Hidden Charm Slots
You would never guess from the title, but the Hidden Charm video slot from DLV is all about Venetian masks and the celebrations that the city was famous for. If you were expecting a game themed around magic, or lucky charms, then you are out of luck, but the colorful masks, pictures of Venetian gondolas and nice view of the city behind the reels certainly give it plenty of charm, and none of it hidden.
It’s a five-reel game where the aim is to land matching symbols across any of the 40 paylines in a continuous run from the left side. A wild symbol helps out by acting as others and the scatter symbol pays in any positions, but that’s about it. No free spins, no pick-a-prize rounds or win multipliers. Just basic gameplay, although you can choose to gamble winnings, doubling them over and over if you guess the color of a playing card.
If the ease of play suits you, then this is a good-looking game that has the potential to pay out some great prizes, such as 500x your total bet when the scatter symbol is seen in five places at once. High average returns and the re-assurance of fair play makes the Hidden Charms slot machine a reliable game that should bring in plenty of winning spins. Just don’t expect to be dazzled by innovative features.
It comes from DLV, a Latvian company that’s been manufacturing gaming cabinets for land-based casinos for over 25 years. Their recent move into the online casinos market is proving successful, with games such as the wildlife themed Bears Corner and Asian inspired Cai Shen among the most popular in their range. These slots come with bonus features, so it’s not that DLV can’t released action-packed slot machines, it’s more a case that they have chosen to make Hidden Charm a more straightforward game.
Easy Gameplay
What this slot lacks in features, it makes up for with bright colors and attractive symbols. The masks are in blue, gold, pink and white patterns, with the most valuable symbols showing the heads and shoulders of some fantastically-attired party goers. The realistic picture of Venice and the famous canals adds to the atmosphere, although the standard fruit machine-type soundtrack doesn’t fit in at all.
While free Hidden Charm video slots are available right here, anyone wanting to win real cash will need just 0.40 to start playing. A look at the paytable reveals how many times the stake on each line is won for each combination of symbols and in common with many slots, playing card symbols pay the smaller prizes. Land the J, Q, K, or A across three, four or all five reels to collect 8x, 40x, or 100x the line stake.
The two masks are worth 20x, 80x, or 200x depending on how many reels they stop on, while the character in red pays out 40x, 100x, or 300x your line stake. The top symbol is the guy in green, who only needs to be seen on reels one and two from the left to be worth a small payout equal to four times the stake on each line. Landing the full five symbols of this character across a payline will be worth 1,000x.
Special Symbols
There’s still a couple more symbols that need to be covered, and each works in different way that will be familiar to anyone who has spun the reels of a slot machine before. The grinning Joker is a wild symbol, which can substitute for any of those listed above. He’s able to fill in any missing pieces in a continuous run of matching symbols, or extend a win across more reels, but isn’t worth anything on its own and can’t act for the scatter symbol.
The scatter is a nice picture of Venice and a gondola, one of those classic boats that take tourists around the city for €100 for 15 minutes. Rather than charging you a small fortune, this particular gondola actually pays you instead, with 80x, 800x, and a huge 20,000x, the per line bet, or 500x the stake, when it’s seen in any three, four, or five places at once.
Double or Nothing
Like all slots from the DLV game developer, Hidden Charm comes with the option to gamble winnings in a simple card color guessing round. Click the icon of playing cards after any winning spin and you will be taken to a screen where a card is switching from red to black. Click the red or black buttons at the right time and you double the initial win but get it wrong and the gamble is lost.
The card is flashing between the colors so fast that you really have no way of predicting what it will be, so it’s strictly a 50/50 chance that you will get it right. But this is a fun way to play with a small win that won’t be missed if you click the wrong color. With the option to keep going with each correct pick, with luck, you could multiply a prize several times over.
No Hidden Costs
The standard DLV set of control buttons are used to raise your stakes to suit the budget. The high limit of 200.00 should be enough for all but the highest of high rollers. An easy to use autoplay function gets the reels spinning on their own, but you don’t have the option to pre-set win or loss levels that will stop them, so keep an eye on the bankroll.
Unmasking Similar Slots
Venice Magic is a slot from Side City Studios that has a similar theme but loads more bonus rounds. Masks, fans and card suits land across the five-reel, 25 winline game, but the action really starts when special Zodiac Wheels turn up. These spin to reveal a number of free spins with multipliers. The Venetian theme continues with a wild Joker mask that doubles any combinations that it completes, while the Tower of St Marks is a second wild symbol that fills entire reels.
The romantic nature of this water-logged city is brought to you via the Hearts of Venice slot from WMS. It features iconic images and landmarks, with gondolas, the stripy poles that seem to be a popular symbol of Venice, roses and statues. You could be falling in love with this game when features such as reel respins with locked wilds, guaranteed wins, and free spins are awarded.
The Verdict on Venice
This is certainly a charming slot machine, with attractive symbols and a nice setting. It won’t suit everyone, as the lack of features will perhaps put off players who are more used to multi-round games, but we liked the style and ease of play.
It’s got a high return to player percentage (RTP), and there’s a real chance that you could land some big prizes as these vividly-colored symbols land across the lines. Hidden Charm is mobile optimised and can be played on iPhones, iPads, Android and Windows devices. Check it out at online casinos which feature the DLV range and we’re sure that you will discover the charms of Venice in this game.
