Play Lady in Red for Free

We’ve never had the pleasure of visiting a jazz club, but we imagine the symbols depicted in Lady in Red are fairly true to life. We have one symbol showing a slanted double bass, expert fingers playing across the strings. In the background, a red-jacketed pianist makes eyes at the titular singer, who lights up the stage. Elsewhere, there’s a tumbler of whisky aside a packet of matches and an ashtray (b-but, the s-s-moking ban!); a couple of red roses laid on a table aside a sheet of paper imprinted with a lipstick kiss; a flashing camera held by a photographer; an action shot of the performing singer; a Lady in Red logo; and the typical playing card symbols, from 9 through to Ace.

Shall we take a look at the pay-table? Oh, why the hell not. You’ll already know that the playing card symbols are the lowest value. It’s not worth discussing the pay-outs associated with nabbing a few of these as they are pitifully meagre; the best thing to say is that you can win 200 for five Aces in a line. The symbols of note are the ones of the Lady in Red and double bass. The former pays 500 for five-in-a-line or 200 for four-in-a-line; the latter pays a mega 2,500 for five and 400 for four. You can also get decent figures from the roses and the whisky tumbler.

Needless to say, all wins pay left-to-right except the scatter, which pays in any configuration. All wins are multiplied by the coins staked per bet-line; once again, this excludes the scatter, whose function will become apparent. Players can stake up to 10 coins per pay-line and the coin size varies from 0.01 to 0.20.

A quick word on the sound effects: so keen are Microgaming to convince you that you’re in a lounge club and not, say, in your bedroom playing a casino game, that the sound effects pipe ambient jazz audio to you at all times. We hear the gentle tinkling of a piano in the background, a steady drumbeat and a hum of conversation. It’s not as intrusive as the audio of many themed slot games which compel you hit mute from the offing; but it’s not exactly inspiring, either.

The Lady in Red logo acts as the game’s wild. As well as being able to replace regular symbols – save for scatters, of course – the emblem awards a 2x multiplier on every win it helps configure. The wild is also an absurdly high-paying symbol. In fact, it’s the key to the 12,500 jackpot, which will burst from the machine if you land five wild symbols. You can also win 2,000 for four-in-a-line.

The image of an old-fashioned camera is the game’s scatter. It grants free spins according to how many of them you can hit. Five of these icons grants you 25 free spins, four yields 20 and three supplies 15. This is pretty generous, on the whole. All free spins wins also come with a 3x multiplier, and what’s more, the free spin feature can be re-triggered. Scatter wins are also multiplied by your total bet staked, with five scatters providing a 200x multiplier.

With plenty of free spins to be won, each with a generous 3x multiplier, as well as a brace of high-paying symbols, the game should satisfy most gimlet-eyed gamers. A second bonus screen would be nice, sure, but Lady in Red has more than enough juice to rate highly in the grand scheme of things and is evidently worth playing given its popularity at UK online casinos in particular.