Lava Balls – Overview
Pragmatic Play has released a new online slot game called Lava Balls. This game combines two popular things together, a slot, but also a pachinko game. If you don’t now what pachinko is, it’s one of those games, very popular in Japan, where a lot of balls fall down and hit special spots to gain points or win prizes. You sometimes also see them in arcades in Europe. But they are absolutely huge in Japan.
The game seems to be played out in Hades’s underworld, judging by the symbols. So it all has this dark Greek mythology theme.
There are 5 reels which are each 3 symbols high and instead of paylines the game uses 243 ways to win.
Besides low paying card symbols you will find medium to high paying Greek symbols, including Hades. Then there are wild symbols that can appear on reels 2, 3 and 4 only. And scatter symbols, which can appear on all reels.
Lava Balls comes with a maximum payout of 4.800 times your bet and is a high volatile slot game.
Features
Wild Multiplier
Below the reels you will find 7 pots. These pots come with a random multiplier of between x1 and x1.000, or a Free Spins symbol.
When one or more wild symbols appear and are used in a winning combination, a ball drops down and lands in one of the pots. If it hits a multiplier, the winning combinations with a wild are multiplied with that number. If it hits the Free Spins, the free spins feature is triggered.
Free Spins Feature
Hitting the Free Spins pot, as mentioned above, or getting 3 or more scatter symbols, will award 12 free spins.
During free spins the pots below the reels come with random money values of between 0,2 and 200 times bet.
During free spins several special symbols can land. An Extra Pot Value will add a value of between 0,2 and 120x bet to the pot below the reel it appears on. An extra free spins symbol can also appear, awarding between 1 and 5 extra free spins.
On reel 1 a special Lava Balls symbols may appear and on reel 5 a Ball Drop symbol may appear. When both are present during a spin, between 1 and 100 balls are added to the balls meter. After all spins are done, the number of collected balls will now drop down and land in the pots with the values. The total of free spins and all balls is then rewarded.
Bonus Buy
For 100 times bet you are able to but the free spins feature.
Verdict
I really like this game. I think the theme is nicely done. But mainly because I think they combined the pachinko part very well with the slots part.
Especially free spins are a lot of fun. First you get normal free spins, where you can also still trigger those wild multipliers, by the way. But after these spins you get that pachinko game. And if you are lucky to collect a lot of balls, this can award some amazing wins. But even with 15 or 20 balls, each ball is a winner, which is just nice.
Overall it’s a very nicely done game definitely worth a try.
Let me know your opinion about this latest Pragmatic Play slot. You can find Lava Balls at all trusted casinos and a demo version is available below.
