Henry the Ape: Slot Overview

Touch wood this doesn’t happen any time soon, but should the human race ever experience an extinction-level event, whether self-inflicted or not, who knows what animal will evolve to take our place at the top of the food chain? Playing online slots, you occasionally get a chance to conduct thought experiments with various different animals. One popular anthropomorphized species is our simian cousins, which Push Gaming has explored in Henry the Ape, an online slot where apes do the human stuff alongside nudges, a focus on the super high pay symbol, free spins with upgradable symbols, and more.

Push Gaming has used a neat fisheye lens technique to render Henry the Ape’s world on gamblers’ screens. It’s located at ground height and takes in skyscrapers, regular buildings, spray cans, a yellow cab, and a boombox, as if one is strolling the busy streets of New York City. Music plays a big part in the world-building, and since New York was the birthplace of hip-hop, everything fits together nicely. Henry the Ape isn’t as off the hook as East Coast vs West Coast, but it’s hard not to nod along to the music as Henry and pals land about the place.

Henry looks like a big, brutal guy, and he has a highly volatile math model running his game to match. At best, players can look forward to a quite decent default RTP value of 96.44% and can stake 10 c to $/€100 per spin. Switch on the Push Bet, and the stake doubles to increase the chance of triggering the bonus round. Clicking the spin button activates a 6×4 gaming area where there are 4,096 ways to win.

Henry the Ape’s pay symbols are J-A lows, microphone and boombox mids, two monkey character highs, and a single super high pay symbol. Five-of-a-kind wins pay 0.8x for lows, 1.5x for mids, 3x for highs, and 6x for the super high. Henry is the super high-paying symbol. When it lands on reels 2 to 5, the Nudge feature activates. When active, any super high pay symbol on reels 2 to 5 nudges down one row while the other reels spin. Nudging continues till super high pay symbols exit the reels. Wilds replace any paying symbol and land on all reels except the leftmost reel. Wilds may reveal a multiplier of x2 to x10 in the base game when it is part of a win. Multiplier values are additive.

Henry the Ape: Slot Features

Henry the Ape’s features are Fat Stacks, Drop the Win, Rewind, Second Chance, free spins and a couple of feature buys.

Base Game Features

• Fat Stacks – In the base phase or bonus round, 1 to 2 stacks of super high pay symbols may randomly be added to reels 2, 3, 4, or 5 on a non-winning spin.
• Drop the Win – Drop the Win may trigger at the end of a non-winning base game spin. It adds super high pay symbols or wilds to complete a winning combination.
• Rewind – Rewind may also trigger after a non-winning base game spin, respinning the reels to create a win.
• Second Chance – When two scatters land in the base game, the second chance feature has a chance of triggering. When it activates, an extra scatter is nudged onto the reels to trigger free spins.

Free Spins

• 3 scatters award 8 free spins.
• 4 scatters award 10 free spins with the mid 2 symbol transformed to the super high symbol.
• 5 scatters award 12 free spins with mid symbols transformed into super high symbols.
• 6 scatters award 15 free spins with mid and high symbols transformed into super high symbols.

During free spins, a Bonus Meter is placed above the reels. Super high pay symbols may land or nudge with a Gold Disk, which is collected by the Bonus Meter. Every 4 Gold Disks collected awards additional free spins, and a symbol is transformed into the super high symbol. Collecting 4, 8, 12, or 16 Gold Disks awards +5, +4, +3, +2 free spins, and mid 2, mid 1, high 2, and high 1 symbols are transformed to the super high pay symbol, respectively. Also, in free spins, wilds always reveal a multiplier when part of a win.

Feature Buy

Players may buy a randomly triggered round of free spins for 179x or free spins triggered by 6 scatters for 425x their bet.

Henry the Ape: Slot Verdict

Some of the first thoughts while reviewing Henry the Ape followed a trail of mental breadcrumbs back to the iconic Thunderkick release Pink Elephants. Not that this is the first slot to do so, but animals in the lead, a 6×4, 4,096 ways to win gaming area, and free spins that upgrade symbols to the super high by collecting a certain object were all similar stuff. Solid stuff, to be sure, but a smidge on the unoriginal side for a studio of Push Gaming’s statue. That being said, the studio has ensured touches of its own personality litter the game, too. For instance, Henry the Ape’s base game has the ability to be more eventful due to the inclusion of Fat Stacks, Drop the Win, and Rewind.

So, while the focus during the bonus round is on the super high pay symbols, the same applies during the base game. Nudges, which are a Push Gaming speciality, add an extra dimension to all phases of play. They might wind up being a tease when a wall of Henry’s are slowly trudging down the grid, but none are hitting on the leftmost reel, or maybe a delight should a load of ways connect them into a juicy win. Base game features are one thing, but upgrading mid and high-pay symbols during free spins could be just the assist needed to drop a load of Henry’s on the reels in which to go wild. For bonus buy players or those short on time, where a slot like Pink Elephants required natural triggers, Henry the Ape lets gamblers buy free spins with up to all symbols upgraded, which could be one of the principal draw cards.

Winning potential is quite eye-grabbing as well at 10,000x the stake, and on balance, weighing up the ‘borrowed’ ideas with the newer ones, Henry the Ape is a fun option for players in the mood to take on an upgraded, feature-heavy version of Pink Elephants.