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It's funny how things go around. For a long time I hadn't seen sight nor light of any Mexican themed slot. Then all of a sudden, I play three or four all at once. All very different and all of varying quality but all undoubtedly on a Mexican theme.
This latest slot is Realtime Gaming's Popinata slot and as soon as the slot fires up and you hear the first licks of the mariachi music that accompanies it, you will be under no illusions as to where the inspiration for the game has come from.
Mexican culture is rich and varied and it seems odd that we've picked up on their penchant for creating paper mache animals, filling them with an assortment of sweets and toys and blindfolding their kids before handing them a large stick to beat the living daylights out of it to try and release the goodies hidden within.
However, it is seldom the subject of a slot that makes it a winner in my eyes, so have Realtime Gaming managed to turn this fun and unusual game into a winning slot that will keep you spinning at the reels? Let's take a closer look and find out.
Overview
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Presentation
The Popinata slot is definitely one of Realtime Gaming's more recent releases as it has a more polished feel than their earlier slot offerings. The music is typically Mexican and I often find that people have polarized views of this, they either love it or hate it. I tended to play this slot with the sound muted after a little while which will give you an idea of which camp I fall into.
Even though the music isn't really my taste, the presentation of the slot is very nicely done. The reels are set against a starry sky and either side of the reels are two cacti each bedecked in fairy lights which also run across the top of the reel. All the control buttons are at the bottom of the reels and everything looks very nicely presented in a logical manner.
A nice addition is the Speed button on the console which can speed the pace of your spins up considerably meaning you spend less time in between spins, which is ideal if you are short of time and want to cram as many spins into the available time as possible.
What's on the reels?
On the reels are a number of different symbols all linked to a Mexican party, or Pinata theme with each of the symbols on the reels a different kind of Pinata. I really like this approach as it does away with the ceaseless playing card low symbols on the reels and gives you something new to look at.
The lower value symbols, of which I'd class there are five are Pinata Hat, the Pinata Taco, the Pinata Guitar, the Pinata bottle and the Pinata firework (or at least, I think it is a firework). There are two higher paying Pinata symbols and they are the Red Chilli Pepper and the highest is the rather cheery looking cactus which offers payouts of up to 250 coins for five on a pay line.
However, what is important to note here about the reels and the slot in general more so than the symbols themselves even is that this is a Win Both Ways across the reel slot. What this means is that you have ten pay lines that go from left to right across the reels as standard, but you can also land wins on those pay lines from right to left. This in effect doubles the pay lines available in the slot (without doubling your wager, which is always a big positive!).
There is just one more symbol on the reels to look out for and that is the Wild symbol which we will explore in more detail below.
Wild Features
The Wild symbol in the slot is the Donkey Pinata symbol and this symbol is only seen on the second, third and fourth reels of the slot. When you land one of the Wild symbols, the donkey will expand to cover the entire reel and this will give you a greater chance at landing a higher value win as you can trigger multiple winning pay lines.
Although there's no great bonus attached to this Wild symbol, there is one other feature of the Wild to note and this contains the games Free Spin bonus, so we'll look at that in the section below.
Free Spins Features
Unfortunately, there isn't a Free Spins bonus round in the traditional sense with the Popinata slot. There's no scatters to hit to trigger 10 free spins or similar unfortunately, which is a bit of a disappointment to be fair.
However, what you do have is when you land two or more of the Donkey Wild symbols on the reels on a single spin, then you trigger the Wild Re-Spin feature. Once the two Wild symbols have expanded across the reels, then they will be held in place and the remaining reels will be spin once again to offer you a second chance at a large payout. If you manage to land a third Wild symbol on the reels, then all three reels will be held and you'll receive another re-spin.
It is this bonus feature which is the key to winning the larger amounts on the Popinata slot, especially seeing as you can trigger wins both ways across the reels. This is how you can win considerably more than the 250 coin highest win amount on each pay line as by triggering multiple pay lines, the size of your win can increase markedly.
Other Bonus Features
Other than the features outlined above the Popinata slot doesn't have any other main features in the game and unlike many other Realtime Gaming slots, it also doesn't have its own progressive jackpot game. This is a little unfortunate as the game feels a little 'thin' on content as a result and quickly becomes a little repetitive to play as there's nothing different to trigger other than the Wild bonuses.
Best Feature of the Popinata slot
Although many people would say the Expanding Donkey Wild symbol is the best feature of the slot and I could understand why, for me what makes this slot eminently more playable than it would be is the fact that you can win both ways across the reels.
By offering this, you effectively double the number of pay lines in play from 10 to 20 and you still only pay the 10 coins to get the reels spinning. As a result, in terms of value alone, this feature is a hit straight from the first spin.
However as you play, you soon begin to realize how valuable having win both ways is as you will find around half your wins come from symbols reading right to left and it is this which stops the slot becoming somewhat tiresome and dull as you do win considerably more often as a result.
What does the Popinata slot lack?
In one word, features. The Wild symbol is a nice addition and the fact that it can be Expanded and the fact it can trigger free re-spins when you get two or three on a reel is a nice touch, but in my view, this is a somewhat basic feature.
I can see what Realtime Gaming are trying to do here, Popinata is essentially their attempt at creating a game under the same schematics as the smash hit Starburst slot from Net Entertainment and in many ways, it works, however with Starburst, you do feel that those big value wins are relatively close by, with Popinata, you never really feel that close to a big win.
The addition of a free spins bonus round, even if it was just 5 or 7 spins, would have lifted this slot and made the base game more exciting to play. It is something of an oversight to miss this out as I think these features do attract plenty of players.
Conclusion
It may be on a Pinata-theme but this is Realtime Gaming's attempt at duplicating the success of the Starburst slot in my view. The number of pay lines, winning both ways across the reels and how the Wilds are used and trigger free spins are all direct ports from that game and in many ways, it does work in a similar way.
However, I felt the presentation just lacked a little excitement, the features don't trigger as often as I would like and although I love the win both ways feature on the reels, I never felt that I was that close to a big win on the Popinata slot compared to the game it is emulating.
That said, this isn't a 'bad' slot at all. I just think a few small tweaks would have improved it significantly and made it its own game, rather than an attempted remake of what is a bona fide classic slot.
Ratings
Good Luck!
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