Description
Five-reeler Birthday!, from the small but hugely creative developer ELK Studios, has four rows and nearly 180 set-in-stone Paylines. It features characters from some of this operator’s previous slot games.
As the name suggests, it’s themed on the concept of celebration, so join the party! It’s set in an upscale bar in New York, and all very swish. Best of all, everyone is invited!
How to play
Play this game on your device of choice – there’s a nice wide betting range from 10p to £50. Unusually for a five-reel game which typically has more icons, you’ll only see six standard symbols here.
These include three lower-paying values as depicted by balloons in blue and green as well as the red heart-shaped one. You’ll also see cakes, flowers and cocktails.
Special features
Special symbols
The Wild is the game’s logo, and it does the standard thing of substituting for all other icons save the Scatter. Other Wilds also appear, as mentioned below.
Bonus features
Happy Spins
This is the main event, and players benefit from five varieties of respin, triggered at random. Listen out for the doorbell and welcome a guest, whose birthday gift is a brilliant perk, as follows:
- Camel (from previous ELK game Hidden): Awards respins until you have between three and five winning combos.
- Electric Sam (from the game of the same name): Awards respins as long as a pre-chosen icon keeps showing up on your reels. These remain sticky throughout.
- Mr Lake (who was in Lake’s Five): Awards respins until you form a five-of-a-kind winning combo.
- Matador (of Wild Toro): He picks a symbol and then grants respins until a winning combo arises from it.
- Anne Bonny (of the Wild Seas game): With her, the respins last until you get a winning combo of a value of 15x stake or more.
Soundtech Blooper
While the above round plays out, the Soundtech Blooper (from the game Bloopers) can also show up at random and award three different types of sticky Wild symbols, which stay where they are for as long as the respins last.
At the same time, you can also receive a trio of walking Wilds that shift a reel leftwards on each respin, until they drop off the reels.
Free spins
Keep an eye out for another character, Maggie, who was in the game Sam on the Beach. She triggers this round when she shows up at the party. Her present is an extra 10 free whirls, from which you can enjoy an unlimited number of freebies.
As if all that wasn’t enough celebratory indulgence, the Happy Spins round can activate at random here, bestowing more goodies.
Jackpot
Maximum win potential in Birthday is pretty high at 5,000x stake on every turn of the reels; however, you won’t find a progressive jackpot here.
Return to Player (RTP)
RTP or Return to Player in Birthday is 96.3%, which is not too shabby at all. In terms of variance, you’ll find the game plays on the higher side of medium.
Verdict
One reviewer described playing birthday as ‘not a jaw-dropping experience’. (In fairness, others loved Birthday!)
However, the bonus rounds should help to keep things interesting, and Birthday ought to be worth at least a few spins. It’s certainly not a game without charm.
Give it a go for yourself, and tell us how you got on. Give this game a whirl for free in demo mode first of all.