Jammin’ Jars 2 - Slot of the Month

This month’s standout slot is Jammin’ Jars 2 – the long-awaited sequel to Push Gaming’s immensely popular original released back in 2018. As with the first game, JJ2 is a grid-based 8 x 8 slot featuring cascading reels and a raft of bonus features. So how does it compare to its illustrious predecessor?

Theme/Visuals

Although the same game area is in place, the developers have created a more elaborate background. This time round, the action takes place at a disco complete with palm trees and the Giga Jar DJ who sits next to the grid atop a meter, busting shapes to the background music and smirking when you hit spin. It’s pretty clear that Candy Crush is a big influencer here, especially with regards to the game area and fruit symbols. Surprisingly, a catchy disco-driven ditty accompanies play that’s highly reminiscent of the Scissor Sisters in their pomp.

How to Play Jammin’ Jars 2

To win, you’ll need to match five or more adjacent symbols vertically or horizontally. Cascades are in play which means that all winning symbols are removed from the game area with remaining ones collapsing downwards. The vacant spaces are then replaced with new symbols which drop from the top of the screen.

The Symbols

There are eight symbols in all: a fig, grapes, peach, melon, pineapple, pomegranate, wild jar and gold vinyl record. Of the standard fruit symbols, the melon, pineapple and pomegranate are the most valuable with max pay-outs of 200, 600 and 1000x your stake respectively. However, to receive these bumper pay-outs, you’ll have to land 32 of them in a cluster.

Wild Jar Symbol

The wild jar serves as the wild and scatter. As the wild, it will substitute all others – should it form part of a cluster win, the symbol moves randomly to an adjacent vacant position before the collapse takes place. When the collapse occurs, the wild jar symbol(s) remain fixed in place. In addition, each Wild Jar symbol comes with a multiplier which begins at x1 and increases with every win – the maximum possible multiplier for a single Jar is x43

Instant Prize Feature

Coins symbols can also turn up on the reels every now and then. These come with cash values – land a cluster of at least five and an Instant Prize is awarded of up to 1000x your stake. This remains active as part of the Fruit Blast feature as well.

Fruit Blast Feature

The Fruit Blast feature is pretty much the same as the Rainbow feature found in the first game. This is randomly activated following any collapse or cascade. Once triggered, a large equalizer appears above the main game area and the Giga Jar DJ shoots from one to three giant fruit symbols and or an Instant Prize symbol onto the reels. These convert all positions they cover into the same symbol which can result in some rather pleasing returns.

Free Spins Round

The free spins round is activated by landing at least three Wild Jar scatters. You’ll then receive six free spins with the triggering wild jars moving around the game area for the duration of the round. They move to different reel positions for each spin with their multipliers increasing for each win they help to create.

If a gold vinyl symbol appears in the free spins round, it’ll be collected by the Giga Jar DJ and the meter upon which he sits (very) slowly gets filled. There are five levels to this meter.
For level 1, the game’s standard RTP is active. To reach level 2, you’ll need to collect 20 vinyl records to upgrade it to an RTP of 96.2%. For level 3, 25 are required to boost the RTP to 96.3%. In order to increase this to 96.4% and reach level 4, 30 vinyl records are required. For the fifth level, you’ll have to collect 35 vinyl records and the RTP will increase to a maximum 96.6%.

Giga Jar Feature

Reach level 5 and the Giga Jar feature might get activated. This clears the game area, adding up to four wild jars. Giga Jar will also take his place on the grid as a sticky 2 x 2, 3 x 3 or 4 x 4 mega instant prize symbol. Eight GIGA spins are then awarded with all instant prize symbols remaining fixed in position for the entire feature.

Conclusion

Fans of grid-based slots will enjoy this updated version of Push Gaming’s classic game. Sure, there are plenty of similarities to the original. But there’s enough here to keep things interesting including the potentially generous Giga Spins feature, the instant cash prize symbols and of course an improved max win ceiling of 50,000x.

RTP: 96.1% (Adjustable), Minimum Stake: 0.01