Now that I've covered the summary, intro, graphics, music, and sound effects, coming up next will be the key game features.
The slot games reviews we share on OLBG include accurate info about the important features such as the theme, paylines and reels, bet range, and bonuses. I’ll finish off the review by sharing my play experience, first impressions and expert verdict.
Theme – Halloween
There is so much scope with Halloween imagery and the mood of the game has been set perfectly with the design. The base game background creative has an eerie green mist that stretches across the abandoned carnival scene where you’ll clap eyes on bats, creepy pumpkins, a huge raven and a scarecrow. The foreground design consists of traditional imagery such as candles, skulls, cobwebs, pumpkins and candles - the designer has included the whole nine yards of Halloween imagery. When the game switches to the Free Spins bonus game the mysterious mist transforms into purple hues which helps to differentiate the experience.
On the reels, you’ll discover an array of characters which from the highest value goes like this- the Wild Pumpkin, toffee apple, carnival mallet, green cauldron and a blue bottle of magical potion. This is then followed by the standard symbols of A, K, Q, J, and 10 which have been created in a spookish ghost style.
Reels
You’ll discover the classic setup of 5 reels by 3 rows for the Spooky Carnival slot game.
Paylines
There are 10 non-adjustable paylines on the grid and the Pumpkin Wild is a paying symbol as well.
RTP
You’ll see the acronym RTP on every slot site and it stands for return to player. It’s a way of telling players (theoretically) what percentage of their stakes they should see returned to them over the long term. Rates are usually somewhere between 94% - 96% although I’d expect to see them nearer to 96% nowadays. The Spooky Carnival slot game is 95.58% which is slightly below the average by today’s standards.
Red Tiger, like most providers, uses the RTP as a default value so you’ll find different RTP rates across various operator sites. We’ve identified a few rates at some of the most popular UK online casinos and added them to the table below for you.
RTP is just one thing to think about when deciding which site to play at. Other factors such as the number of games, customer services, options for payment choices and welcome bonuses and deals are also worth considering. You can read about all of these factors plus many more when you read our OLBG casino reviews.
The majority of players nowadays want to try out more than one game. If this sounds like you, it’s worth checking out this page we created with the slot sites we recommend. If you’re a UK player you can launch one of these hundreds of titles immediately.
Stake Range
Options for stakes start at £0.20 and go right up to £60 for the Spooky Carnival game.
Max Win
The max win is 1,530x your stake for the Spooky Carnival game which is one of the lowest amounts I’ve seen in a while.
Wild Shape
When playing the Spooky Carnival game the Wilds have been combined with the Spooky Coins to create a ghostly feature. This feature can trigger during any spin. Every time a Wild lands it’s turned into a Spooky Coin and it flies up to the progress bar at the top of the screen. There are 5 spots in the progress bar where 5 Spooky Coins can be placed. When all 5 spots are filled with coins a random symbol is then swapped for Wilds on the following spin. Sometimes you’ll even find that an additional symbol may be swapped for Wilds on a random basis so look out for this! If you collect more than 5 coins they will still be stored and will show on the next progression bar. Also, a Wild Symbol substitutes for all paying symbols and it is the highest-paying symbol on the grid.
Free Spins
When 3 Free Spins Scatter Symbols land on reels 1, 3 or 5 it will trigger 10 Free Spins. During the Free Spins round if you have any Spooky Coins in the progress bar when the bonus round starts they will move into the Free Spins bonus round. During the bonus round, Spooky Coins are collected in the bar as normal but all symbols swapped for the Wild Symbol will continue swapping on each spin during the round.
Jackpot
There’s not a jackpot element within the Spooky Carnival game, which is the case in most slot games nowadays. If jackpots are your thing you should visit this page with the best jackpot slot games.
Play Experience & First Impressions
The base game was pretty basic, the main feature to watch out for was the progress bar at the top of the screen for your Spooky Coins. Seeing those pumpkin Wilds land was fun as you could see them fly off to join the progression bar as a coin. And they came in regularly which is what you’d expect for a medium-volatility game. The Wild Symbol and Spooky Coins working together made sense visually and were straightforward to follow. If you’ve landed 2 Free Spins Symbols and are waiting for the 3rd the ghost sound effect builds up the tempo to build up the atmosphere as you cross your fingers that a 3rd symbol will land.
The Free Spins round was also pretty basic but it did what it said on the tin. You receive 10 Free Spins once you trigger this round. All swapped symbols remain wild for the bonus round which is good and during this round, you can still build up your coin collection in the bar. It’s fair that if you have more than 5 coins in the bar you take them back with you into the base game. And it’s the same vice versa i.e. if you have them in the base game when the bonus game triggers.