Toad's Bounty

AvatarUX is a company that has been known to experiment with genres and themes, and now it is taking another bold new step, creating a whole new gameplay mechanic. Toad’s Bounty is an instant win title with a twist. In the game, players watch as a frog attempts to catch flies, which display prizes. It’s an intriguing premise, but does it hold up? Join me as I find out in this Toad’s Bounty review. 

While the gameplay might be quite novel, the design and theme are definitely things we have seen before. The action takes place down by a pond where a toad sits on a lily pad, and a swarm of flies buzzes around above him. 

You can alternate between three toads: green, orange, and red, altering the game’s volatility as you do so. The animations are solid enough, and the game has a few sound effects to keep things entertaining, but ultimately, the theme is not the real story here. 

So, how does Toad’s Bounty work exactly? The gameplay is actually very simple. Firstly, players must choose how volatile they want the game to be, with the green toad being low, the orange toad being medium, and the red toad being high. 

Once you have done this, the gameplay is simple; you just need to hit the play button at the bottom of the screen. The toad will then attempt to grab a fly. If it secures one, you will be rewarded a payout depending on the color and value of the fly. 

The first feature you are likely to encounter in Toad’s Bounty, outside of the ability to change the volatility, is the repeated attempts whenever you secure a win. This is similar to the cascading-style features you will encounter in free slots – every time you win, the toad will grab another fly to see if it has secured a win. This continues until no win is secured. 

Wins are also stored in a progress bar, which we will reset when a winning run ends. If you reach ten or more points, you will trigger a bonus game. In the bonus game, players are given free "spins". The multipliers in the game can also increase depending on the progress bar. 

There is also the possibility of the Frog’s Bro feature appearing on a random turn on the progress bar. Up to two additional toads can appear to attempt to catch more flies and keep a streak going. 

As a new gameplay mechanic, I tested Toad’s Bounty for free before playing for real money. I set my stake at $1 and put the game to take 20 autoplays. I played the game on low volatility for my first run and then switched to high for my second 20. 

Overall, I found that the gameplay felt quite repetitive and slow. I was able to secure a few wins during the game, but none were really that notable, with my biggest being an 8x. The most consecutive wins I landed were four, which meant, unfortunately, I was never really close to launching the bonus game. 

As I’ve mentioned throughout this Toad’s Bounty review, the game has optional volatility settings, with players able to switch between low, medium, and high on any given turn. The maximum win here is impressive at 10,000x, but the RTP is very underwhelming at 94%. 

Overall, I tip my hat to AvatarUX for trying something new, but the gameplay ultimately left me feeling a little flat. 

It is certainly a novel idea, and those who enjoy instant-win games might find a lot to love here, but I found the gameplay to be very repetitive, and the whole thing just ends up feeling a little gimmicky. Maybe having easier-to-trigger bonus features would have helped amplify the game a little because there is certainly potential here, especially with a 10,000x maximum win, which feels quite big for an instant-win title. 

If you want to try out some innovative instant-win titles, Gaming Corps’ Smash4Cash would be my recommendation, with Piggy Smash being the flagship offering. If it’s the toad theme you enjoy, I would recommend Push Gaming’s Fire Hopper.