Rooted in the culture of places like New Zealand and Hawaii, Tiki culture has been adopted (albeit often in a very kitschy way) across the United States and around the world.

This one fails to capture the spirit of the islands in the same way that most good Tiki bars do, but it's got a bonus round that can be lucrative enough to make you look twice at it.

Tiki Torch, ported from the offline version for use on the web, gets off to such a great start with a beautiful carved Tiki background as well as Polynesian idols, boats, huts and pearls on the reels.

However, it fails to live up to its potential from there on in. There are some attractive win animations, but the lack of any background music (except for when a bonus round is triggered) tends to break the immersion and makes the game feel a bit hollow.

The sound effects used are the typical files employed in most other Aristocrat titles, but they just don't fit with this theme. It's a shame, as a bit more effort to reflect the Polynesian culture through sound could have helped to make this game much better.

Of course, if you usually play with the sound muted, none of this will affect you adversely.

Tiki Torch has 20 paylines, which is pretty decent, but it does sometimes feel like your wins should be bigger than they are because of where the lines break. The wild symbol pops up pretty regularly though, which definitely helps to ease that pain.

Landing 3 or more pearls from the leftmost reel to the right triggers a bonus round of just 8 free spins, even if you land five pearls in a row. This feels stingy, especially when you take into account the fact that there's no multiplier in the bonus round.

Even so, it's possible to rack up some big wins because the knife, canoe and hut symbols turn into Tiki torches on every spin. This means, in effect, that you'll probably win at least something on every single free spin.

In fact, we managed to come out of one bonus round with almost 75 times the value of our original bet. So, as tight-fisted as 8 spins might seem, it is still possible to do pretty well out of it.

The base jackpot of 2,500 coins isn't going to set anyone alight, so it's probably best to think of this game as one that you should play if you enjoy the act of playing slots.

The problem with this is that, even though the game looks nice, it's not particularly fun to play. The theme lends itself so well to ideas for possible mini-games – pearl hunting, carving icons and so on – that it feels like a huge disappointment when the game fails to capitalise on them.

Tiki Torch isn't a bad slot, it's just a bit uninspiring. Maybe that's to be expected considering its age, but that's not a good enough excuse when there are so many other slots out there with exciting mini-games, immersive soundtracks and massive jackpots to play for.

Tiki Torch looks and plays reasonably well, particularly for an older title, but there's just nothing particularly compelling about it. The game has 20 paylines and offers only 8 free spins in its bonus round, but we should point out that its custom reel symbols turn wild in the bonus feature so you can still rack up some big wins. The game's jackpot stands at just 2,500 coins, which won't be a huge draw to this fairly predictable slot. With newer slots out there boasting mini-games, unique playing styles and larger jackpots, you may well find Tiki Torch a bit forgettable.