Taco Brothers Derailed
By ELK Studios
Overview
Prepare for a thrilling return to Santa Maria with Taco Brothers Derailed, the highly anticipated third installment from ELK Studios. This action-packed slot plunges you into a darker, grimmer gold rush, where Evil Captain Diaz once again threatens the villagers' newfound freedom and riches amidst the chaos. While the visual aesthetic shifts from the original’s sunnier disposition to a more intense, almost gritty atmosphere that highlights the perilous stakes of this new gold boom, the bouncy, upbeat Spanish soundtrack consistently injects vibrant energy. The grand adventure unfolds across an expanded grid featuring 6 reels and 4 rows, boasting an impressive 466 connecting paylines that create winning combinations from left to right, requiring symbols to touch either horizontally or diagonally. This evolution of the beloved series meticulously brings back cherished elements while incorporating major feature tweaks and fresh lessons learned, offering a truly dynamic gaming experience. Designed for players who crave dramatic ups and downs, the game offers Medium volatility and a staggering Max Win of 10,000x your stake, promising heightened thrills and substantial win potential in its captivating narrative.
Gameplay & Features
Several of Derailed's features have direct links to the original slot, though, on the whole, the game has had a major overhaul. Let's start withWalking WildsandWalking Multiplier Wilds. All Taco Brother pay symbols can land as Walking Wilds. Theymove one space to the left, and each step triggers arespin. Respins end when Walking Wilds fall off the leftmost side. Walking Wilds alsoturn any corresponding Taco Brother pay symbol wild. TheWalking Multiplier Wildis a little different and appears on thetop row only. It carries amultiplier, and all regular wilds in view are given the same multiplier. Like the Brothers, these wilds generaterespinsfor each step left they take.
• Taco Train Heist
•
Bonus symbolsare present onreels 2, 3, 4 or 5, and landing exactly3 of themtriggers theTaco Train Heist bonus round. All three Walking Wild Taco Brothers areguaranteed to landduring the bonus game. Each brother isadded to reel 6one at a time, and theymove left one position per spin, carrying amultiplierthat changes on each step. Picolands first on the bottom row, generating a respin for each step left he takes. When Pico walks off the grid or is imprisoned, the second brotherPepelands on the right-hand side of the second row. Once Pepe has walked off or been imprisoned,Pasoappears on the third row. The bonus round ends when all brothers arelocked and/or have fallen off the grid. When a brother walks off the grid, his multiplier isadded to the multipliers of remaining Walking Wild Taco Brothers in view. There are two more key symbols. One isCaptain Diaz, who lands only on thefirst reel. When he hits, heimprisonsthe brother closest to the first reel, turning him into alocked, valueless blocker tile. The second is theSeñorita, landing on therightmost reel. When she hits, she eitherunlocksa locked Taco Brother orsends the one closest to the first reel back to the sixth reel.
• Taco Smash N' Grab
•
This feature is awarded when4 bonus symbolsland in the base game. This feature starts with all three Walking Wild Taco Brothers plus a walking wild symbol stacked on reel 6. They allmove in sync, one step left, triggering arespinas they move. In this Super Bonus round, Captain Diaz iswildand cannot lock any of the Walking Wild Taco Brothers. Should the Señorita hit, shepulls a Walking Wild Taco Brother to reel 6. The feature ends when Walking Wild Taco Brothers walk off the grid.
• X-iter
•
The second way of playing Taco Brothers Derailed is infeature buymode by clicking theX-iterbutton, if present. This provides these five options:
Bonus Hunt– 2x the bet to double the chance of triggering the bonus game. Walking Wild Taco Brother– 10x the bet for one spin with a guaranteed Walking Wild Taco Brother. Walking Multiplier Wild– 25x the bet for one spin with a guaranteed Walking Multiplier Wild. Bonus– 100x the bet to trigger the bonus game. Super Bonus– 500x the bet to trigger Taco Smash N' Grab
Final Thoughts
Around seven years have passed since the firstTaco Brothersgame dropped, and some things have changed, some things have stayed the same. ELK has used the time to hone their development chops, and Taco Brothers Derailed is evidence of the studio's willingness to constantly evolve. This is a slot that returns many of the first game's best bits, conducts a set of major feature tweaks, and incorporates a few lessons learned from slots likeWild Toro 2. Derailed is once again about getting those Walking Wild Taco Brothers onto the reels, avoiding the Captain, and looping as many respins together as possible. This time, there are even more incentives to keep the Taco Brothers in view as long as possible.
These incentives include multipliers and the way Walking Wilds turn corresponding Taco Brother symbols wild. Both are useful on their own but are something else when combined in the Super Bonus Round. Since all three brothers are active in the Taco Smash N' Grab, they can transform a lot of symbols into wilds. They also can't be imprisoned, which might be irritating when dead symbols are clogging up the grid in the regular bonus round. Interestingly, while the Super Bonus was more exciting, we tended to get better returns relative to the X-iter cost from the regular bonus round. Strange when you consider there's usually just one Walking Wild Taco Brother at a time unless the Señorita steps in to let bros out of prison, blasting extra life into the non-Super round. At max taco-ness, payers can win up to10,000 times their stakein Taco Brothers Derailed.
Taco Brothers Derailed has more dramatic ups downs than the less volatile, less potentially lucrative previous Taco Brothers slots and is an outstanding continuation of the series. It's a demonstration of ELK's onwards and upwards trajectory, as the team brings together the best parts of the original slot while jacking the gameplay, tease, and excitation to more extreme levels.
