Space Donkey Slot by NoLimit City: Free Demo & Review 2024

Space Donkey Review

We have been waiting a long time for NoLimity City to finally contribute to the somewhat obscure 8-bit slot genre, and Space Donkey does not disappoint. Rather the opposite, in fact, and it’s a powerful demonstration of this usually controversial developer's ability to dominate any genre they take on. The 6x6 grid of symbols follows a huge mothership gliding across the landscape, and a brave monkey is on a mission to stop the alien invasion before it’s too late.

The Hellfire feature can wreak havoc in the base game, upgrading numerous symbols with symbol multipliers to increase the number of win ways accordingly. The gameplay is not as complex as it usually can be, in other words, at least not until you trigger 1 of the 2 bonus rounds. Both play out as video games in different highly engaging ways, and it’s easy to forget that you’re even playing a slot game after a while. The 14,649x potential is decent, but this is not the best NoLimit City release to play if you’re primarily looking for massive payouts.

NoLimit City - Slot Developer

Nolimit City - has been around since 2008, and the Swedish developer rose to stardom quickly once they started releasing one highly controversial game after another. They specialize in bizarre themes that no other developers would dare touch, and the game at hand is therefore a welcome break from all the horror.

Slot Theme And Storyline

Space Donkey is a mix of the two most famous arcade games of all time, namely Space Invaders and Donkey Kong. Aliens monsters are invading the planet, and one brave monkey is the only one who can stop them. You get to follow him onto the mothership, where he kills aliens by the dozen and possibly triggers Monkeypendence Day by destroying the whole spacecraft.

Space Donkey RTP, Volatility, And Max Win

The top-tier Space Donkey RTP of 96.07 % is just a tad above average. However, operators can adjust the RTP down to 94.13, 92.18, or 87.12 %, depending on the market. This is a high volatility installment from NoLimit City, and it scores 8 out of 10 on their volatility scale. The Space Donkey max win is 14,649x the stake, which is solid, but far from the highest potential we’ve seen from this developer.

Space Donkey Slot - Reels Screen

Space Donkey Rules And Gameplay

You can adjust your bet level between £0.2 and £200 per spin in Space Donkey slot, which is a solid bet range that most players should be able to work with. The base game plays out on a 6x6 grid with 46,656 win ways, and you win by landing 3 to 6 matching symbols across the paylines starting from the leftmost reel. Wilds substitute for any pay symbol as their core function, but they also come with extra features as we shall see below.

Symbols And Paytable

Space Donkey Bonuses And Special Features

The features in Space Donkey slot are not as complicated as is the case in many NoLimit Slots, but it may sound like it when you read about them. Playing the free Space Donkey demo at the top of the page will help clarify things, but we’ll do our best to explain it all below.

Abduction Wilds

The UFO Wild symbols appear on reels 2 to 6 in the base game only, and they substitute for pay symbols as wilds usually do. However, they also abduct symbols below by moving downwards per subsequent win. Each abducted symbol adds +1 to the wild multiplier, and the multiplier will boost any win the wild partakes in.

Hellfire Feature

You can land the chopper symbol on reels 2 to 5 during base game play, and at least 3 in sight triggers the Hellfire Feature. The first chopper fires in one direction, the second in two directions, and so forth, and each chopper’s multiplier is added to all pay symbols and wilds affected by the fire from the choppers. The chopper multipliers will be between x2 and x10, and it’s a symbol multiplier that increases the symbols per position correspondingly.

Hide N' Seek Bonus Round

The Hide N’ Seek Free Spins round triggers when you land 3 time-bomb scatters in view in Space Donkey slot, and the feature plays out on a 6x6-sized game area. The triggering scatters turn into death traps on the grid, and the monkey moves around the area with his gun. Each round gives the monkey a direction (up, down, left, or right), as well as the number of steps to move.

