The Goonies Return

Theme and Design

The 80s was something of a golden age for feel good adventure films. Alongside the blockbuster Spielberg movies like Star Wars or Indiana Jones were classic kids stuff like Stand By Me, and this hilarious cult-classic, The Goonies. The story follows a group of boys who seek out treasure using only a map and local legend in an effort to raise a fortune to save their families’ homes from the mean corporate developers. If you don’t know it, you can watch the trailer here. The names of Mikey, Chunk, Data and Mouth will be familiar to anyone who grew up at that time, as will the famous Truffle Shuffle, which of course gets an airing in the game.

Production of the game is high quality and worthy of a branded slot with nicely illustrated characters, sounds from the movie, and tons of animations to go with the excellent feature list described below.

RTP and Variance

Movie-based slots have been known to be a bit tight on the Return to Player as the license fee tends to eat into that margin. So, it’s a pleasant surprise to see that in this case the RTP is kept at 96%, just below average for slot games, but decent enough nonetheless. The variance is set at medium which will bring you a fairly even distribution of wins and makes the game appealing to more casual slots players than high risk gamers – this is another common feature of movie slots to ensure a wider audience for the game.

Maximum Win

The minimum bet is 10p and the top prize, as with many Blueprint slots is a whopping 50,000x. Of course, it will be very unusual to get even close to that figure without lot of luck with the features. You can find more games with high potential in our list of Blueprint slots with the highest max wins.

Symbols and Paytable

The Goonies Return plays on a simple 5 reel and 3 row grid with 20 paylines. Wins are triggered by landing 3 or more identical symbols on a line from left to right starting at the left most reel.

There are 9 pay symbols in the game. The low value ones are the cards, Jack, Queen, King and Ace, valued at from 0.2x for 3 Jacks up to 5x for 5 Aces. The premiums are the characters from the film - Mikey, Chunk, Data and Mouth – valued at from 0.5x for 3 Mouths up to 15x for 5 Mikeys. There is also a skull and crossbones which awards 0.1x, 2x, 5x or 25x for 2, 3, 4 or 5 on a line.

There is a wild too, represented by a silver coin. It is valued at 0.1x, 2x, 5x or 25x for 2, 3, 4 or 5 on a line AND substitutes for any pay symbol to complete a payline.

Features and Gameplay

To say that The Goonies Return is packed with features would be an understatement. This is a feature extravaganza, shamelessly populist in its design with events triggering all over the place in the base game and a mix of free spins and other bonus features triggered by a bonus wheel. Here is how it all works.

One-Eyed Willy Modifiers In Base Game

One-Eyed Willy is the owner of the treasure map that the kids use to locate their fortune in the film. He is the key to all game enhancements. In the base game, these modifiers can trigger on any spin.

Hidden Riches – Mikey Wild appears on the middle reel and Goonies that land may transform into wilds too

Bonus Boost – more Bonus Symbols are added to the reels

Truffle Shuffle Wilds – Wilds are added randomly to the reels, some of which become Wild Multipliers

Lucky Coins – Mystery Symbols are added to the reels and reveal the same symbol when the spin ends, while coins turn into cash symbols to award Respins too

Win Spin – a winning spin is guaranteed

W-Invention Reels – The Data character gives the reels a punch and 5 are synced to show the same symbol. You might also get a colossal symbol or symbol upgrades.

NOTE: in addition to all those, there are THREE ways in which a losing spin can be turned into a winning spin using events from the film. A Scythe re-sets the reels to a guaranteed win, Shooting Spikes take out some of the reels to leave a win, Dynamite can explode to reveal wins, a Cave Collapse can drop and cause a Cascade that brings up a win.

One-Eyed Willy Bonus Features

Next up are our six bonus rounds – landing 3 One-eyed Willy symbols, represented by the skull and crossbones - triggers the Bonus Wheel that players spin to give one of the following:

Booby trap bonus – turn the key left or right to reveal ‘cash’, ‘collect’ or ‘bonus feature’

Waterslide to wealth – move along the path to collect prizes, which could lead to the Big Money Bonus Round

Skeleton Organ Free Spins – 5 Free Spins with Sticky Stacked Symbols. Pick a gold coin to reveal more Free Spins, a new Bonus Feature or return to the main game.

Fratelli Free Spins – 10 Free Spins with Super Sloth Wilds. Hit 5 cash symbols to activate Momma Fratelli Free Spins. Pick keys to reveal more Free Spins, a new Bonus feature or return to the main game.

Final Voyage Free Spins – enjoy an Inferno Wild symbol which moves across the reels on each Free Spin turning all character symbols Wild. Pick 5 gold coins to reveal more Free Spins, a new Bonus Feature or return to the main game.

One-Eyed Willy Riches – 3 Free Spins with cash or character symbols can award Respins, Multipliers, Increased Symbol Values or Extra Reels.