The Dark Joker Rizes

Comedy and horror can be an interesting mixture, as many movies have shown us. But how successful that combination is depends on how much of each ingredient you add. And with its grinning clown and massive, maze-like dungeon?

This slot certainly leans much heavier on the horror aspect than comedy. Unlike Jokerizer, it doesn’t hide its creepy vibe, and somehow comes off less sinister in the process.

The Dark Joker Rizes Slot Review

The Dark Joker Rizes is played on a five reel board, where each reel is three symbols tall. There are a total of five fixed paylines that cannot be turned on or off at will. Collect three or more identical icons in adjacent positions to win, starting with either the leftmost or rightmost reel. All wins must follow one of five active paylines, or the game won’t grant you its cash prize.

There aren’t any mechanical changes in this Yggdrasil release. The core special features remain the same, with a few additions to entice players further. The Jokerizer bonus makes a return, demanding that you wager your win for a shot at the jackpot, worth 600x. Your reels pay both ways, and there’s also a Mystery Win bonus spin! Jokerizer is made even more risky with the addition of a Super Bet option, too.

Theme & Symbols

The original slot didn’t have much of a theme, but it kept its creepiness hidden beneath bright lights and wide smiles. The only way you knew something was wrong was due to the music score and how this beautiful park was surprisingly barren. But in The Dark Joker Rizes, this illusion is dropped completely. The joker is clearly a hostile entity, and the whole game takes place in this massive, creepy dungeon.

The background image is less impressive this time around. Mostly because the developers tossed a blurring effect on it, preventing us from drinking in every detail. We’re really not sure why Yggdrasil went this route for their release. Were they worried online gamblers wouldn’t be able to make out the symbols against this background? If that was the case, they should have adjusted it, instead of hiding it behind a dumb blur effect.

Now, while we prefer Jokerizer’s graphics over The Dark Joker Rizes, there is one obvious exception. And that’s the icons! They’re the same fruits, bells, lucky sevens and stars that you’ve seen before. But now, each cherry has a skull drawn on it. The lemon is some kind of stitched together zombie. The grapes have these weird eyes sticking out of them, giving us a cosmic horror vibe. We really like these designs a lot.

How to The Play Dark Joker Rizes

The slot is played on a 5×3 board with 5 fixed paylines that pay both ways. And while your top prize remains the same, volatility feels a little higher. Landing small wins that constantly trigger the Jokerizer special feature isn’t the difficult part. The hard part is scoring the top prize after activating that bonus! So if you didn’t like the core gameplay loop of the original game, you probably won’t like this one either.

Having said that, there are some obvious changes and additions to the available special features. The most obvious is the Super Bet, which demands a bet of 200 coin stake to add a guaranteed Joker. Another Jokerizer addition is the Mystery Win Bonus spin! After getting a win from the Jokers, a re-spin is played with all Jokers becoming sticky. Everything else is exactly as you remember it.

Yggdrasil’s release allows players to change their total bet quite easily. Simple tweak your coin value until it lines up with the total stake you want! This allows for a minimum wager that’s as low as €0.10 on every spin. That’s a much fairer asking price than Jokerizer’s €1 minimum bet. That said, your maximum bet is still only €20.

Bonus Features

We remember asking for something more in our review of this slot’s predecessor. And sure enough, Dark Joker Rizes delivered, addressing some of our concerns. It’s still not our cup of tea, but it plays much better than it used to.

• Pays Both Ways

In order to make up for having only five reels, this game has their paylines grant wins both ways. If you have a valid winning combination starting with the rightmost reel, it will count and award its prize!

• Jokerizer Mode

This bonus activates after any win. Gamblers are faced with three choices. They can collect their wins and back out early. They can keep spinning part of their wins away until they hit the jackpot, or lose it all. Or they can give themselves a boost using the Super Bet. Super Bet is much more expensive, but guarantees at least one Joker on the reels.

• Mystery Win Bonus Spin

After scoring a win using Joker symbols in Jokerizer, there’s a chance that a re-spin will be played. All Joker icons are locked in place for its duration.

The Dark Joker Rizes Payouts

The game has a medium volatility and a maximum jackpot worth 600x your total stake on each spin. Yggdrasil’s release has an RTP of 79.7% if you never use Jokerizer mode. And if you use it all the time, that number leaps up to 96.3%.