Jack and the Beanstalk Review

NetEnt’s Jack and the Beanstalk slot machine is built around the classic English Fairy Tale of the same name. The game’s become one of the developer’s most successful slot releases thanks to the walking wilds feature, the expanding wilds and the significant winning combination potential offered within the slot. You can win up to 3,000X your stake on a single spin!

Jack and the Beanstalk is built around a 5-reel, 3-row format, and there are 20 fixed paylines; this means you’re unable to adjust the number of paylines present on every spin.

Later on in this Jack and the Beanstalk slot review, we’ll be showing you more about how the game’s bonuses and features work. But first, let’s look more at the theme of the slot and the game’s options.

A Classic Fairytale Theme

One of the most iconic and well-known Fairy Tale stories ever released tells the tale of a young English lad named Jack who picks up a magical pouch filled with magic beans. He then uses these beans to climb a giant beanstalk with the aim of becoming wealthy — only to find a fierce giant awaiting him at the top!

NetEnt’s Jack and the Beanstalk slot does a fantastic job of using this theme throughout the slot. From the moment you load up the game, you’ll notice that everything from the graphics, icons and imagery to the sound effects has been designed to emulate the theme.

Game and Bet Options

Like virtually all NetEnt video slot games we see today, wins are formed by landing three or more symbols from left to right.

The slot game appeals to players on a wide variety of budgets, as it can be played for as little as $0.20 per spin. The max bet, where allowed, reaches as high as $100! However, some online casinos may choose to lower the max bet, and we do see the max bet sometimes capped at $50, so just bear this in mind.

In terms of the in-game options, you’ll find yourself able to activate an autoplay mode which sees up to 1,000 spins playing out automatically.

This prevents you from needing to press each spin manually. You can also choose to set certain parameters for the autoplay function, for example, automatically stopping the slot game upon triggering the main free spins feature.

There’s also a quickspin mode in the video slot, which reduces the amount of time it takes per spin.

This feature is useful for those who want to reduce the time they spend in the base game, although some players will find it unavailable to them, especially if they live in highly-regulated countries like the UK.

NetEnt’s Jack and the Beanstalk slot has always been famed for its medium-to-high variance nature. That’s because while the free spins round isn’t too hard to trigger, base-game wins can be significant. There’s the potential for you to win up to 3,000X your stake on a single spin!

Jack and the Beanstalk do a pretty decent job when it comes to RTP, and the game’s return to player is fixed at 96.3%.

The “fixed” notion ensures that different online casinos can’t offer the game at different RTPs. So, when you play Jack and the Beanstalk, you’ll always know you’re playing the highest RTP version of the slot as possible.

If you choose to play Jack and the Beanstalk for yourself, you’ll notice that NetEnt has included a variety of symbols on the reels.

The low-value symbols are all playing card values, including 10, jack, queen, king, and ace. These — while not worth much — can lead to big wins, especially during the main bonus.

Thankfully, the higher-paying symbols, all of which are theme-specific, pay much better. These include a Watering Can, an Axe, a Goat, the Giant, and Jack himself.

Jack is the highest-paying symbol, awarding a payout worth 50X your stake for matching a 5-of-a-kind combo.

The wild symbol is represented by a red game logo. It substitutes for all other symbols, barring the scatter symbols.

We’ll talk more about the wild symbol when looking at the bonus wild features, as it plays a very important role during the bonus spins.

Jack and the Beanstalk is all about the bonus features, and you’ll find two main ones.

Below, we take a look at what these are. We’ll also talk about how you can trigger the free spins feature.

Walking Wilds

The Walking Wild feature is the first bonus within the Jack and the Beanstalk slot, and it’s present within both the base game and the free spins feature.

Whenever a wild symbol lands in view, a free re-spin is awarded. The Walking Wild will then ‘walk’ one position to the left, and a further re-spin is awarded.

The Walking Wild feature continues until the wild makes its way off the left-hand side of the reels. It’s possible to land multiple walking wilds on a single spin, so this feature in itself can continue for quite a long time!

Free Spins Feature

It’s the free spins feature that Jack and the Beanstalk is best known for, and it’s triggered by landing three or more of the Treasure Chest scatters anywhere on the reels during the base game. You will then be awarded ten free spins (you get ten free spins regardless of how many scatters you land), and you’ll then be taken to a new set of reels.

During the free spins feature, the Treasure Collection feature comes into play. The Treasure Collection feature means you need to collect key symbols which land only in the 5th reel. Each time you collect three of these symbols, you’ll upgrade the free spins.

There are three upgrades to the free spin feature, as shown below:

Double Stacked Money Bag Wilds:

Once you’ve collected three of the keys, the wild symbols will become stacked — 2-high — across all five reels.

Treble Stacked Golden Hens:

Once you’ve collected six of the key symbols, the wilds will then be stacked 3-high across all reels.

Expanding Golden Harp Wilds:

If you manage to collect nine keys, then the Expanding Golden Harp Wilds feature will be active. Here, any wild that lands in view will expand to fill the entire reel it lands on.

We should also point out that all wins made using a wild symbol during the free spins feature are subject to a 3X multiplier.

The 3X multiplier makes it much easier to form big wins during the bonus features. You can walk away with some mega hits even with the ten free spins! However, the 3X wild doesn’t apply to wins formed during the regular game.

It’s also possible to re-trigger the free spins feature; this is done by landing another 3, 4, or 5 of the scatter symbols anywhere in view during the free spins game. Doing so will award you with an additional five free spins.

With the RTP being 96.3%, Jack and the Beanstalk has always been a popular choice among players. This iconic NetEnt slot offers a fantastic feature game. If you can collect keys during the bonus beanstalk game — and unlock the Golden Hen or Golden Goose feature — the bonus game can award significant wins.

In fact, during the free spins feature, it’s perfectly possible to land a full screen of wild symbols. Even one reel of wilds can award significant wins, especially when playing at maximum bet.

We particularly like that the wild appears quite frequently during the regular game. You’re guaranteed to get a few free spins when it lands anywhere on the slot reels. Plus, if the next wildlands to the right-hand side of the reels, you can enjoy even more free spins, although actually landing the next wild isn’t always the easiest task in the world.