Platooners Slot

Graphics

The steamy jungle lies behind ELK's trademark immersive reel case...or is it a movie set? The lights and cameras give it away, so we needn't panic when we fire up the slot and see our heroes ambushed by a giant snake with glowing red eyes.

Our three heroes are film stars who think that they are just part of a film. Little do they know that the danger is real, though lucrative. Good job, too. At any point as we hunt down wins across the game's 178 Ways to Win pay system our heroes can leap in front of the reels and pepper them with Rockets, Grenades or Bullets in the randomly-triggered Action Spins! feature.

They return in maverick fashion in the Snakes of Fortune Bonus, in which our slick stars blast round after round of ammo at a red-eyed snake that hovers in the sky. They don't look troubled, and neither do we as we rack up the coin wins with each shot they fire. Meanwhile, back in the base game, it is troop pack paraphernalia that do the honours as our high-paying symbols - Medi-Kit, Binoculars, Combat Knife and Dog Tags - while movie-poster lettered 10s through Aces act as our background support.

Gameplay

Bold Wilds reinforce the movie-set theme and substitute for all symbols except Scatters as we hunt down base game wins, but it is in the three level Snakes of Fortune Bonus game that we will find our real paycheck from this slot outing.

We must land three Snake Scatters to launch the feature, and then enjoy our arms-wielding stars blasting the mysterious floating snake to high heaven. We have 15 rounds to begin with, and 20 links in the snake chain to blast. Needing to destroy the whole snake if we want to level-up for higher payouts, it doesn't sound like a fair fight.

But the larger Mystery Coins can award extra attack activations or bombs destroying bigger snake segments as well as bigger coin wins and extra ammo. We'll need some extra help if we want to defeat this snake and move onto Levels 2 and 3, but the higher we go the bigger payouts we bag. And suddenly we are just like real life movie stars. We want to hold out for everything we can get.

Verdict

ELK's online slot development skills know no bounds. The movie-set action is reminiscent of Tropic Thunder - not the first time ELK has taken inspiration from the movies (the studio's Lake's Five slot, anybody?). And to great effect this time, too.

The stunts come thick and fast, with the blasting of the mysterious snake the coup de grace in this action-packed blockbuster of an online slot. War. What is it good for? Sizeable payouts and epic slots play, that's what.