Modern representations of “Tiki” in white Western culture are a long way from their Polynesian origins, but that doesn’t stop people enjoying the colourful, exotic look with its beaches and tropical fruits. Not everyone will appreciate such a deviation from the more serious religious aspects, but this theme has become popular for a reason. Let Slots Temple explain what tiki means, both traditionally and on the reels, and then let’s take a look at your favourite tiki slots. Click here to read more.
First Man
To the Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, Tiki was the first man, their equivalent to Adam in the Abrahamic faiths. Obviously, he’s hugely important. There are a few versions of his tale, including the one where he was created by Tāne, god of forests and birds, and another where his creator was Tūmatauenga, Tāne’s brother and the god of war. Similarly, there are different stories about how he encountered the first woman, sometimes known as Mārikoriko. Variations on the Tiki myth can be found in other parts of Polynesia, including the Cook Islands, Tahiti, the Marquesas Islands and Hawai’i.
The Face of Tiki
Tiki’s importance is reflected in how he is represented in Polynesian culture, where humanoid carvings, sometimes just of a face, embody not just him but also a reverence for all ancestors. Tiki carvings can be made of wood or stone (particularly pounamu or greenstone) and vary in size. Some are small enough to be worn around the neck as what are known as “hei-tiki”, a type of taonga, or treasured possession, whilst larger versions are used to mark the boundaries of importance places and sacred sites. The distinctive look of these artefacts and monuments captured the imaginations of white people, who would use hei-tiki as more generic lucky charms, and would eventually appropriate them for modern tiki culture.
A Taste of the Tropics
What we in the West might think of as tiki culture has its origins in America, though it’s clearly inspired by Polynesian and similar cultures. Some would argue that it simplifies and amalgamates them without truly understanding the underlying history. The first Polynesian-themed bar opened in California in the 1930s, complete with burning torches, colourful fabrics, leis (wreaths of flowers) and exotic cocktails. The idea spread to other bars and restaurants, particularly after the Second World War, whilst Disney opened its Enchanted Tiki Room attraction at Disneyland in 1963, following it up with a full Polynesian-themed hotel resort in Disneyworld in the 1970s.
Today, tiki culture is still very much associated with bars and restaurants, particularly those with “exotic” cocktails decorated with tropical fruits and served in tiki mugs, or even in the bodies of coconuts or pineapples. Fans of tiki culture may reflect it in their fashion sense, with Hawaiian shirts or sarong-style dresses. You can also find its influences in music, film, television and other media, including slots.
Tiki Reels
As with most slot themes, you can find Tiki designs on standard 5-reel slots and on complicated Megaways games with thousands of ways to win. It’s a theme particularly well-suited to modern twists on the fruit machine, as the traditional lemons and oranges go well with a tiki cocktail, and may even be joined by some more tropical options like coconuts. You can include pretty much any type of bonus in a tiki slot, so free spins, multipliers, expanding symbols, gamble features, they’re all on the table.
A Beachfront Paradise
The beach is a pretty standard setting for a tiki slot, with or without a bar. There’s golden sand, perhaps a few palm trees, and then the sparkling blue ocean and bright blue sky in the background. Triple Tiki Super Free Spins mostly keeps with this sort of image, though you may feel a little apprehensive about the simmering glow emanating from the top of the active volcano in this volatile slot. Don’t worry. When lava balls land on the reels it means you’re in for free spins, and the volcano symbol itself is the route to the bonus wheel. The 5x3 layout with its 25 paylines may seem fairly standard, but as the title suggest, Triple Tiki Super Free Spins puts a lot of emphasis on its features. Gold Coin Studios has designed Triple Tiki Super Free Spins not just with free spins, but with extra modifiers and jackpots as part of the bonus wheel prizes.
The Aloha State
Most Polynesian countries are in the South Pacific and function as either independent island nations, or as dependencies of old colonial authorities like France and the UK (or the area’s larger powers, Australia and New Zealand). Hawai’i occupies a unique status because of its annexation into the United States, but it still fights to preserve Native Hawaiian culture on its beautiful islands.
Even if you don’t think you speak a word of Hawaiian, you’ve probably heard the word “aloha”. It’s a greeting, but more than just “hello”. It’s about peace and compassion and mercy, with a deep spiritual context that outsiders may not always understand. When you see it in the title of a slot, you know you’re visiting a tropical paradise, and Aloha from FBM Digital Systems is no exception. Again, there are the beach and the sea forming a background for the 5 reels, this time in 4 rows rather than 3, and an atmospheric mist hangs over the mountaintops. There are coconuts and pineapples among the symbols, a ukelele in the soundtrack, and the ability to remove low value symbols alongside the free spins in the features.
Bottled Lightning
When it comes to titles that don’t sound like they belong in a tiki slot, then Lightning Eclipse has to rank fairly high. If you’re familiar with Lightning Box slots, you’ll probably know this is a reference to the bonus mechanism, not the game’s setting. That is the beautiful, tropical beach that we’ve come to expect, though with the soft pinks and purples of twilight rather than a bright and blazing sun. Indigenous men and women perform their rituals on the reels alongside classic symbols like the tiki mask. Lightning Eclipse is more expansive in its layout than the other tiki slots we’ve discussed thanks to its 243 ways to win, and its extensive set of bonuses includes free spins, lightning re-spins, wild upgrade re-spins and colossal symbols. High volatility, low-ish RTP and lots of features make this island slot anything but serene.