NetEnt Slots: Joker Pro Review

Like most avid slots players, I’m always excited to see a new NetEnt slots title on the menu. The creators have an incredible imagination and always make use of the latest, cutting edge graphics. In today’s Joker Pro review, we’ll see if the new game lives up to strong NetEnt’s reputation.

The general description certainly hit the mark. Developers described it as “dynamic,” “fiery,” and “enthralling” when detailing the game’s Re-Spin and Hot Spot Wins features. At first glance, however, I was a bit surprised to find a rather flat backdrop with classic symbology; nothing fancy or 3D about it.

We never judge a book by its cover, so let’s take a closer look…

Joker Pro Review

This new NetEnt slots game comes with 5 reels and just 10 paylines, making it a great option for budget gamers ($0.10 and up). There aren’t a lot of symbols or generic card values clogging up the reels either.

Symbols include the Fiery Wild and Joker Scatter, plus standard paying symbols of Diamonds, 7s, Bars, Bells, Horseshoes and Clovers.

The Joker is the symbol you’ll be looking for here. It can only appear on reels 2, 3 and 4, but it only takes one to trigger its special feature.

Anytime a Joker appears, is activates the Joker Pro Re-Spin. Reels 1 and 5 become stacked with wilds, and all Jokers that activated the feature will also become static wilds. The reels (minus those wilds) then re-spin to deliver potentially high payouts.

During the Re-Spin, if another Joker (now the Wild) lands on reels 2, 3 or 4, it will trigger another Re-Spin, with that joker remaining in place as well. The re-spins will continue until no more new Jokers appear.

Also during Re-Spins, should a Joker wild end up in all three of the Hot Spot Wins section of the reels – the middle spots on reels 2, 3 and 4 – it will trigger a Hot Spot Win of 1000x the total bet. If this occurs, the Re-Spin feature will end.

Joker Pro Review: Good As It Seems?

Unfortunately, this new NetEnt slots game doesn’t seem to be nearly as good as it sounds. It has a very high variance in terms of winning spins, combined with a rather low paytable.

At $.10 a spin, it took me 12 spins just to hit my first payout, and it was only worth $0.12. Another 10 spins later (with no wins), I landed my first Joker. The Re-spin feature paid out just $0.15. My 35^th spin was worth $0.05.

I was pretty disappointed by then, but for the purpose of this Joker pro review, I kept going for while. I never hit anything better than a 40x win, and ended up losing almost $40 before I called it quits.

I can see where the Re-Spin could be profitable if you are lucky enough to keep getting jokers, but those symbols are very rare. This game eats through bankrolls like a swarm of moths in a fine linen closet. All in all, I can’t recommend it.

NetEnt needs to get back to its graphically-rich 3D slots games and loosen up the payouts enough to at least make them enjoyable.