Candy Links Bonanza

Overview Candy Links Bonanza

It seemed for a while that Candy Crush inspired games had gone out of fashion. However, as of late, this fun and vibrantly coloured genre is making a comeback. One of the providers who is leading this Candy Crush renaissance is Stakelogic. Indeed, Stakelogic has teamed up with designers at Hurricane Games to bring players a fresh spin on this exciting theme. This latest game in their canon features all the tell-tale signs of a Candy Crush slot, including brightly coloured hard candy symbols and an addictive symbol popping graphic.

In terms of bonus features, there is plenty on offer. The features for this slot include wilds, a coin matching symbol feature, called the Hurricane links bonus, as well as free spins, re-spins and a Wheel of Fortune bonus. This latter feature can boost your gameplay in several ways depending on where the indicator lands on the wheel. Wheel modifiers include multipliers and a variety of different sized jackpots.

Theme and Symbols

The theme for this free slot as we have mentioned in the introduction is heavily influenced by the incredibly popular and addictive Candy Crush Saga mobile phone game. This is apparent in the candy symbols, the whimsical background, and the way the symbols pop pleasingly when they are part of a winning combination. Other sources of inspiration for this slot could have been the 2012 children’s film ‘Wreck It Ralph’, where the kingdom in which the film is set is made from sweets.

The background for Candy Links Bonanza is a fantasy land where huge ice creams and other sweet treats have been scattered around a pleasing green meadow. The aesthetic both in terms of its cartoonish graphics and the images you are presented with, mirrors the aesthetic of another children’s film: ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’. This is because not only are the candies distributed randomly across the screen, but they are the size of houses. Indeed, both to the left and the right of the board, players will be able to see ice gems as tall as tower blocks.

The board on the other hand isn’t nearly as fantastical. Its design is far more substance over style. The board is simply a 5x5 grid made up of black, slightly translucent squares which blend nicely into the incredible loud background.
Funnily enough, the symbols for this slot are comprised mostly of different coloured candies. The lowest symbols regarding value are the blue, green, pink, and yellow candies. Up from these are the light blue and orange candies. These pay 1x the total bet for five in a row. Up once more from these two symbols is the purple candy. Then there are the two star-shaped candies, in red and yellow- the yellow is the more value out of the two. The wild is a pink and white candy that says wild on it and the free spins scatter is a chocolate ball covered in candies. To the left of the reels are the coin symbols in the fortune wheel matrix that pertain to that specific feature.

Game Play

Candy Links Bonanza is played on a 5-reel, 5-row playing window with 3,125 pay lines available. To create winners in this game, players must match a minimum of 3 symbols across a pay line starting on reel 1. The betting range for Candy Links Bonanza is 20p to £20 per spin. To change your betting level per spin, use the bet adjuster tool located at the bottom of the playing window.
Further information regarding the slot, including a display of the paytable, can be accessed by clicking on the settings menu. The spin button is located on the right-hand side of the reels. You can set up auto spins in the game’s menu.

The volatility for Candy Links Bonanza has not been disclosed by the provider as yet. The return to player percentage for Candy Links Bonanza is 96.03%. The biggest payout that players can win on one spin is 8,500x your stake.

Features

There is a lot of feature content for this game, so let’s dive straight in. Just quickly, however, the wild as it normally does in these types of games can substitute for any other symbols bar the specials to help create more wins.
The first feature that players should know about is the Super Stake feature. This feature when activated by the player using the appropriate button on the tool menu increases the size of your bet by 25%. This activation will also add more bonus symbols to the board to help you trigger one of the extra features.

The second feature is this game’s free spins feature. To activate this feature, the player must land 3 or more of the free spin scatters on the playing board at once. Landing more scatters gives you more spins. The most you can be awarded is 20 for landing 5 scatters. Once you have progressed to the free spins round, wilds will start to come with multipliers in the range of 1x to3x. These are added to the multiplier meter indicated at the side of the playing window. The multiplier at any point is applied to the wins earned in the free spins round.

You can immediately trigger the free spins round by using the bonus buy feature.
Next on the feature list is the re-spins bonus. In the base game, if players manage to land two of the free spins scatters, you are awarded one re-spin. This re-spin is conducted with all of the reels frozen apart from the middle reel. Landing a scatter on the middle reels will trigger the free spins bonus.
Players should also be aware of the Hurricane Links feature. As players will notice, to the left of the reels is another 5x5 grid, in the centre of which is the symbol for the Wheel of Fortune. Throughout the game coin symbols will land on this grid with varying values displayed on them. When 5 coins line up either vertically, horizontally or diagonally, all of the values that are currently on the grid are paid into your total and the grid resets to zero.

Lastly, there is the Wheel of Fortune feature. To activate this feature, you must form a coin win as explained above using the wheel of fortune symbol. There are 3 wheels to move through, each with greater prizes than the last. The first wheel is the Mini wheel, which offers multipliers up to 20x and a chance to upgrade to the next wheel. If the wheel stops on upgrade, you will progress to the next sized wheel. The Major wheel is next, which will offer the mini and major jackpots as well as an upgrade chance. Finally, there is the Grand wheel which offers all 3 jackpots including the grand jackpot.

Conclusion

Stakelogic and Hurricane Games have put a lot of effort into this slot not just in terms of the theme and game dynamics, but the sheer quantity and excellence of the bonus features. With so much on offer, a great RTP rate and a hefty top prize of 8,500x your stake, players would be remiss not to give this game at least one or two run-throughs. An excellent game from two excellent providers.