The Space Donkey game area comes with cash prize chests collected by the monkey, and you start with 3 lives. The monkey loses a life when walking into a trap, or when going face to face with the alien who also moves around the grid. Traps are removed when the monkey walks onto them, but not when the alien does the same. New symbols drop in as symbols are collected and removed, but new trap symbols do not drop in. Below is an overview of the symbols:

• Trap - subtracts one life from the monkey life tally, and is removed after that.
• Grey Chest - gives you a bet multiplier cash prize, an extra life, or teleports you to the Seek N’ Destroy Bonus Round. It can also give you nothing at all.
• Golden Chest - awards a bet multiplier cash prize.
• Alien - moves 1 step towards the monkey per round, and subtracts a life from the monkey life tally when the two meet.
• Magician - sums up all golden chest prizes in view and awards them.
• King - boosts all present golden chest prizes by x2 to x10.
• Princess - kills adjacent aliens, and collects the value from both golden and grey chests in all directions.
• Stone Monster - doubles golden chest prizes, opens grey chests to award whatever they contain (if anything), and kills the alien.

The alien, as mentioned, moves one step toward the monkey per round, and here is what the alien does on the grid:

• The alien disappears after taking one life from the monkey.
• The alien absorbs the value of any chest it encounters.
• The alien adds +1 to its own value when meeting the magician, king, princess, or stone monster.
• The alien dies when hitting a trap, and leaves a golden chest behind.
• The alien’s value is spread to adjacent golden chests.
• The same happens when the alien is killed by the stone monster or the princess.

The alien can respawn in future symbol drops, however, and it will take on the value of whatever symbol it lands on. Getting the teleport ends this bonus round at once, and takes you to the top-tier Seek N’ Destroy feature. More than 1 extra life for the monkey is turned into monkey shields in the Seek N’ Destroy round.

Seek N' Destroy Bonus Round

The Seek N’ Destroy Free Spins round triggers from within the Hide N’ Seek Bonus Round, or if you land 4 scatters in the base game. The monkey gets +1 extra shield per additional triggering scatter above the minimum of 4, and the game area is 6x5 in size for this feature. You get random multipliers of x2 to x10 on the top row, and alien monsters move across the rows from the right-hand side toward the monkey on the left-hand side per round.

The monkey appears on a random row per round, and a random weapon will be assigned to the monkey via the display on the top per round as well. The alien monsters appear on all rows, and move one step towards the monkey while being assigned with a prize multiplier. The prize multiplier is boosted by active column multipliers, and the monkey can kill multiple aliens each round depending on the weapon. Each killed alien awards a prize.

Some aliens are harder to kill than others, and you can get booster symbols that provide shields or weapon upgrades as well. The feature ends when the monkey is killed by a close encounter with one of the aliens, or when you manage to destroy the whole mothership to trigger the Monkeypendence Day. Below is an overview of how each Space Donkey round plays out in case the above was unclear:

• The monkey appears at a random row via the elevator teleport system.
• Alien monsters (or booster) symbols move one step towards the monkey on the left in all rows.
• New alien monsters spawn from the teleport elevators on the far right per round.
• The monkey fires the randomly assigned weapon to possibly kill multiple alien monsters on multiple rows.
• Killed alien monsters award their own multiplier prize boosted by the column multiplier (if active) that changes per round.

Below is an overview of the different weapons the monkey will get per round:

• Link Gun - kills all alien monsters of the same type. It fires at 1 or 2 elevator tubes if aliens are not present, which removes life energy from the tubes.
• Laser Gun - kills all aliens on the same row, and also subtracts life energy from the elevator tube where new aliens appear. If upgraded, it kills aliens on adjacent rows as well.
• Nuke - kills all aliens in one column, and it also fires at elevator tubes if aliens are not present. Nukes fire two times if upgraded.
• Rail Gun - kills one alien, or two if upgraded.

The elevator tubes where the aliens appear come with 3, 4, 5, 4, and 3 lives from top to bottom, respectively, and each hit removes 1 life from the relevant tube. Destroying a tube awards 100x the stake, as well as the prize of all aliens killed on the adjacent rows. Of course, the tube will not deliver more aliens after being destroyed, and each alien that reaches the monkey removes one shield or life from his tally. Booster symbols reaching the monkey award a shield or weapon upgrade.

