PixiePop

PixiePop: Slot Overview

Some people situated outside the gambling sphere might be quite surprised by the sort of topics they'd find in online slots. Fairies, fruit, candy? Those sorts of things hardly suit the stereotypical image of a hardened degen spunking money as they chase the dopamine dragon. However, one of the neat things about slots is the way providers utilise a diverse range of ideas to theme them. If you're into the fairy thing, here is a game which might suit from AvatarUX. Titled PixiePop, it's an add-on to the studio's extensive range of PopWins slots, and like many that came before, offers innovative touches to keep the mechanic fresh and relevant.

For an intro to PixiePop, why don't we borrow the developer's own words: 'Welcome to the enchanted forest of PixiePop? where magical fairies guide the travellers, granting them luck in their journey through the mystical lands!' That sums PixiePop up quite nicely, as it's located in a night time waterside grove on a clear starry night while cranking out about the most mournful music you're likely to hear in an online slot. Seriously, it's like the soundtrack to some touching scene in a movie where a parent loses their children in a custody case and tearfully watches them driven off to a foster home. Or it's enchanting; players can pick. It's hard to believe PixiePop is made by the studio which gave us Zombie aPOPalypse MultiPop, so wildly different are the two games. But, such is the imagination shown by AvatarUX, which has so far been able to create a huge number of PopWins games without giving away any signs of creative bankruptcy.

One thing that unites PopWins games is the possession of a dynamic gaming grid, and PixiePop is no exception. In this game, the grid's default size in the base game is 5-reels by 3-rows with 243 ways to win. However, you can effectively double the number of ways to win since PixiePop pays left to right from the leftmost side, and right to left from the rightmost side – in both the base game and free spins. With a highly volatile math model, PixiePop has a theoretical return to player value of 96%, whether betting 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin, using the Ante Bet, or buying features. The Ante Bet, when activated, doubles the chance of entering free spins for an increased stake cost of 25%.

With a ways-to-win system rather than pay lines means winning combinations may hit in any row, as long as matching symbols appear on at least 3 adjacent reels, starting from either side of the grid. Glowing 10-A card ranks make up the low pays, awarding 1 to 1.5 times the bet for five of a kind, while 6 pixies are the 6 high pay symbols worth 2 to 6 times the bet for 5 OAK. Wilds can appear on any reel, substituting for any pay symbol.

PixiePop: Slot Features

PopWins is one of the headline features, which is accompanied by nudges, free spins with multiplicative multipliers, additive multipliers, and a pay anywhere symbol, plus a feature buy menu.

PopWins

After wins have been evaluated, each winning symbol pops off the grid and is replaced by 2 new symbols, increasing the reel height. This process repeats until there are no more wins. In the base game, the reels can expand up to 6 positions in height. When reels reach their full height, popped symbols are replaced by 1 symbol rather than 2.

Nudge

Nudges randomly bump the reels, improving a win. Nudges may nudge a bonus symbol to trigger free spins in the base game or extra free spins in the bonus game, nudge a symbol to trigger a higher reel height, nudge a pay anywhere symbol, or nudge a wild symbol.

Free Spins

• 3 scatter symbols awards 5-7 free spins on a 4-row board.
• ?4 scatter symbols award 7-9 free spins on a 5-row board.
• 5 scatter symbols award 9-11 free spins on a 6-row board.

If reels reach 8 rows high, +2 free spins are awarded. Free spins use a win multiplier that increases after each pop. The win multiplier can also be increased by landing a multiplicative multiplier symbol (which multiplies it by x2 to x11) or an additive multiplier (which adds +5 to +50) when a win happens. Possible multiplier values vary between natural triggers or bought rounds. The win multiplier persists until the feature ends, and landing a scatter symbol awards 1, 2, or 3 extra free spins.

In addition, before free spins start, one of the high pay symbols is randomly chosen to be a pay anywhere symbol. When at least 5 pay anywhere symbols are in view, they trigger a payout which is increased by the win multiplier. Landing 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 11-15, 16-20, 21-25, 26-30, or 31-35 pay anywhere symbols awards 12.5x, 25x, 50x, 100x, 125x, 200x, 400x, or 500x the bet, respectively.

Buy Bonus

From the feature buy menu, players can buy these bonus rounds:

• Buy Bonus – 5 to 7 free spins with 1,024 ways for 125x the bet.
• Buy Bonus Plus – 7 to 9 free spins with 3,125 ways for 250x the bet.
• Buy Bonus Premium – 9 to 11 free spins with 7,776 ways for 500x the bet.
• Buy Bonus Max – 9 to 11 free spins with 7,776 ways + higher multiplicative and additive multipliers for 1,000x the bet.

PixiePop: Slot Verdict

And so ends another poppin' good session from the master of the pop, AvatarUX. If you thought AvatarUX would be suffering PopWins overload by now, or soldiering on through some sort of popping malaise, better think again. PixiePop is a highly playable example of this style of poppin' madness. Even if the fairy theme, weeping in the moonlight, fawning over lost love or whatever emotion the soundtrack evokes isn't a perfect match, PixiePop is worth trying out if you've liked the way PopWins games have performed in the past.

One of the things that makes PixiePop cool is how well each feature has been integrated with each other. It's the sort of seamless cohesion that's possible after designing so many iterations of PopWins slots. Nudges lead into wins or free spins/extra free spins, and the PopWins system has been as well utilised in PixiePop as it has been anywhere else. The free spins win multiplier reached impressive heights during the test session, helped by multiplicative multipliers and the larger additive ones. The icing on the PixiePop cake is the pay anywhere symbol. It adds something not really seen in a PopWins slot before, and hitting them with a juicy win multiplier onboard might be enchanting.

Enchantment tops out at 20,000 times the bet, and with the firepower PixiePop's packing, that figure seems more realistic than the fairy-filled waterside location the game is set in. So, while some players may be labouring under PopWins fatigue due to the sheer weight of release numbers, others more favourably disposed to the PopWins phenomenon get another solid slot to have a go at.