| Provider | NetEnt |
|---|---|
| RTP | 96.91% - Compare RTPs |
| Volatility | Low-Medium |
| Reels | 5 |
| Paylines | 20 |
| Bet Range | £0.20 - £200.00 |
| Features | Wilds |
Go Bananas Slot Review
Go Bananas is a NetEnt slot built around one of the most distinctive wild mechanics in the developer's catalogue. Released in 2014, the game replaced the conventional scatter-triggered free spins round with a system where five different monkey characters each create their own wild pattern on the reels. Every spin can produce a different kind of bonus moment, and which monkey shows up determines how big that moment is likely to be.
This review covers the key stats, how each of the five monkey wilds works, what the game is good at, and what kind of player it suits best.
Go Bananas at a Glance
- Provider: NetEnt
- Release year: 2014
- Reels / Rows: 5 x 3
- Paylines: 20 fixed
- RTP: 96.9%
- Volatility: Medium
- Max win: 500x total bet
- Bonus features: Five Wild Monkey types (Gorilla, Orangutan, Baboon, Langur, Tarsier)
The 96.9% RTP is above average for an online slot. Medium volatility means wins land reasonably often, with the wild monkey triggers providing the bigger swings without turning the session into a long drought. The 500x max win is modest by modern standards, but the game's appeal has never been about chasing a ceiling - it is about the frequency and variety of the wild mechanic.
Theme and Symbols
The setting is a tropical jungle with a warm, lush visual style. Symbols on the reels include classic fruit icons - bananas, watermelons, and cherries - alongside gems and card suit icons as the lower-value fillers. The five monkey characters dominate the top of the pay table and are the centre of everything the game does mechanically.
The visual design is clean and bright. NetEnt built Go Bananas in HTML5, so it runs in any browser and scales to any screen size without the loading delays that older Flash-era games carry. The animations when a monkey lands and fires its wild pattern are quick and satisfying without slowing the game down.
The Five Monkey Wilds
This is the mechanism that makes Go Bananas different from most jungle-themed slots. There are no free spins, no scatter triggers, and no separate bonus screen. Instead, the five monkey characters on the reels each act as a wild that simultaneously places additional wild symbols in a set pattern around the point where they land.
Wild Gorilla
The most powerful of the five. When the Gorilla lands, it creates an X-shaped wild pattern centred on its position, covering five positions on the grid. It is the wild trigger most likely to intersect multiple paylines at once, and on a 20-line layout hitting an X-shaped cluster near the centre of the reels can convert an otherwise blank spin into a significant win.
Wild Orangutan
The Orangutan creates a square pattern of four wilds. Depending on where it lands, this can bridge a gap between two partial combinations that were close to completing, or it can fill in both a horizontal and a vertical payline simultaneously. The square shape is more consistent in its effect than the X - slightly less spectacular but reliable across more reel positions.
Wild Baboon
The Baboon covers three positions in a vertical stack on its reel. When it lands, it effectively turns the reel it occupies into a fully wild column for that spin. A wild reel in a 5-reel, 20-line game can contribute to multiple lines simultaneously, which makes the Baboon one of the more impactful triggers despite only placing three wilds.
Wild Langur
The Langur places three wilds in a horizontal row across the middle row of the grid. This is the wild type that most directly assists existing line wins - if two matching symbols are sitting in the top or bottom rows and the Langur fills the middle, combinations complete. On a good spin, the Langur hitting across a row with symbols already in place can pay several lines in one go.
Wild Tarsier
The Tarsier is the smallest of the five, placing just two wilds adjacent to the landing position. The pair can sit either horizontally or vertically depending on the reel position. It is the least explosive of the five triggers, but it still lands more wilds than a simple single-symbol substitution and on a busy grid it contributes more than it might look.
No Free Spins - By Design
Go Bananas is deliberately built without a free spins round. NetEnt designed the game so that the monkey wilds provide all the variance, keeping the action happening on every spin rather than concentrating it in a separate feature that may or may not trigger in a session. For players who find free spins rounds exciting, this can feel like something is missing. For players who find the base game in most slots inert and repetitive, the monkey system gives every spin a genuine chance of producing something.
This design choice is worth knowing before you play. If you specifically enjoy the ritual of building to a free spins trigger and banking those rounds, Go Bananas will feel different to your usual play. If you are happy with a base game that does most of its work in real time, the monkey mechanics suit that approach well.
How to Play
Go Bananas plays on a standard 5x3 grid with 20 fixed paylines. All paylines are active on every spin - there is no option to reduce the line count, so the total bet per spin is your selected coin value across all 20 lines. Wins pay left to right from reel 1, with three matching symbols as the standard minimum combination.
Any of the five monkey symbols can land on any reel, on any spin. There is no mechanical restriction on which monkey appears or how frequently. Multiple monkey wilds can land on the same spin, in which case all of their respective patterns fire simultaneously - a Gorilla and a Baboon landing together, for example, can flood a large portion of the grid with wilds.
Autoplay is available with standard stop conditions for a specified balance drop or a win above a set threshold. The game runs in any modern browser on desktop and mobile without requiring additional software.
Mobile Performance
Go Bananas was built in HTML5 from the start and scales cleanly to smaller screens. The symbol set is large and clearly drawn, and the monkey wild animations remain readable on compact displays. NetEnt's HTML5 framework is one of the more optimised in the industry, and Go Bananas reflects that - load times are fast and the game performs without stuttering on mid-range mobile hardware.
The 5x3 grid fits naturally on a portrait mobile layout without the cramping issues that affect some games built primarily for desktop. Touch controls work exactly as expected.
Who Go Bananas Suits
The medium volatility and 96.9% RTP make this a reasonable game for extended sessions on any budget. The absence of a dedicated free spins feature means the game will not produce a single standout moment in the way that a high-volatility slot with a capped jackpot might. What it does instead is deliver frequent small interactions via the monkey wilds, with occasional big combinations when the Gorilla or Orangutan hits in a good position on a loaded grid.
Players who like variety in how wilds behave - rather than a standard substitute symbol - will find the five-monkey system genuinely engaging. The range between a Tarsier placing two wilds and a Gorilla firing an X-pattern across the middle of the grid keeps the wins from feeling repetitive even across a long session.
If you enjoy NetEnt's style of feature-driven base games without a separate bonus round, the catalogue also includes Starburst and Hotline as similar examples of the approach - significant wild mechanics doing the work instead of a triggered feature.
Verdict
Go Bananas stands out in the jungle-slot subgenre precisely because it does not follow the standard template. The five wild monkey types create a mechanic that is easy to understand but varied enough to stay interesting, and the medium volatility means the system fires regularly enough to stay relevant across a full session.
The 500x max win and lack of free spins will rule it out for players chasing big single-session payouts. For everyone else - particularly players who want a NetEnt slot with a genuinely distinct mechanic rather than another reskin of the scatter-trigger format - Go Bananas holds up well more than a decade after its release.
Where to Play Go Bananas
These online casinos carry NetEnt games including Go Bananas. Read our Donbet review or browse all casino reviews.
Go Bananas RTP and Variance
Go Bananas has an RTP of 96.91%, which is above average. See our highest RTP slots for the best returning games. Low-medium volatility gives a good balance between regular payouts and occasional bigger hits.
At the minimum bet of £0.20 per spin, a £10 deposit gives you 50 spins with a statistical expected return of £9.69. Read our slot betting strategy guide for tips on managing your bankroll.
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