Slot Overview: Taco Brothers’ Derailment
There’s a lot of truth to the adage that you should sell shovels during a gold rush. However, supplying miners is a time-consuming business, and some people, like the Evil Captain Diaz, would rather just steal miners’ gold and freedom outright. Here we are at ELK Studios’ third installment in the series, the largest and tackiest of the bunch: Taco Brothers Derailed.
Derailed takes situated in the same tranquil town of Santa Maria as the original Taco Brothers slot. There is another gold rush happening, and this time there will be “gold, tacos, and trains for everyone.” Sounds good, except that Captain Diaz will be back to spoil the fun with his usual antics. The player must work with the three brothers and the mysterious Seorita to complete missions and earn rewards. Santa Maria doesn’t appear like it’s in the throes of a gold rush, and Derailed looks gloomier than the original slot. It’s like a darker version of Wild Toro 2; the images aren’t as cheery, but the music is another Spanish hit.
It’s hardly surprising that certain numbers have flipped over since 2015, when the first Taco Brothers film was released. The most noticeable change is the rise in the maximum possible win, but other metrics, such as volatility, have also been raised to ‘High’ (7 out of 10), while RTP has decreased to 95%. No matter which of the five X-iter modes is active, or if you’re playing in the standard mode where paid spins cost 20 p/c to £/€100, this amount remains constant.
The gown of the grid, too. There are now 6 reels, 4 rows, and 466 paylines in play across the playing area. Payouts for winning combinations accrue from left to right across neighboring reels, provided that those reels are touched either horizontally or diagonally. The best paying symbols are the three brothers, awarding 5-50x the wager for a line of six, followed by shakers, whistles, skulls, lanterns, and safes, awarding 0.5-2x the bet for a line of six. Taco Brothers Derailed features an abundance of exciting scenes, some of which are more mundane than others. And they may stand in for any other pay icon.
Taco Brothers Go Off the Rails, Slot Machine Extras
Although Derailed has undergone many revisions, certain aspects have clear connections to the original slot. Walking Wilds and Walking Multiplier Wilds will be our first focus. Walking Wilds can substitute for any regular pay symbol in Taco Brother. Every time they advance one square to the left, the wheel spins again. When a Walking Wild drops off the board to the left, the respin stops. Any Taco Brother pay sign that is the same color as a Walking Wild will likewise become a Wild. Unique to the top reel alone, the Walking Multiplier Wild can multiply your bet by a factor of two or more. Each regular wild in view is also awarded the same multiplier as it carries. Just like the Brothers, as these wilds move to the left they trigger additional respin opportunities.
Taco Train Robbery
The Taco Train Heist bonus round is triggered by getting three of the bonus symbols, which can appear on reels 2, 3, 4, or 5. In the bonus round, you can count on seeing all three of the Walking Wild Taco Brothers. Each brother is introduced to reel 6 individually, and they shift to the left by one spot with each spin, bringing with them a different multiplier.
Pico starts on the bottom row, and with each step to the left, he triggers a new spin. When Pico disappears off the map or goes to jail, his younger brother Pepe moves to the second row, right side. After Pepe has either disappeared or been locked up, Paso joins the back row. When all brothers are locked or off the grid, the bonus round is over. When a sibling disappears off the map, his multiplier is added to the sum of all the others still visible.
There are two further significant icons. Captain Diaz is one such character, as he appears just on the opening reel. After a successful hit, the sibling who is closest to the first reel gets locked away as a worthless blocker tile. The Seorita appears on the second reel from the right. If she connects, the nearest Taco Brother is returned to the sixth reel and an unlocked one is released.
Crush ‘n’ grab tacos
When 4 bonus symbols appear during the main game, this bonus round is activated. At the beginning of this bonus round, reel 6 is filled with walking wild symbols and the three Walking Wild Taco Brothers. They all walk to the left in unison, setting off a respin. Because of his wild nature, Captain Diaz is unable to imprison any of the Walking Wild Taco Brothers in this Super Bonus round. The Walking Wild Taco Brother is on Reel 6 if the Seorita scores. Walking Wild Taco Brothers’ departure from the system marks the end of the feature.
X-iter
If the X-iter button is available, you can also play Taco Brothers Derailed in feature purchase mode. This results in five potential outcomes:
With Bonus Hunt, doubling your wager increases your chances of launching the bonus round by 100%!
Win 10 times your wager on a single spin if a Walking Wild Taco Brother appears.
A guaranteed Walking Multiplier Wild on every spin is worth 25 times your wager.
One hundred times the initial wager in the bonus round.
The Taco Smash N’ Grab Super Bonus pays out 500 times the initial wager.
Slot Decision Destroys Taco Brothers’ Plans
Since the release of the original Taco Brothers game almost seven years ago, a lot has happened and a lot has kept the same. Taco Brothers Derailed is proof that ELK is willing to always improve as a studio thanks to the time they’ve had to perfect their development skills. This slot brings back some of the finest features from the original game while also implementing some changes based on player feedback and learning from games like Wild Toro 2. Getting the Walking Wild Taco Brothers onto the reels in Derailed is all about dodging the Captain and stringing together as many respins as you can. There are even more reasons to keep the Taco Brothers in sight this time around.
Among these bonuses are multipliers and the ability of Walking Wilds to substitute themselves with matching Taco Brother symbols. Both are helpful on their own, but the Super Bonus Round is when they truly shine. Due to the presence of all three brothers in the Taco Smash N’ Grab, a great number of symbols can be turned into wilds. When dead symbols flood the grid during the normal bonus round, it might be frustrating because they cannot be contained. Interestingly, even though the Super Bonus was more thrilling, the standard bonus round typically provided superior returns compared to the X-iter cost. Odd, as there is often only one Walking Wild Taco Brother in play at any given time, unless the Seorita intervenes to free the brothers and add an extra life to the non-Super round. At maximum taconess, players in Taco Brothers Derailed may win up to 10,000 times their initial bet.
Taco Brothers Derailed is an excellent continuation of the series since it features more dramatic ups and downs than the less volatile, less potentially profitable prior Taco Brothers slots. It’s proof that ELK is on the rise, as the developers took inspiration from the original slot but amped up the gameplay, tease, and excitement to unprecedented heights.
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