-5-4-3 layout provides more positions to fill, and it stacks with the Butterfly Boost if both activate on the same spin.

Free Spins and the Totem Selection

Landing three or more Scatter symbols anywhere on the reels triggers the free spins round. Before the spins begin, you pick one of five animal totems, and this is where the game introduces genuine player choice rather than a purely random outcome. Each animal represents a different balance between spin count and expansion potential:

• Tiger – fewer free spins with larger symbol expansions, suited to players chasing bigger individual hits
• Crocodile – more free spins with smaller expansions, spreading risk across a longer bonus round
• Bear, Elephant and Cobra – sit between those two extremes with varying combinations of spin count and expansion size

During free spins the grid expands, increasing the ways to win beyond the base game’s 243. Four Scatters landing in the trigger spin also award an instant prize of 15x the total bet, while five Scatters pay 50x. The maximum payout across all features reaches 1,800x the total stake.

Bet Range and Game Layout

Stakes run from 0.20 to 100 per spin, covering casual play through to higher-limit sessions. The 3-4-5-4-3 reel structure means the game does not look or feel like a standard 5×3 grid. Reels two and four show four symbol positions each, while the centre reel displays five, giving the play area a diamond-like shape. The hit frequency sits at 25.7%, so roughly one in every four spins returns something, which keeps the base game moving without long dry stretches.

Theme and Presentation

The five high-value symbols are jungle animals – tiger, elephant, bear, crocodile and cobra – each drawn in a semi-realistic style against a dense rainforest backdrop. Ambient sounds, distant drums and insect noise fill the background, and the butterfly animations during the Boost feature add movement without cluttering the screen. Lower-value symbols use stylised card suits that blend into the colour palette rather than standing out as obvious filler. For a game released in 2017 the presentation holds up well, and it runs smoothly on both desktop and mobile devices.

How the Jungle Spirit Slot Compares

Medium volatility slots with animal themes are common, but the combination of no wilds, expanding symbols and a choice-based free spins round gives Jungle Spirit its own identity. The totem selection mechanic means two players can trigger the same bonus and walk away with very different results depending on which animal they picked. That element of strategy, even if the underlying maths is still random, gives the game more replay value than slots where the bonus round simply runs on autopilot. The 96.47% RTP is competitive within NetEnt’s catalogue and sits comfortably above the industry floor.

Game Specifications

Screenshots