The mothership has 25 lives, and one life is removed per alien elevator tube life that is removed. Destroy all elevator tubes to destroy the mothership, and this triggers what is known as Monkeypendence Day. This ends the bonus round, and your total win is then boosted by a multiplier of x5, x10, x15, or x20.

Space Donkey Bonus Buy (not UK)

Eligible players will find the Space Donkey bonus buy menu via the yellow star on the left-hand side. You can pay 79x the stake for the Hide N’ Seek Bonus Round (RTP of 96.1 %), 272x the stake for the Seek N’ Destroy Bonus Round (RTP of 96.26 %), or 143x the stake for the Lucky Draw option. The Lucky Draw option gives you a 33.33 % chance of the top-tier feature (RTP of 96.4 %). The organic bonus round hit rate is 1 in 298 spins, which is well above average according to our stats.

The 200 Spins Space Donkey Online Slot Experience

You get to see a smaller win or two in the base game, before we purchase and trigger the top-tier Seek N’ Destroy Bonus Round at 0:41 into the 3:24-minute highlights video. You can check it all out for yourself by hitting the play button below.

Review Summary And Verdict

First of all, it’s nice to see NoLimit City do something less bizarre and dark for once, and Space Donkey slot is up there with the best 8-bit releases out there. In fact, it’s one of the best, if not the best, computer game-style slot we’ve ever seen in this nostalgic genre. The Hellfire feature keeps the base game interesting, although it’s fun even just seeing the symbols moving across the landscape accompanied by the 80s arcade-style soundtrack.

Both bonus rounds take you into a different world altogether, and you almost forget that you’re playing a slot game each time it happens. The video game playing out is just that convincing, and you’re right back in the 80s with a greasy joystick in your hand and a pocket full of coins. Both features are highly complex and entertaining, but not really as complicated as they may sound once you get into the swing of things. The only drawback is the somewhat low potential (for being NoLimit City), combined with the relatively low average wins revealed by the top-tier bonus buy price. Still, this is a must-try for 8-bit fans, and we will definitely return for more.

Pros And Cons Of Space Donkey Online Slot

How To Play Space Donkey At An Online Casino

You’re probably eager to play Space Donkey for real money at a casino at this point, not least after reading our review verdict. We still encourage you to play the free demo first though, but if you insist on getting down to business we have the solution for you right here:

• Find yourself a verified Space Donkey casino via this link to the top.
• Sign up with your chosen casino and deposit money to get your welcome offer.
• Head to the game lobby and search for Space Donkey.

Similar Slots To Try

If you love Space Donkey game, you should also try:

Banana Town - is a fun 8-bit release from Relax Gaming, and it comes with a pay anywhere system. Winning symbols are collected to double symbol-specific multipliers in the cascading sequences, and the multipliers only keep building in the bonus round. The max win is 10,000x your stake.

Hellcatraz 2 Dream Drop - is the progressive jackpot version of Relax Gaming’s follow-up to their 8-bit classic about the legendary prison island. You get mystery reveal symbols that expand the grid, and even more of the same in the free spins round. The regular max win is 10,000x the stake.

Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior - is based around arguably one of the best video games of all time, if not the best. You get to choose your fighter from the original 8 characters, and you’ll take on the 4 bosses in the bonus round to win up to 7,142x your stake.

Play The Game On Your Mobile

You can certainly play Space Donkey on your mobile phone, and it works perfectly on both Android and iOS units. Play on any handheld device you want without needing to download any mobile app. This is due to HTML5 technology, which all our recommended casinos utilize.

Strategy And Tips For Winning

First of all, your overall Space Donkey strategy should include playing the highest RTP version of the game. Other than that, pay attention to the bonus round hit rate of 1 in 298 spins, as well as the expected average returns that are lower than the bonus buy prices. This gives you a ballpark idea of what to expect, and which bet level you might wanna go with to stay afloat between larger payouts.

Space Donkey Demo Version And Free Play

Even if you’re chomping at the bit to get started with real money action, we still recommend that you try the free Space Donkey demo first. It’s always a good idea to get a sense of the gameplay first, and to gauge the volatility level. This way, you can find a suitable bet level that is most likely to work for your specific budget.