Man vs Gator

Theme and Design

Humour, Crazed Reptiles and Funky Graphics - It's ELK All Over!

For a slot game in which gator attack are commonplace, Man vs Gator has a surprisingly chilled out vibe. The backdrop is a Florida beach, with motel, palm trees and city scrapers on the horizon and a glorious pink and purple sunset going on at the same time. The foreground houses a 5x5 grid surrounded by old TV sets, broken speaker stacks and crushed beer cans. That, the twangy guitar soundtrack and the long-haired dudes with baseball caps firing up the bar-b-q give the whole thing a Hicksville vibe.

As you play Man vs Gator the story unfolds – this party is about to get gatecrashed by local gators. It’s a fun theme and typical of ELK Studios who love to build their games around animals like the dogs in Nitropolis.

RTP and Variance

Man vs Gator has one fixed RTP rate of 94%. Whilst this is lower than what most slots players see as the average for a game (commonly quoted as 96%) it is at least a fixed RTP. Many slot providers now create games with multiple RTP rates and let the operator choose which to run the game on. So, you might find you are playing your favourite slots at 90% RTP or even less in some cases. In this instance, whichever slot site you choose, you will ALWAYS be playing at the 94% rate.

In terms of volatility, ELK Studios rate this game as 8/10 in the game data sheet we were provided with. That makes it a high variance slot so it can be frustrating at times with little return on your wagering for long periods. But equally the configuration of wilds, multipliers, free spins and re-spins is a powerful one and out of nowhere Man vs Gator can drop a huge win from time to time.

For comparison, the 8/10 rating puts it on the same volatility scale as recent releases like Frog Blox and Pug Thugs of Nitropolis.

Maximum Win

The top payout in Man vs Gator is 10,000x. That is about average for a high variance slot from ELK Studios, but they do build games with better potential too. If you want to play for higher prizes you could try Dirty Dawgs of Nitropolis (25,000x) or Avalon Gold (25,000x) or Dropz (25,000x).

Symbols and Paytable

Modest Pay Table Values But Multipliers Will Help Drive Up Wins

Man vs Gator plays out on a 5 reel and 5 row grid with a connecting paylines win mechanic. That means you need to land 3 or more identical symbols on consecutive reels on the same row or one above or below, from left to right, to trigger a win.

There are 7 symbols in the table. Values are not huge, but you do have a lot of multiplier boosters in the features to bring them up.

There are the Queen, King and Ace, valued at from 0.1x for 3 10s up to 0.35x for 5 Aces, and the boxing glove, gas canistor, blue gator and red gator, valued at from 0.3x for 3 of the boxing glove up to 5x for 5 of the red gators.

There are also 3 wilds to help you complete connecting paylines by substituting for pay symbols – Man Up Wild, Man vs Gator Wild and the Gator Down Wild. They also carry values of 0.8x, 1.5x and 5x for 3, 4 or 5 on a connecting payline.

Features and Gameplay

All the action in Man vs Gator is around those 3 wild symbols, all of which nudge. The fun part is, they interact with one another to boost your multipliers. You have to follow what’s happening on the reels closely at all times but it’s easy once you’ve completed a few spins.

Man vs Gator Wilds With Multipliers AND Re-Spins

The Man vs Gator wild is 5 symbols high and carries TWO multiplier values – one for the gator at the bottom and one for the man at the top. When one lands and it is partially visible, it will nudge downwards until it is fully visible. At this point, ONE of the multipliers is chosen to be the active one and applies to any win that passes through the Man vs Gator wild.

NOTE: If the top multiplier is chosen, this shows that the man is the victor. If the bottom multiplier is chosen, that indicates that the gator is the victor. This is important when other wilds are in play. More on this in the next section.

But that’s not all. The Man vs Gator Wild also triggers a re-spin when it lands, during which it is sticky, so you have more chances to trigger wins.

Man Up and Gator Down Nudging Wilds

The ingenious part of this slot is how these 2 wilds interact with any Man vs Gator wilds that are visible on the screen at the same time.

Both are 2 row-high symbols.

When the Man Up wild lands, it will nudge up one row at a time, granting re-spins as it does. And each time it nudges it increases the multiplier on any Man vs Gator wild currently in view where the man is the victor.

Equally, when a Gator Down wild lands, it nudges down, one row at a time, granting re-spins as it does. In this case each nudge increases the multiplier on Man vs Gator wilds where the gator is the victor.

Sounds complicated? It’s not really. What’s exciting about the configuration here is that when you land a Man Up on one of the bottom rows, or a Gator Down on one of the top rows, that may give you as many as four re-spins. And … during those re-spins you may land more Gator Downs of Man Ups to extend your re-spins further. That happened to me a few times in testing, and whilst it didn’t always bring up a win, it certainly felt like getting your money’s worth.

Free Spins Round Where ALL Man vs Gator Wilds Are Sticky THROUGHOUT

The free spins round is triggered by landing 3 more of the BONUS symbols. This feature plays the same as the base game but now all Man vs Gator wilds are sticky from one spin to the next.

Also, triggering the round with more BONUS symbols kick starts the round with more Man vs Gator wilds as follows:

• 3 BONUS Symbols: 5 free spins
• 4 BONUS Symbols: 5 free spins PLUS a Man vs Gator symbol on the first spin
• 5 BONUS Symbols: 5 free spins PLUS a TWO Man vs Gator symbols on the first spin

The round can be extended by landing 3 or more BONUS symbols again to get you another 5 spins and a Man vs Gator on the next spin (for 4 BONUS), or 2 Man vs Gator symbols on the next spin (for 5 BONUS). 

Looking at that configuration it’s not hard to see how this game can really pop on occasion if you lined up a few sticky Man vs Gator wilds with decent multipliers and just kept triggering more spins.

IMPORTANT: Game State Is Saved When Entering Free Spins From A Re-Spin

 One of the best parts about Man vs Gator is that if you trigger the free spins from a re-spin, the game state is saved, so when the free spins end, you go back to the reel configuration that was live when you triggered. That can happen multiple times if you’re very lucky, creating a few minutes worth of re-spins and free spins action, all from one single base game spin!