Go Bananas Slot Review: Five Wild Monkeys

Go Bananas!™ NetEnt slot artwork

Go Bananas!™ is a 5×3, 20-line jungle slot whose main feature is not a separate bonus round but a family of five transforming Wild symbols. Gorilla, Orangutan, Baboon, Langur and Tarsier each land as a Wild Monkey and turn themselves and adjacent symbols into Wilds in unique patterns. The theme is playful, but the important rule is spatial: the value of a monkey depends on which neighbouring positions its pattern reaches.

Go Bananas at a glance

ProviderNetEnt
Genre / themeAnimals
Game typeVideo slot
Reels / grid5×3
Reference RTP96.91%
Volatility4.4
Payout mechanic20
Maximum win500x bet
Release date24 September 2014
Main featuresFive named Wild Monkeys transform themselves and adjacent symbols into Wilds in unique patterns.

RTP and stake limits can vary by version and market. Check the information screen in the game you open. Maximum win is a ceiling, not an expected result.

A 20-line jungle layout

The saved NetEnt record confirms five reels, three rows and 20 fixed lines. The base symbols include fruits and gems, while the five monkey symbols act as Wilds. Each monkey substitutes by transforming itself and adjacent symbols into Wilds; the exact pattern differs by monkey. If the resulting arrangement creates a winning pattern, the game celebrates that win. The source does not provide a separate paytable or a detailed adjacency diagram, so the reliable explanation is the transformation rule and its symbol-specific variation, not a guessed shape for any individual monkey.

This design makes position central to the ordinary spin. A monkey on an edge has a different set of adjacent spaces from one in the middle, and the named patterns add another layer beyond simple substitution. The official text does not state that transformed Wilds persist to later spins; therefore each landing should be read as an event on the current reel result. That boundary matters because it prevents a temporary transformation from being mistaken for a banked feature.

Five monkeys, five transformation patterns

Wild Gorilla, Wild Orangutan, Wild Baboon, Wild Langur and Wild Tarsier are the five documented variants. When one lands, it transforms itself and adjacent symbols into Wilds. The rule is broad enough to explain the feature’s purpose but deliberately leaves the individual patterns to the game’s visual rules; none should be reconstructed from the animal names. A created winning pattern is the outcome that connects the transformation to the payline model.

The interaction is therefore between symbol identity and local geometry. A monkey is not only a substitute occupying one cell: it changes nearby cells, and the pattern attached to that species determines the footprint. That can make a single landing more influential than a standard Wild, but the preserved record does not disclose trigger frequency, transformation counts or whether multiple monkeys interact in a particular order. Those unknowns limit any claim about typical win size while leaving the core rule clear.

Settings and comparison

NetEnt lists RTP 96.91%, volatility 4.4 and maximum payout of 500x bet. The 5×3, 20-line configuration and 0.20 to 200 bet range are confirmed. The official record gives a hit frequency of 32 but no probability for each monkey, no pattern diagram and no distribution for the maximum. For an animal-themed comparison, Buffalo King Megaways uses variable reel height and a much larger listed ceiling; Go Bananas! is the more compact fixed-line design, centred on local Wild transformations rather than ways expansion.

Strengths and weak points

Strengths

Five named monkey Wilds give the fixed 20-line game a documented spatial effect: each landing transforms its own position and neighbours according to a distinct pattern.

Weaknesses

The source omits the five pattern diagrams, monkey frequencies and interaction order, while the 500x listed maximum leaves limited evidence for judging rare transformed outcomes.

Our Editor’s View

Go Bananas! has a simple premise with one useful complication: five different monkeys change the board around themselves. The 5×3, 20-line frame is easy to recognise, but the Wild rule gives each landing a spatial consequence and keeps the feature tied to ordinary winning patterns. That clarity is also where the available evidence stops. The source names the five variants but does not preserve their exact footprints, interaction order or probabilities, so readers should not treat the colourful theme as proof of a particular reach. It suits players who like compact games with visible symbol effects; those evaluating maximum potential should note the 500x cap and seek the current rules for the missing pattern details.