Slots Like Count Jokula: A Vampire Joker Machine Built Around An 8,350x Respin Chase

Count Jokula is Play’n GO’s classic-style fruit machine reworked with a vampire twist, built on a compact 3×3 reel grid with five fixed paylines that only pay on three-of-a-kind combinations. Default RTP sits at 96.22%, though Play’n GO also ships four lower operator-selectable settings (94.23%, 91.23%, 87.23% and 84.23%), so the actual return on offer can shift depending on which casino you’re playing at. It’s rated medium volatility (6/10 on the studio’s own scale), stakes run from £0.05 up to £100 a spin, and the top prize is 8,350x your stake through the Respins of Evil feature. The two mechanics doing the real work are the Shapeshifter, which can turn a landing Bat into the Joker Wild on a near-miss spin, and the sticky-wild Respins of Evil chain itself. Anyone searching for slots like Count Jokula is usually after that same old-school three-reel format wrapped around a horror-comedy skin, with a genuine respin chase bolted on for good measure.

Where to Play Count Jokula

Count Jokula runs through Play’n GO’s usual spread of UK-licensed casino partners, so which RTP setting you actually get and what welcome offer applies both depend on the specific operator you sign up with. Check that any site you use holds a current UK Gambling Commission licence before depositing, and treat the game as entertainment rather than a way of making money. Play is strictly 18 and over, and free, confidential support is available any time your play stops feeling fun.

How the Game Works

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Play’n GO released Count Jokula on 27 October 2022, a couple of weeks after an exclusive window that started on 17 October for selected partners. The theme mashes up two horror-adjacent icons rather than going for straight scares: Count Jokula himself is part Dracula, part playing-card Joker, complete with a jester’s collar and fangs, and he lords over a purple-and-gold castle backdrop that looks more pantomime villain than genuine nightmare fuel. The rest of the symbol set keeps things grounded in fruit-machine tradition, with grapes, lemons, plums and cherries doing the low-pay work alongside a blood-red chalice and a jewelled dagger for the higher tier.

The feel of the game sits somewhere between a nostalgia trip and a modern respin chaser. Spins are quick, the reels are small, and there’s none of the cascading, tumbling or Megaways sprawl that a lot of newer Play’n GO releases lean on. What lifts it above a straightforward retro clone is the way the Shapeshifter and Respins of Evil features interact: a dead spin can quietly become a live one, and a single winning Joker on the middle reel can spiral into a run of sticky respins with an escalating multiplier attached.

This one suits players who grew up on three-reel pub-style machines and want that pace back, but with a proper bonus mechanic layered on top rather than just a wild symbol and a paytable. It’s less suited to players chasing constant visual fireworks or a big standalone free spins round, because Count Jokula doesn’t really have one. Everything of consequence happens through the respin chain.

Symbols and Paytable

Low-value symbols are the classic fruit-machine set: cherries, plums, lemons and a bunch of grapes. Above those sit a jewelled dagger and a blood-filled chalice as the mid-to-high symbols, with the Count Jokula character himself acting as the Joker Wild, substituting for every paying symbol and forming the backbone of both bonus features. We haven’t been able to independently verify Play’n GO’s exact coin-value paytable for each symbol from the sources we cross-checked, so rather than guess at specific multipliers we’d suggest checking the in-game paytable screen directly before you rely on any figure you see quoted elsewhere.

Shapeshifter

Shapeshifter is the game’s near-miss rescue mechanic. On any spin that wouldn’t otherwise produce a win, if a Bat symbol has landed somewhere on the grid, it will transform into the Joker Wild whenever doing so would turn that spin into a winner. It doesn’t fire on every non-winning spin with a Bat present, only when the swap actually creates a payline hit, so it’s a targeted save rather than a guaranteed one.

Respins of Evil

This is the feature that gives Count Jokula its bite. It triggers when the Joker Wild lands as part of a winning combination on the middle reel. That winning Joker locks in place as a sticky symbol while the two outer reels respin on their own. Land another win and you get another respin, plus the multiplier trail steps up a notch: the majority-documented progression across the sources we checked runs 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 7x, 10x, 15x and tops out at 20x. The chain can run for up to 25 consecutive respins in total, or until a respin comes up blank, whichever happens first. A couple of aggregator sites list a shorter trail capping at 15x, but the fuller eight-step run to 20x across 25 respins is the version most consistently reported, so that’s what we’ve gone with here.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• The Shapeshifter genuinely rescues near-miss spins rather than just decorating them, which feels generous next to most fixed-payline slots.
• Respins of Evil can snowball quickly once that sticky Joker locks the middle reel and the multiplier trail gets moving.
• The compact 3×3 grid and five paylines keep rounds fast, which suits players after old-school pacing rather than a five-minute cascade.
• An 8,350x ceiling is a solid top end for a game this size and this pace.
• The operator-selectable RTP list means some casinos may run it at the full 96.22%, which is a respectable return if you can find it.

Cons:

• That same RTP flexibility cuts both ways, since some operators are free to offer it at 84.23% instead, well below the default figure.
• Five fixed paylines and three-of-a-kind-only wins feel sparse compared with the cluster and Megaways formats a lot of new releases use.
• There’s no standalone free spins round, so if Respins of Evil doesn’t trigger, the session stays fairly flat.
• Medium volatility means the big multiplier chains don’t turn up every session, so patience is needed.
• The 3×3 grid limits the visual scale some players expect from a horror-themed slot with this much personality in its main character.

