Retro Tapes Cluster Link

Retro Tapes Cluster Link: Slot Overview

Technology might have the capacity to be used for good or ill, but some advancements are just super neat. Here's one. Let's say you're reading a magazine, and there's a review of a band's new album which tickles your fancy. With a couple of thumb taps, you can have the band's back catalogue downloaded to your phone and be listening in moments. Not so long ago, this process would have sounded like magic. Back then, one option was heading to the local music store, purchasing a rectangular object called a 'cassette tape', and inserting it into a stereo system or Walkman, thereby sending the info from magnetic tape to the listener's ears.

It's to this analogue world of yesteryear that players are transported to by software provider Push Gaming in Retro Tapes Cluster Link, an online slot which branches off in some ways from the mega-success of games like Jammin' Jars and follow-up release Jammin' Jars 2. Just like its predecessors, Retro Tapes is a cluster-paying grid slot with a raft of interesting features. The studio has expressed the retro angle through a bopping 80s-era tune, an equaliser-style background and a shed load of tapes. Tapes are used for the regular pay symbols, appearing on the game's 6-column, 9-row sized grid alongside Wild Tapes, Wild Multipliers, Coins, and Magnet symbols. There's a Jammin' Jars feel to the game, but one which leans towards the synth-styles of the 1980s rather than body-shaking disco.

Despite the larger than usual grid, Retro Tapes Cluster Link can be enjoyed on any device, regardless of screen size. Step one is picking a stake from a menu of choices ranging from 10 p/c to $/€100 per paid game round. In the base game, 54 symbols drop into the active gaming area, forming cluster wins when at least five matching symbols hit adjacent to each other in vertical or horizontal directions. This feeds into a default return to player value of 96.47%, running on a highly volatile math model.

Regular pay symbols are made up of six different tapes of varying colours, which Push Gaming has made to seem alive as if they're looking out with little eyes. The group includes grey, blue, green, pink, orange and red tapes paying 0.1 to 2 times the stake for a five-symbol cluster, up to 5 to 1,000x the bet for clusters made up of 20 or more matching tapes. When winning clusters are formed, they are removed from the grid by the cascading wins mechanic. Symbols drop down to plug the gaps, and if a new cluster forms, the cascade mechanic triggers again.

Retro Tapes Cluster Link: Slot Features

Beefing out the Retro Tapes Cluster Link experience, we find Wild Tape symbols, Wild Multiplier symbols, Instant Prize symbols, a Magnet feature, and a Top Charts feature.

Wild Tape Symbol

The Wild Tape symbol is a wild which substitutes for all symbols except Magnets or Wild Multipliers. Each Wild Tape has a multiplier connected to it, starting at x1. When a Wild Tape is used in a win, its multiplier increases by +1 and is not removed by the cascade system but sticks to its position until the next game round.

Wild Multiplier Symbol

Shaped like stars, Wild Multipliers appear in the base game or in the Top Charts feature. Wild Multiplier symbols send their multiplier value to all Wild Tapes in view, then transform into an Instant Prize symbol of random value. Wild Multipliers land with 1x, 2x, 3x, or 5x.

Instant Prize Symbols

Instant Prize symbols possess bet multiplier values of 1x, 2x, 5x, 10x, 25x, 50x, 100x, 250x, 500x, or 1,000x. When Instant Prize symbols land in clusters of five or more, their values are awarded.

Magnet Feature

The final symbol in Retro Tapes Cluster Link is the Magnet symbol. Magnets land anywhere and pick a random pay symbol type, and pull them around its position to create a cluster win. Or, Magnets can also pull Instant Prize symbols if there are at least four of them in view, creating a cluster. Once the pay symbols or Instant Prize symbols have been attracted, the Magnet transforms into the same pay symbol type or an Instant Prize symbol of random value.

Top Charts Feature

When at least 3 Wild Tape symbols are in view, the Top Charts feature is triggered. Landing 3, 4, 5, or 6 Wild Tapes awards 6, 8, 10, or 12 free spins, respectively. When triggered, the Wild Tape symbols and Instant Prizes on the board are carried over from the base game to the bonus round, stuck in their same positions. During the feature, each empty position spins to land a:

• Wild Tape symbol - as well as their usual duties, any new Wild Tape that hits awards an additional 2 free spins.
• Wild Multiplier symbol
• Instant Prize symbol
• Magnet symbol – highlights part of the grid and pulls in Instant Prizes around its position.
• Extra Spins symbol – awards 1 or 2 extra free spins, then transforms into an Instant Prize of random value.
• Blank Tape symbol – has no value and does not stick.

Each Instant Prize symbol that lands remains in place until the feature ends, and wins are evaluated when the feature finishes. This occurs when spins run out or all positions are filled.

Retro Tapes Cluster Link: Slot Verdict

It was easy to see Retro Tapes Cluster Link as an evolution of the iconic slot Jammin' Jars and its less iconic follow-up Jammin' Jars 2. Once immersed in the cheeky-eyed cassette tape world, the differences become more apparent, though, and on the whole, Retro Tapes Cluster Link offered quite a different gaming experience. There are similarities, however. One is mechanics, which can make it mercilessly tough to get ahead. It might pay to fortify yourself with ample lashings of fortitude, patience, and thick skin to weather what could be a full-frontal assault by those seemingly innocuous-looking yet potentially unsympathetic tapes. Retro Tapes Cluster Link wasn't a game that overflowed with long cascading win chains like, say, Cluster Tumble could. It came across as shorter, sharper, and more to the point.

Despite its share of dead spins, the game has the potential to be fairly eventful. Magnets pulled in symbols at relatively regular intervals, coin symbols piled on occasional wins, and wild multipliers lent a boosting hand to the odd win. They didn't tend to add up to much a lot of the time, producing an all-or-nothing impression as the session wore on. The same kind of thing goes for the bonus round, which has a hold 'n win element as certain symbols stack on the board but does not reset the spin count when new symbols hit as such. It's all about collecting as big a cluster, or clusters, of instant prize symbols as possible, hopefully next to a multiplier or two. In other words, it's very different to the leaping progressive multiplier wilds of Jammin' Jars and more related instead to Jammin' Jars 2. As for potential, it's decent, clocking in at 10,000 times the stake. For those who like to know the odds, the probability of hitting the top prize is 1 in 1,248,439.

Retro Tapes Cluster Link didn't quite create the same level of insta-affection as a game like Jammin' Jars did, but thanks to a blend of numbers, volatility, fun vibe, features, and flow, there is no doubt some fine gaming for the right player to discover. Weigh it all up, and cluster-paying grid slot enthusiasts have a solid cassette tape-filled option to pop on their to-try games list.