Joker Clash

Joker Clash Review

With Joker Clash, InOut Games delivers a dark and somewhat creepy twist on the traditional fruit machine trope. You get to meet a rather evil-looking jester, all dressed in red and black like a proper villain, holding the grid firmly in his grip with a disturbing grin on his face. His manic gaze hovers directly over the grid, shifting between looking down at the fruit symbols and pointing his piercing eyes directly at yours. Don’t worry, though; the game is not as scary as it may sound, and the upbeat soundtrack keeps things more lighthearted once you get into it.

Anyway, let’s cover the basics of this game before we get to the features. Joker Clash plays out on a classic 3x3 grid with 5 paylines, and you win when matching symbols align on these paylines across all 3 reels. The symbols are the glossy fruit machine kind, with a couple of bells offering the highest payout among regular pay symbols. These are followed by a gold BAR symbol, watermelon, grapes, orange, lemon, and plums. There are no royal symbols in this game, and the symbols we just described pay between 2x and 20x your stake for 3 of a kind.

Joker Clash Reels Screen

The golden jester Wild symbol substitutes for any pay symbol to help complete wins. Should you land a payline filled with only Wild symbols, you win 30x your stake. This makes the jester Wild the highest value symbol in Joker Clash slot, at least in the base game. There are no other bonus features to speak of in said base game, but you can choose to play in turbo mode to shorten the time it takes to trigger the bonus round. There is one bonus round to look forward to, but it can trigger in two different ways.

It can happen randomly as bonus coin symbols are collected by the jester above the reels, or when you land a joker collect and bonus coin symbol together. Either way, the joker collect symbol is sticky during the bonus round, collecting all bonus coins (including jackpots of up to 1,000x) that land. Positions can be upgraded with multipliers too, boosting all coins that land. Joker Clash is a medium volatility slot game, featuring a bet range of £0.12 to £100 per spin, an RTP of 96%, and a max win of 10,000x your stake.

Joker Clash Features

There might not be too many features to cover in this game, but there are plenty of details to cover to give you a full overview of how the bonus round works. We also recommend that you try the Joker Clash free play demo, located at the top of this page. For now, let’s take a look at the main attraction.

Collect Feature

Landing at least one Bonus Coin and one Collect Joker on the same spin triggers the Collect Feature, which starts with the Collect Joker collecting all the triggering Bonus Coins. The Collect Feature is a hold & win-style bonus round, and Bonus Coins appear on reels 1 and 3 with values of 1x, 2x, 3x, 5x, 7x, 10x, or 15x your stake. Collect Jokers land on the middle reel only, and you can land additional Collect Jokers during the Collect Feature.

Up to 3 Collect Jokers are possible, and each instance of this symbol collects all Bonus Coins that land. You start with 3 re-spins, and the counter resets to 3 each time you land at least one non-blank symbol. Only blanks, Bonus Coins, Jackpot Bonus Coins, Collect Jokers, and Joker’s Multipliers may appear during the Collect Feature. Collect Jokers are sticky for the duration of the bonus round, while Bonus Coins and Jackpot Bonus Coins are removed after being collected.

Jackpot Bonus Coins appear as the Mini, Minor, Major, and Grand jackpots, awarding 25x, 50x, 150x, and 1,000x your stake when collected, respectively. Joker’s Multiplier symbols add an x2 position multiplier to the position they land in before being removed. Existing position multipliers are increased by +1 if a Joker’s Multiplier symbol lands in such a position. Position multipliers are sticky for the duration of the bonus round and boost any Bonus or Jackpot Coins that appear in these positions.

The Collect Feature goes on indefinitely until you land 3 consecutive spins with only blanks. This drains your re-spins counter to zero, effectively ending the Collect Feature bonus round. When the bonus round is over, your total winnings from all Joker Collect symbols are summed up and awarded. You are then taken back to the base game. Unlike with some free spins bonus rounds, there is no way to retrigger this bonus round.

Pile of Gold Feature

Any Bonus Coin that appears in the base game may randomly trigger the Pile of Gold Feature. This adds Bonus Coins and Collect Jokers to the reels, which may trigger the Collect Feature bonus round if at least one Bonus Coin and Collect Joker are present at the same time. In addition, Bonus Coin positions may be upgraded with an x2 Joker’s Multiplier.

Joker Clash Bonus Game Win Screen

Bonus Buy (not UK)

Players in eligible regions will find the Bonus Buy menu on the left, and hitting this big red shopping cart ‘Buy Bonus’ button is how you access it. In the menu, you have 2 choices. You can purchase the regular Collect Feature bonus round for 75x the stake, and this triggers the feature with at least one Joker Collect symbol and Bonus Coin. Alternatively, you can pay 150x your stake to get the Super Bonus. Here, you start with at least 2 Collect Jokers as well as at least 2 Joker’s Multiplier upgraded positions.

Theme & Graphics

Joker Clash is a somewhat unsettling take on the classic style slot genre, unsettling mostly because of the sinister, griffin-like jester figure hanging over the reels. His red and black makeup and suit add to this impression, as do his manic smile and evil-looking eyes. The somewhat theatrical display is set against a deep crimson backdrop, subtly patterned with playing card suits. The upbeat, jazzy soundtrack helps take off the somewhat eerie edge, though, easing you into the traditional fruit symbol experience.

Joker Clash Free Play

It makes sense to test the free Joker Clash demo before playing for real, and this is why we offer the game at the top of this page. You can head up there right away if you like, but we hope you take the time to read our verdict below. This way, you understand how we feel about it, and you can tell us what you think in the comments field after your Joker Clash free play session is over. If you want to take this experience to the next level, casinos carrying this title await directly below the demo game.

Pros and Cons of Joker Clash

Our Verdict

Joker Clash feels a bit like yet another entry into the endlessly recycled classic slot genre, featuring a 3x3 grid filled with crisp fruity visuals as it is. However, the somewhat menacing jester character overlooking the grid adds enough personality to make the game feel a bit more unique than your typical run-of-the-mill retro release. His evil laughter and manic demeanor are just about sinister enough to make it work, although, in my view, some joker characters are actually more scary when they don’t try to be.

That being said, beneath the polished and somewhat eerie facade, you’ll find a featureless base game that may be an issue for some players. You’ll mostly grind along, waiting for the bonus round to trigger, which can sometimes take a while. The bonus hit frequency is not disclosed, so it’s difficult to tell, but in my opinion, it falls within the average of around 200 spins, perhaps less. It helps that there are several entries into the feature, thanks to the Pile of Gold bonus coin collect system.

Base game wins are usually nothing to write home about in Joker Clash, and you’re mostly looking at the coins being collected by the fiery jester character. Holding down the spin button speeds up the gameplay, as does switching on the turbo, and I wish there would’ve been a super turbo mode included too, as it’s needed in this game. Of course, impatient players can purchase the bonus round and super bonus round directly, but that feature is not available in all regions.

The bonus round itself is decent, especially if you can land more than one joker collector and get a few multiplier positions going. Still, you’ll need jackpot symbols to truly make a dent, and closing in on the 10,000x max win will most likely require multiplier-boosted grand jackpot symbols. Overall, InOut Games has delivered a sleek classic slot experience with Joker Clash, and considering that many classic slots have no features at all, taking this game for a spin is not too shabby an experience.