In its third slot driven by the PopWins concept, software developer Stakelogic is taking a bite out of a sugary universe called Delicious Candy PopWins. You may argue that Mystery Drop makes it the fourth. Stakelogic, which has a license to exploit the mechanism developed by AvatarUX, has so far done nothing to impress with its implementation of the feature. While AvatarUX has been on a creative tear, Stakelogic has been willing to just add PopWins to games that are functional but lack that indefinable “it” factor that might set them apart. Considering how ubiquitous sweets are, Delicious Candy PopWins needs to truly stand out in order to succeed. Could it? Come on, then, let’s find out.
Delicious Candy PopWins satisfies basic aesthetic requirements but offers nothing else. The story unfolds in a sugar-filled utopia where the air is thick with cotton candy and the ground is covered with lollipops. It’s a perspective that veterans of the genre will be familiar with; it’s neither a groundbreaking addition nor a depressing downer. In the centre, you’ll find a grid with 5 reels and 3 rows, giving you 486 possibilities to win just by playing the main game. This is possible due of the bidirectional nature of the payouts, which sees winners rewarded both from the left and the right.
As we go deeper into this potentially cavity-inducing universe, we discover a very volatile mathematical model that generates a default return to player value of 96.50%. You may place regular bets ranging from 20 pence per spin up to a maximum of £/€10, or you can activate the Super Stake to have your stakes multiplied by two. The extra bonus is that the standard game now includes multiplier symbols worth anything from x2 to x100. If there are several multipliers visible, their values are multiplied together before being applied to the spin’s win total.
The symbols employed in Delicious Candy PopWins leave no room for doubt. The values vary from 1.5 times the stake for five of the orange oval one to 12.5 times the bet for the golden crown, and all of them look like different kinds of hard candies. Keep in mind that five of a type wins only count as a victory once. In this game, players won’t get any help from wild symbols because Delicious Candy PopWins doesn’t have any.
Slot Machine Featuring Sweet PopWins Candy
The PopWins mechanism is the first thing you’ll want to master. When a winning combination occurs, the associated symbols vanish and are replaced by two new ones. If a fresh victory is achieved, the cycle will begin again. Each reel may expand to a maximum height of 6 places during the main game, and 9 during the free spins bonus round. At maximum height, just one new symbol will replace the winning ones.
No Risk Turns
In the base game, free spins are activated when all reels have grown to a height of 6 rows. Before the free spins begin, a number between 5 and 15 is granted, and a beginning win multiplier is determined by spinning one of three bonus wheels. A arbitrary wheel is chosen as the precise one. Multipliers ranging from two to ten on Wheel 1; five to fifteen on Wheel 2; and ten to twenty-five on Wheel 3 are available. A win multiplier begins at 1 and grows by 1 after each win during free spins, up to a maximum of 2 if all 9 reel slots are used. Although it is not explicitly specified in the rules, it appears that the reels will begin the following spin and any subsequent free spins at the height they reached on the previous spin. If, for instance, all reels expand to 9 rows high, they will remain at that height for the duration of the feature.
Freebie Get
Players in some jurisdictions may be able to purchase access to the free spins bonus. One may purchase up to 15 free spins with a starting multiplier of x10 for 80x the wager, up to 15 free spins with a starting ratio of x15 for 150x the bet, and up to 15 free spins with a starting multiplier of x25 for 400x the stake. The fourth choice, for 200 times the stake, guarantees a random result within the standard range of outcomes.
Option to Wager
Finally, players may be allowed to risk their payouts after receiving winning combos. You may double or quadruple your money by guessing the color or suit of a hidden card. If you make the incorrect selection, you lose everything.
Juicy Fruit PopWins: Slot Review and Final Score
Many games with sugary themes have recently been released at the time this was written, as though their creators simply couldn’t resist. While it’s OK to cater to shifting tastes, it can be counterproductive to rely excessively on the same visual and emotional cues. Same thing happened with Sweet PopWins Candy. The game’s overall lack of polish didn’t help matters. Secret negotiations between Stakelogic and AvatarUX about the PopWins mechanism were spurred by the copycat slot Mystery Drop. Instead of putting its heart and soul into a sugary PopWins paradise, it seemed like Stakelogic phoned it in with Delicious Candy PopWins because of some type of contractual duty. This is, of course, just me guessing aloud at why Delicious Candy PopWins didn’t get more interest.
The studio hasn’t done much with the features, and the aesthetics are rather standard. The PopWins mechanism is present and doing its job, generating new rows and ways, but there is little more to see. While the free spins alone are very safe, the win multiplier makes them much better. Increase the bonus round multiplier after each win or when the reels reach their maximum height. Completed successfully; call it paint by numbers if you like. There’s no denying the strength of this combination of mechanisms (the maximum win is 10,000 times the wager), but in the PopWins universe, there are plenty of other exciting options to try out instead.
As Stakelogic’s third official PopWins excursion comes to a close, it’s safe to say that the results have been underwhelming and pale in contrast to what the mechanic’s creator is doing. To date, AvatarUX’s implementation of the mechanism has far outshined Stakelogic’s, since the former has been pushing it out with nearly every new version, trying new themes, twisting features, and going straight out experimental with the notion.