Hula Balua Free Play in Demo Mode by ELK Studios

Hula Balua review

Hula Balua is themed around Polynesian culture and a range of tropical fruits.

Players will enter a lush jungle and discover a peaceful stream and cascading waterfall. As they explore this island paradise, players will begin harvesting a selection of tasty produce as well.

Those who have been longing for a warm holiday will particularly appreciate this slot.

Graphics, Sounds and Animations

Hula Balua’s soundtrack blends a relaxing melody with the calls of tropical birds. Wins are celebrated with a lively tune that feels fit for a beach party.

The reels are packed with a unique array of fruit symbols including grapefruits, mangos, and kiwis. This tropical twist on a fruit machine theme proves refreshing and eye-catching.

Among the symbols, Polynesian tiki masks can also be found. The style of these masks leans somewhat into stereotypes, but also highlights the theme. Elmo the sloth also makes an appearance, wearing a coconut hat and hula skirt.

Behind the reels, players will see a natural scene animated in a cartoon style. Large palms, pink flowers, and a turquoise river create an idyllic setting for the slot. On one side of the reels, a wooden door and decorated lanterns suggest that this jungle is someone’s home.

Overall, the animation and soundtrack of Hula Balua create a playful world of exotic fruits.

Gameplay

Hula Balua is a six-reel, six-row slot. Wins are awarded for landing at least 8 matching symbols scattered anywhere on the reels.

Winning symbols vanish, making way for new symbols to fall into their positions.

The maximum win for this slot is €2,500,000 when playing at the maximum bet level.

Wilds, Bonuses and Free Spins

The Wild symbol substitutes for all paying symbols.

When matching symbols form a square or rectangle, they merge together to create a single large symbol. These large symbols create multipliers with values that correspond to the number of small symbols creating the large symbol. Large symbols can also merge with additional matching symbols that land in adjacent positions.

Players will see a Global multiplier adjacent to the reels. This multiples all available wins until no more winning combinations are available.

During the Sticky Redrops feature, one of the paying symbols becomes sticky, remaining on the reels. If players land additional matching sticky symbols or Wild symbols, an additional Rredrop will be awarded.

As the Sticky Redrop feature continues, landing a new sticky Rredrop symbol will upgrade the selected paying symbols to the nearest high-paying symbol. This can repeat until the highest paying symbol is selected. Symbols range from 1x1 to 6x6 during this feature.

The Elmo Wild Drops feature begins as the Elmo character walks 1 column to the left and places a random number of Wild symbols on the reels for every Redrop. These Wild symbols will remain until Elmo has departed from the leftmost column.

The Bonus round begins when at least 3 Bonus symbols land anywhere on the reels. The number of free drops awarded depends on the number of triggering Bonus symbols as follows:

• 3 Bonus symbols = 6 free drops
• 4 Bonus symbols = 8 free drops
• 5 Bonus symbols = 10 free drops
• 6 Bonus symbols = 12 free drops

It is possible to gain additional free drops by landing at least 2 additional Bonus symbols.

The maximum win is 25,000x the player’s total bet.

Bet Sizes, RTP and Variance

The return to player of this game is 94.00%, below our yardstick for an average of roughly 96%.

The range of bets on the site we tested ran from a minimum bet per spin of $/£/€0.20 up to a maximum of $/£/€100 per spin.

Hula Balua offers high volatility which would have made this slot a good match for our preferred slot machine strategies if it offered a more favorable RTP. Our slot strategies target the highest possible volatility.

Conclusion

We do not recommend this low RTP, high volatility tropical fruit-themed slot.

Although the cheerful animation is enticing, Hula Balua offers an RTP that is simply too low to merit a strong recommendation.

The bonus features are entertaining and may be worth checking out for some players.