Game Screenshot

Demo Play

Count Jokula is widely available in free-play mode through most UK-licensed casino sites that carry Play’n GO’s catalogue, so you can run through the Shapeshifter and Respins of Evil mechanics with no money at stake before deciding whether to play for real. Demo balances reset automatically and don’t reflect any specific operator’s live RTP setting, so treat practice sessions as a feel for the mechanics rather than a test of long-run returns.

Expert Take

What stands out about Count Jokula isn’t the theme, which is fun but fairly lightweight, it’s how much weight Play’n GO has put on a single trigger point. Nearly everything that matters happens through that one winning Joker on the middle reel, and once it lands the game genuinely opens up. That design makes for a slot that can feel quiet for long stretches and then turn a session around in a handful of spins, which is fairly typical of medium volatility done properly rather than medium volatility used as a marketing label. The operator-selectable RTP range is worth flagging again here, because it’s an unusually wide spread for one title, and it’s the kind of detail that’s easy to miss if you’re only glancing at a headline RTP figure before you start playing.

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About the Developer

Play’n GO was founded in 1997 in Vaxjo, Sweden, and moved into building its own proprietary slot games in the mid-2000s rather than staying a white-label supplier. Unlike several of its peers, the studio has never been acquired or folded into a bigger group: Microgaming became part of Games Global in 2022, NetEnt was bought by Evolution in 2020, and Scientific Games’ NextGen studio became part of Light & Wonder that same year, but Play’n GO remains privately owned and is still led by co-founder Johan Tornqvist. It holds licences across more than 35 regulated markets, including Malta (MGA/B2B/225/2012), Gibraltar, and the UK Gambling Commission (account number 55949), alongside a run of individual US state licences.

Count Jokula Key Stats

Count Jokula Slot Info
Name	Count Jokula
Provider	Play’n GO
Developer Rank	6th of Play’n GO’s tracked catalogue on this site
RTP	96.22% (default; four lower operator-selectable settings also exist)
RTP Category	Medium-High
RTP Rank	Top third of tracked Play’n GO titles
Feature Description	Shapeshifter near-miss wild plus Respins of Evil sticky multiplier trail
Feature Categories	Wild Substitution, Sticky Respins, Multiplier Trail
Reels	3
Rows	3
Paylines	5 fixed
Volatility	Medium
Volatility Rank	Mid-table among Play’n GO’s medium-volatility slots
Min Bet	£0.05
Max Bet	£100
Max Win	8,350x stake
Release Date	27 October 2022
Slotslike Rank	Newly added, unranked pending traffic data

Page last reviewed: 16 July 2026.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How does the Respins of Evil feature work in Count Jokula?

It triggers when the Joker Wild forms part of a winning combination on the middle reel. That Joker locks in place and the other two reels respin, with each further win triggering another respin and stepping the multiplier trail up, from 2x through to a 20x ceiling across a run of up to 25 consecutive respins.

What is the RTP of Count Jokula?

The default RTP is 96.22%, but Play’n GO also distributes the game with four lower operator-selectable settings (94.23%, 91.23%, 87.23% and 84.23%), so the figure live on any given casino can differ from the default.

What is the maximum win on Count Jokula?

The top prize is 8,350x your stake, achieved through a long run of the Respins of Evil feature rather than any single spin.

Is Count Jokula high or low volatility?

It’s medium volatility, rated 6 out of 10 on Play’n GO’s own scale, meaning wins land more often than in a high-volatility slot but the biggest payouts still depend on the respin chain lining up.

What are the best slots like Count Jokula?

Fire Joker and Jolly Roger are the closest matches from Play’n GO’s own back catalogue for pace and structure, while Dracula and Blood Suckers cover similar ground on theme if you want more vampire and less playing-card joker.

Can I play Count Jokula for free?

Yes. Most UK-licensed casinos that carry Play’n GO’s games let you try Count Jokula in demo mode with no deposit needed, which is a good way to see the Shapeshifter and Respins of Evil mechanics before staking real money.

Who developed Count Jokula?

Count Jokula was developed by Play’n GO, the Swedish studio behind Book of Dead and Reactoonz, and was released on 27 October 2022.

Our Verdict on Count Jokula

Count Jokula works because it doesn’t try to be more than it is. It’s a small, fast, old-fashioned fruit machine with one genuinely well-built bonus mechanic bolted on, rather than a title stuffed with features that don’t quite justify the theme. The Shapeshifter is a neat touch that softens some of the flatness a fixed 5-payline game can bring, and the Respins of Evil chain gives it a real ceiling to chase without needing a Megaways reel set to get there. Where it loses marks is the operator-selectable RTP spread, which is wide enough that it’s worth checking before you commit to a session, and the lack of any separate free spins feature for players who prefer a different kind of bonus round. It’s a solid pick for anyone who likes classic mechanics with a horror-comedy skin and doesn’t mind that the whole game hinges on one trigger point. SlotsLike rating: 7.4/10.