Roller Coaster Slots
Everyone loves a roller coaster. Well, excluding those strange individuals who barf at the prospect of sheer drops and loop-the-loops. For most of us, the prospect of careening through the air at 100mph is a thrilling one. You might not get that kind of adrenaline rush playing Novomatic’s Roller Coaster slot, but who knows? The pulse certainly quickens when there’s a 5,000 slot machine coin jackpot up for grabs.
While there are only nine pay-lines in this 5x3 video slot, there’s nonetheless a good deal of fun to be had. Seat belts fastened? OK, sit back, relax and let me talk you through the game.
Rolling The Dice
Part of Novomatic’s Gaminator range, Roller Coaster is all about fun: just like a real live roller coaster. Symbols, then, are designed to give you the kind of giddy feeling you might experience while exploring an actual amusement park. They include an ice-cream cone, a bag of popcorn, a laughing clown, a white horse, a fizzy drink, a lollipop and a grinning piglet on a roller coaster. Unlike many other Gaminator titles, Roller Coaster dispenses with playing cards: each symbol closely relates to the theme as a whole.
The drinks, popcorn and ice cream emblems are the lowest value ones on the reels but are still worth up to 200 coins if you land five in a row.
The rocking horse and pig-on-wheels symbols are a little more lucrative. Land either of these in a line of five and you’ll receive 500 coins.The clown symbol is also worth a maximum of 450 coins.
The symbols of the fairground rides are the highest earners on the reels. Four of either is worth 100 coins, while you get a massive increase for five symbols, which are worth 750 coins. That’s nothing, though, compared to how much you can win from the roller coaster symbol. Four of these bad boys is worth 400 coins; five is worth an eye-watering 5,000.
It’s worth mentioning that this slot, unlike many others, pays out on both left-to-right and right-to-left combinations.
Ferris Wheels And Free Spins
A great many Novomatic games give players the chance to win free spins along the way. This usually occurs when you land three or more scatter symbols anywhere on the reels. Sometimes this fortuitous turn of events can lead to the player receiving multipliers on their wins, or re-triggered free spins. In the case of this game, though, your chance of winning free spins comes only in the bonus game.
The bonus game involves a spinning Ferris wheel and you enter it by striking the roller coaster icon on reel one or five, along with the Ferris wheel symbol in the centre on reel three. Then all you have to do is click on one of the compartments to reveal the prize you’ve won. Many slots offer five, 10 or 15 free spins, but in Roller Coaster you’re only permitted two or five. After each spin, the symbols encircling the centre symbol will revolve like a carnival ride, before awarding players for each winning combination. The bonus round can also be re-triggered.
Only offering two or five free spins is unashamedly harsh, but hey, it’s better than a slap on the face with a wet fish. Take it from us, anything’s better than that.
To Gamble Or Not To Gamble
That is the question. If the theme park isn’t providing enough adrenaline, why not take the gamble challenge? This function is par for the course with Novomatic games. All you have to do is guess the colour of a card drawn at random from the deck. Guess correctly and you’ll earn a 2x multiplier. Think you can go higher on the roller coaster? Then can guess again with the chance of winning an impressive 5x multiplier. If you guess wrong at any point though, you’ll not only lose the multipliers but also your winnings from the last bet.
Peaks And Valleys
In closing, Roller Coaster is a moderately fun slot that offers a top jackpot of 900 credits. While some players will be turned off by the rather measly nature of the free spins on offer, the fun symbols and old-fashioned gameplay have a certain charm. It might not be as exhilarating as riding a roller coaster, but as far as slot games go, it has a decent slot RTP and it’s worth a spin.
