La Fiesta de Muertos

Aesthetically inspired by the religious and cultural festival of the day of the dead, this new online slot from Mascot Gaming is equally colourful and exciting, offering players a vibrant playing experience. According to research into the game's reception in the market, La Fiesta de Muertos has also been a huge hit. Mechanically, this is a five-reel, three-row game with 15 pay lines and an RTP of 95.2%. The top win players can receive in this game is 18,500x the stake. The volatility rating here is at the low end of the spectrum. La Fiesta de Muertos is available to play on mobile, tablet and desktop platforms.

La Fiesta de Muertos Overview

The features of this game begin with the sticky re-spin game. Players need to land winners on pay lines in the base game to trigger this feature. When triggered, all winning icons remain locked on the playing board while the rest of the grid's icons re-spin. If a new win is found, then the comprising icons of that win are frozen, and the process repeats itself. The other main feature in this slot is the hold the win bonus, triggered when players land three or more of the scatter icons on the board simultaneously. This is a standard hold-the-win bonus game with a few special modifiers. All featured content will be explained in greater detail later in the review.

La Fiesta de Muertos Theme and Symbols

The theme of this game is inspired by the Day of the Dead or "Día de los Muertos," a Mexican holiday that takes place on November 1st and 2nd. It is a time for families to honour and remember their deceased loved ones. The holiday originated from ancient indigenous cultures yet has also been influenced by the Catholic religion. On this day, people create ofrendas, or altars, to honour the deceased by placing items such as candles, flowers, and photographs on them. They also decorate graves with bright colours and leave offerings of food and drink for the spirits. The festival is a time to celebrate the lives of loved ones who have passed away and to remember that death is a natural part of life. It is a vibrant, colourful celebration that is deeply ingrained in Mexican culture.

The background for this game is the courtyard of an affluent Mexican household. Many haphazardly distributed orange candles have decorated the neatly paved inner sanctum of this quadrangle. Throughout this setting are a scattering of tropical potted plants with long, broad leaves. Hung from the eves of the rooves above this square are bunting flags in various bright festive colours. The image of the background has been created to give the impression of dusk, with a soft, ebbing light permeating the entire scene. The playing board for this game is a very simple rectangle with a dark interior.

The symbols are split into low-paying, high-paying and special symbols. The low-paying symbols are the four card suits – clubs, hearts, diamonds and spades. The higher-value icons in this game, however, are the tequila bottle and the three festival characters. The most valuable of these is the skeleton in a black hat. Finally, the specials are the two painted Calaveras (skulls) that represent the wild and the skull covered in gems that symbolise the scatter.

Game Play

La Fiesta de Muertos is played on a 5-reel, 3-row machine with 15 fixed pay lines. To win combinations, players must land three or more matching symbols on pay lines moving from left to right, starting from the leftmost reel. The betting range for La Fiesta de Muertos is 15p to £15 per spin. To adjust their bet levels, players can toggle their stakes up and down using the tool located at the bottom left-hand side of the screen.

Further information, including a short tutorial and a display of the paytable, can be found via the menu button in the right-hand corner of the screen. The spin and auto spin buttons are located in the centre of the screen.
Volatility for this slot is rated in the low range. The return to player percentage for La Fiesta de Muertos is 95.2%, which is below average. The biggest payout that players can win on one spin is 18,500x the stake.

La Fiesta de Muertos Features

The first feature of this free play slots bis the sticky re-spin bonus. This bonus is triggered every time you find a win in the base game. When activated, all winning icons remain on the board while the rest re-spin. The sticky re-spin continues as long as new wins appear or until you fill the entire board with winning icons.

The main bonus feature here, however, is the hold the win feature. To trigger this bonus, players must land three or more of the scatter icons on the board simultaneously. When activated, you will move to a new board where all the winning scatters will be in the same positions. The special feature will begin with three re-spins, during which only more scatter icons, blanks or modifiers icons can land. Every new scatter or other new symbol landed will reset your re-spin counter to three. The four different modifier icons are explained below:

• Red skull – a standard fixed prize.
• Orange skull – a giant fixed prize.
• Violet skull – a multiplier that multiplies current prizes on the board.
• Yellow skull – Adds plus 1 to the bonus spins number (the maximum possible number is 5).

The hold-the-win bonus round terminates when players either run out of re-spins or you fill the board with symbols. If the former happens, you'll get the overall value of all symbols. However, if it's the latter, the remaining bonus spins will be used as a Global Multiplier. Finally, this game also has a bonus buy facility that allows players to purchase access to the bonus features. However, this may not be available depending on the territory that you access the game from.

Conclusion

Colourful, exciting, and layered in the playing experience it offers, La Fiesta de Muertos is an attractive prospect for plenty of gamers. Unfortunately, when you drill into the detail of this game, it isn't quite as promising as you would hope. This comes down to the game's poor RTP, lack of pay lines and strangely narrow betting range. Although the top win is exciting and the volatility is low, in our experience, it was difficult to get the wins flowing in. You can also play Sic Bo to enjoy something different.