Playboy Slot Review

How to Play

This is one of Microgaming’s “243 ways to win” games. What it means in practice is that there are not really paylines, just “ways”. Anytime 3 or more of a specific symbol (or their wild substitutes) show up on sequential reels from left to the right – significantly, including “adjacent” rows on the reel up or down – you have a winning result. The whole reel matrix is activated rather than a few predefined lines. All 243 ways are always activated. You need to click on the word “Bet” in the bottom center of your screen to set the wagering parameters. The coin “size” runs from $0.01 to $0.25.  The number of coins runs from 1 to 5. There is a built-in multiplier of 30 for the bet, so the smallest possible bet is 0.30 running up to a maximum of 37.50. There is no Max Bet button. You’ll need to set the controls manually, then click the red Spin button. Once you click it, the symbol turns to Stop. Click that and – you guessed it – the reels immediately stop. An AutoPlay button which lets you set 10 to 100 automatic spins or, if you prefer, you can set the slot to spin until you click Stop. You can also set Custom settings to stop the AutoPlay if specific conditions are met, like losing an amount or getting a free spins bonus. From highest value to lowest, the symbols in Playboy are as follows:

• Jillian
• Ashley
• Sofia
• Kimi
• Couple on Motorcyle
• Couple in Red Convertible
• Couple Poolside
• Playing card symbols: A down to 10

Special Symbols:

• Wild – The Playboy Club symbol substitutes for any symbol except the scatter. 5 in a row will pay out 100x. Less of a kind, not so much. However, having a wild in the winning way does double the value of the win.
• Scatter – This is the scantily clad lady – let’s assume she’s wearing a bikini, because she has a pool in the background. You will want to see her, frequently, because 3 or more scatters allow you entry into the exclusive Playboy Club – the VIP room where the high-value action happens – and one of the 4 bunny bonus games. Scatter wins are multiplied by the total bet staked, except the scatter symbol itself which pays “any way” wins multiplied by the number of coins bet. Multiple entries into the Club unlock additional bonuses.

Graphics and Sounds

The Playboy pokie’s graphics are a lot like the bunnies in real life: attractive enough, but artificial in some of their more prominent aspects. “Fake” may sound a bit harsh when describing the lovely ladies here rendered, but let’s say the graphics are stereotypical. Some of the renderings might be considered mildly lewd and offensive – unbuttoned shirts, transparent “cover ups”, etc. – but probably not to this slot’s target audience. The background music is pleasant enough for a minute or two. It’s a bit like the opening sequence of a softcore feature on an endless loop.  You will soon be reaching for the mute button – you can find it on the upper right of the screen. Assuming you have not muted the sound yet, wins are celebrated with a brief audio fanfare. But again: nothing to write home about.

Jackpot

Spin 5 scatters  – that’s that lady by the pool – and you will win the fixed jackpot. Depending on your bet size, this jackpot starts at $1,500 and goes up to $7,500. That’s cold hard cash and not coins. The next highest paying symbol is the Playboy logo and 5 of those will get you $1,250. Throw some multipliers into the mix and you could looking at some serious money.

Special Features

Free Spins

We will just touch upon the key attributes of the 4 lovely bunnies who grace the Playboy Club bonus features.

• Kimi will give you 10 free spins, with all wins multiplied 5x. Free spins can be retriggered here, unlike on the features of her three colleagues.
• Sofia will give you 15 free spins, with a trademarked Running Wilds (clever!) feature: after the fifth retrigger of this feature, a wild will be added to the stack with each free spin.
• Ashley, generously offers 20 free spins with Rolling Reels which, after the 10^th retriggering of this bonus feature, offer up to 5x multipliers on wins.
• Jillian is the wild one of the quartet. Not only does she offer you 25 free spins. On the 15^th retrigger of this feature, you activate the Wild Night feature, where wilds randomly appear on up to 5 of the reels.

Paytable Achievements

You “unlock” this gamification feature when the pokie loads. It encourages frequent play in a rather unique way, turning the Paytable into part of the game play. The game tracks your play history, and treats the paytable as a kind of bingo card. As you win various symbol combinations, and get each of the payouts, these winning results are recorded in a kind of scorecard. If or when you manage to have every single paytable combo, the paytable will “turn platinum”. What that will give you is not so clear: Microgaming says it helps you track your winnings, but platinum sounds promising!

Conclusion

Like the Playboy Club in real life, Microgaming’s pokie is all about the eye candy. The graphics and the sounds are as artificial as the bunnies. However, the company has given its bonus bunnies some interesting attributes that add considerable interest any time you can trigger the bonus features and start a free spin sequences.   It may take you a while to trigger them, but there are some really creative “wild” features that can potentially inflate your winning to bunny-like proportions. But with a relatively huge RTP of 97.8%, you can only hop for good luck!