Ela-Games keeps this one simple: cherries, lemons, watermelons and stars on five reels, with a crackling blue thunder-ball hovering over the top. Land enough coin symbols and you're into a Hold & Win respin board chasing four fixed jackpots. I ran it in demo, hit the bonus, and logged what actually landed — because 94% RTP means the honest number matters more than the 10,000x on the tin.
Seven stops around the ride — what it is, how it plays, and where the money really moves.
Thunderball Max wears the classic 777 / fruit costume: cherries, lemons, grapes, watermelons, plums and golden stars on a dark blue-and-violet cabinet, all lit by a crackling blue lightning-ball sitting between the jackpot tiles up top. It's a tidy, no-nonsense look — the kind of board that trades on nostalgia rather than story. The action is all in the coins.
The hook is a Hold & Win respin round. Land enough golden coin symbols and they lock, triggering respins where every fresh coin sticks and resets the count. Each coin carries its own cash value — in my run I watched tiles land at 10.00, 7.00 and a fat 24.00 — and you collect the lot when the respins run dry. It's the exact frame you've met a hundred times, executed cleanly.
Above the reels sit four fixed jackpots — GRAND, MAJOR, MINOR and MINI — that I could read off the top panel at 1,000.00, 150.00, 50.00 and 25.00 respectively at my stake. The blue thunder-ball is the game's random-multiplier gimmick, capable of juicing a spin or a collected coin haul. That multiplier is where the 10,000x ceiling theoretically lives.
Here's the honest bit: 94% RTP is lean — a couple of points under most modern slots and well under the 96% par — and volatility is HIGH. The 10,000x max win looks generous, but on a 94% game you're paying for that ceiling with a thinner base return than you'd get almost anywhere else. My own bonus paid out a modest 4.57 total on a 1.00 bet. It's a competent classic, but the numbers ask you to keep your stakes honest.
| Symbol | Payout (× stake) |
|---|---|
| Premium symbols — thematic | |
| Top symbol | Values read from the game's payout panel |
| Mid symbols | |
| The mid-tier symbols | Values read from the game's payout panel |
| Low symbols — royals | |
| A · K · Q · J · 10 | The lowest-paying tier |
| Specials | |
| Wild | Substitutes for the other symbols except the bonus; role and value read from the payout panel |
| Scatter / bonus | Triggers the bonus feature; the count needed is read from the game |
Values are read live from the in-game SYMBOL PAYOUT panel by the desk. The maximum win is 10,000× your stake.
Demo run, one bonus caught. Two frames off my screen — the base fruit reels with the jackpots up top, and the Hold & Win coin board mid-round.
The honest tally: the coin board dropped with values of 10.00, 24.00 and 7.00 on the grid, the thunder-ball did its bit, and the round closed at a TOTAL WIN of 4.57 on my 1.00 bet. That's a below-cost bonus, and on a 94% RTP game that's exactly the kind of result you should expect more often than not. The frame's fine; the return is lean. Keep the stakes small. — Tess
Screenshots by Tess Hale · Allstars Land · May 2026 · demo build, 1.00 total bet, one Hold & Win round
Three dispatches off the poster column that pair well with this ride.
ELK Studios' sequel is live, and the walking Wild's sheriff-star multiplier is doing exactly what the trailer promised — most of the time.
Read the dispatch ▸ GuidesThe percentage printed on every paytable is the most quoted number in the park and the most misread. Here is what it actually promises — and what it never will.
Read the dispatch ▸ GuidesTwo pokies can share the same RTP and still play nothing alike. The difference is volatility, and it decides how your balance actually moves.
Read the dispatch ▸
Ex-arcade cashier turned pokies writer. Tess reads a slot the way she used to read a coin-op: what it costs to play, what the machine actually gives back, and whether the “big one” is real or just paint on the glass. Sceptical, warm, allergic to hype.
18+ · Gamble responsibly · Gambling Helpline NZ 0800 654 655
