Play Le Avventure di Pinocchio for Free

If you recall Pinocchio being a charming tale of boyhood innocence and adventure, you may wish to watch the cartoon again. Better still, read Carlo Collodi’s novel to reaffirm just how dark and cruel the tale could be. Sure, it all ends happily ever after in the Disney film, as Disney films do, but not before Pinocchio had seen some wretched sights and dragged his sidekick Jiminy Cricket through hell and back.

Take a glance at Le Avventure di Pinocchio video slot and you’ll spot a similar tale: sure it features some loveable cartoon characters, but let’s not overlook the scowling figure of Geppetto, Pinocchio’s creator and dad. Pinocchio’s nose ain’t the subtlest, let’s be honest, but in this incarnation his dad’s is equally intimidating. Like father, like son.

Geppetto serves as the wild symbol in the game, and it’s a fitting assignation, for with his bulbous nose and downturned grimace, the carpenter looks as wild as a father with an eloped son can be.

Other gaming symbols are far more endearing, it must be said. We have Pinocchio himself of course, who serves as the bonus symbol. There’s also Monstro the whale, whose stomach Geppetto uses as a taxi cab en route to rescue his tearaway son. Other symbols include Jiminy Cricket, a fairy, a pair of woodland critters, a gold coin and a fairground.

The 5-reel, 25-line slot plays much like Portomaso Gaming's other stable of video slots. The Maltese-based company have utilised their tried-and-tested combo of wild, scatter and bonus symbols to spice up the regular gameplay.

Wild serves as a substitute for any of the regular playing symbols except for jackpot, scatter and bonus. The symbol, comprising an irate looking Geppetto, can pay up to 75, 100 and 250 coins for 3, 4 and 5 reels in a row.

The bonus symbol, which comes in the form of the badboy himself, Pinocchio, will activate the bonus feature when 3, 4 or 5 appear on an active payline. It's a similar story with scatter: land 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols anywhere in view to secure free spins, accompanied by a multiplier that will nicely boost any corresponding wins. The game has an autoplay symbol and a maximum bet limit of 10 coins.

Le Avventure di Pinocchio is one of these slots you'll either love or hate. Of course, the same could be said of any video slot: if it's paying out, odds are you'll discover a sudden appreciation for it; if it's being stubborn you'll curse its name.

Nevertheless, Le Avventure di Pinocchio is likely to be more polarising than most. Some players will find the graphics and sound to be crude and unimaginative, whereas others will happily immerse themselves in the gameplay, with scant regard for the appearance and sound effects, which can be muted should they prove too distracting.

If nothing else, the slot will leave you nursing a nagging desire to revisit Disney’s cartoon of the puppet that came to life before going spectacularly off the rails. If you’re wondering why Pinocchio has received the video slots treatment, incidentally, while other Disney classics have been passed over, it all comes down to copyright.

With the original 19th century story now out of copyright, slots designers and other enterprising companies are free to use and abuse Pinocchio’s memory as they see fit. Le Avventure di Pinocchio might not be the prettiest online slot you’ll ever play, but it’s faithful to the original story at least in all its terrifying, nightmare-inducing glory.

If Carlo Collodi were alive to see his tale reinvented as a 5-reel video slot, he’d probably shudder. Never mind. His loss is your gain provided you play those reels right and keep your eyes on the prize.