While the company’s description had made 5-reel, 20-payline Big Kahuna Snakes and Ladders sound like Indiana Jones vs. Donkey Kong ("Your mission in this game is to help Duzi in his Quest for Big Kahuna’s Golden mask. The player’s mission is to progress from level to level using the ladders as a booster, but watch out for the crafty snakes as they will only take your players down..."), the story is irrelevant; if interested, the whole thing’s delineated in its entirety in a sweet-looking video clip going into the game. It's something about a stolen artifact, a chief wearing a paper bag on his head (Where'd he get it, anyway?), and some apparently Australian shrunken heads. More on these latter guys in a moment.) We don’t need the incredibly complex backstory, but this is a sweet touch.

Start with reel play. The graphics are absolutely beautiful; in fact, the pineapple, watermelon and kiwi (essentially reproduced from the first Big Kahuna) still all look so good as to have LCD hoping this Microgaming team will create an old-fashioned fruit-style game à la tropicale. Apparently, though, we have to have moving symbols to show the iSlottiness of it all ... fortunately, Microgaming’s stuff struts here, too, with monkey, ceremonial headdress and such symbols not too obtrusive. And LCD must admit that the hero and heroine symbols are completely gorgeous.

The sound effects are nice, with refreshing quiet sounds as the reels “spin,” a bit of drumming with a win. (LCD officially recommended background music: Mama Africa by Peter Tosh. Oh, all right, just put on that Bob Marley: Legend, then.) And when three snake SCATTERs fall in, things really take off.

After another good bit of animation featuring our heroine wearing bikini top and holding a spear (whoa), the screen opens up onto an-honest-to-Pele Snakes & Ladders board with five variously colored dice. Fantastic! And did one of those three Aussie-accented shrunken heads hanging out by the side of the board just say “loife’s a bitch” when a missed a ladder? Trash-talking in an online slot? Amazing!

The player is given five dice to start the game and a free roll is won with a six (the shrunken heads don’t like it when you roll a six; heh heh. And no, LCD has no bloody clue why they’re Australian. They must’ve arrived with the watermelons). LCD can’t imagine that too many people have amassed good rolls enough to get all the way to square no. 100, but LCD himself hit the game’s big ladder, climbed up to square 77 and ended the bonus round with 23,700 coins for a neat $1,185 payout. Freaking awesome.

Indy vs. Kong? Not exactly; instead, Microgaming has snatched the lead from rival Rival Software on LCD's table with this production. Big Kahuna: Snakes and Ladders is simply the online slot of the year to this point. LCD rating: 10/10.