Jelly Express

Jelly Express: Slot Overview

Hey up, players, all aboard, we're off on a train journey with developer Pragmatic Play in the choo choo train-themed slot Jelly Express. Actually, the game is duel themed, for as well as trains and tracks, this is a slot filled with sweet, sugary foodstuffs. The itinerary on this tour includes many things that veteran gamblers may have seen before on their journeys, plus some they may not have. To summarise the experience, prepare for a sort of mash-up of 5 Lions Megaways meets Sweet Bonanza, and you'll have an idea of what's coming up around the bend.

Jelly Express is one of those sweet slots held in a candy-coated land of lollipops, sugar and whatnot. This one moves, literally, as if the gaming area is the train as it rolls forever through a fantasy world of saccharine delights. Free spins take place in a similar spot, but super free spins, the one everyone wants, transplants the action to a veritable candy dreamland of palaces, aurora borealis, and yet more sweet stuff. Jelly Express is a rather vivacious slot, even if it is one that looks like a number of other similarly themed releases. Not that it cares. This is the sort of game which does what it does without letting even an inkling of bad vibes spoil its day and is exceptionally upbeat.

What's here is a scatter pays slot played on a 6x5 grid. Winning combinations are created when 8 or more matching symbols land anywhere on the reels. Winning symbols get removed, causing symbols to fall down to refill the reels. If a new win is created after a drop, the tumble sequence is repeated. Powering the train is a highly volatile math model producing a maximum RTP of 96.5% when betting $/€0.20 to $/€240 per spin, using the special bets, or buying features.

Jelly Express' pay symbols are five candies, then a gingerbread couple, a gingerbread woman, a gingerbread man, and a gummy bear. Winning clusters are 12+ OAK at the largest, and hits of this size pay 2x to 50x the bet.

Jelly Express: Slot Features

Jelly Express mixes up its entertainment with wild multipliers, a multi-choice free spins round, super free spins, special bets, and feature buys.

Wild Multiplier

When at least one wild symbol lands and is part of a winning combination, a random multiplier is applied to all combinations using wilds during base spins and tumbles. In the base game, possible multipliers are x1 to x100. Wilds substitute for all symbols except scatters.

Free Spins

Hitting 3 scatters triggers the free spins feature, where players pick one of six options: 25 free spins with x2 - x10 wild multipliers, 20 free spins with x3 - x15 wild multipliers, 15 free spins with x5 - x25 wild multipliers, 10 free spins with x10 - x50 wild multipliers, 5 free spins with x15 - x100 wild multipliers, or a Mystery choice with random spins and random wild multipliers. Whenever one or more scatters land during the round, super free spins may randomly trigger.

Super Free Spins

When triggered, +5 free spins are awarded. In this feature, whenever a wild is part of a winning combination, the multiplier awarded is added to the total multiplier. The total multiplier is used for all subsequent wins with at least one wild included. The total multiplier does not reset until the end of the round.

Special Bets & Feature Buys

The ante bet, when activated, increases the stake to 5x, where the chance of triggering free spins increases by 8 times, and each time a winning wild symbol appears, it guarantees a random multiplier of at least x2. Super Spin 1 costs 20x, and at every spin and tumble, at least one wild symbol is guaranteed to land. Super Spin 2, at 250x, guarantees at least one wild lands on every spin and tumble with a random multiplier of x10-x100. Each multiplier is added to the total multiplier, which is used to multiply wins till the end of all tumbles. Free spins cannot trigger from Super Spin 1 or Super Spin 2. The two buy options are 100x to trigger free spins, or 500x to trigger super free spins, which upgrades the round to super free spins on the first spin.

Jelly Express: Slot Verdict

Pragmatic Play sure does like candy slots, and the studio has a sizable number of them bursting out of its back catalogue. Some of them have been real industry shakers, too, such as the iconic scatter pays extravagance Sweet Bonanza, as well as the individual position multiplier mayhem of Sugar Rush. In other words, when it comes to smothering a slot in a cavity-inducing skin, Pragmatic Play can do it with the best of them. Skin-wise, Jelly Express is a pretty textbook example. It doesn't look particularly special, outside of super free spins, but fans of this style should feel cosily at home, before reaching for the next bonbon to see what happens.

Another thing Pragmatic Play, and other studios, let's be clear, excels at is reusing previous ideas. Free spins, with their multiplicity of options is where the 5 Lions part of the deal comes in. Having so many options means that the game opens up to a wide range of gambling preferences. Longer and lower to shorter and sharper, or lucky dip if you can't make up your mind. What's enticing about Jelly Express bonus rounds is they're sort of Sweet Bonanza, sort of 5 Lions, and yet not completely like either of them, as it stirs and matches elements of both into a new, fairly new, pick 'n' mix.

All in all, then, Jelly Express is a solid scatter paying candy slot. The 5,000x max win is arguably Jelly Express' biggest weakness. It's not tiny, but in this particular genre it feels a touch restrained, especially when compared to other high-volatility candy titles pushing much higher caps. So, it might not blow hair back due to high potential or crazily unique mechanics, since it doesn't really have those, but Pragmatic Play knows a thing or two about making these sorts of games, and they've poured its expertise into making another one which might rot the teeth if you're unlucky, but may feel like mainlining sherbet at a lunar park made of toffee when it's going off.