West Coast Cash Infinity Reels

West Coast Cash Infinity Reels: Slot Overview

Imagine, if you will, back in the day, let's say pre-PlayStation, a couple of gamers are talking about how ace it would be to have a game where you were free to go around town doing whatever you want. Fast forward a few years, and the Grand Theft Auto franchise allows players to do practically just that. It's a formula which has been outrageously popular, earning billions of dollars, and it's been said GTA 5 generates $15,000 every ten minutes. With so much success, it's unsurprising other creative types have felt the urge to dip a finger or two into the pie.

Enter West Coast Cash Infinity Reels from developer ReelPlay, which, while not being a GTA copy, bears enough of a resemblance to warrant a comparison. It's a gangster, rappin', pimpin', hustlin', doing what you gotta do to get money type event. It's set in a palm-lined cracked street on the West Coast of the USA, where the first thoughts as to its location were South Central LA, maybe Compton, as made famous by rap groups like N.W.A. Anyway, it's a million miles away from the tourist haunts, shopping spots, and cashed-up communities like Beverly Hills. ReelPlay has done a nice job with the artwork, and the soundtrack is pretty, um, 'dope' as well, creating a scene with plenty of characterful attitude.

Parked in the middle of the street is the active grid, which starts each base game spin displaying 3 reels holding 4 symbols each. Participants pick a bet of 20 p/c to $/€25 per spin and hit the play button to set the reels in motion. A win is created when at least five matching symbols land, starting from the leftmost reel. If the rightmost reel has winning symbols on it, then another reel is added to the right-hand side. Reels continue to be added as long as the rightmost reel improves the win – without limit. When the win is no longer improved, a payout is made, and the reels reset for the next spin. This all plays out in a highly volatile manner, creating a return to player of 96.16%.

In addition, each time a new reel is added, the symbol multiplier increases by +1 each time. This symbol multiplier multiplies the value of a symbol win at the end of a spin. The symbols in West Coast Cash Infinity Reels include 9-A card royals and four character symbols, a Hustler, Pimp, Dealer, and Enforcer. Calculating wins can be tricky, but as an indication, landing a five-of-a-kind combo without a symbol multiplier awards 0.25-0.5x the bet for the royals and 0.75-1.25x for the characters. Helping link wins is the bouncy purple automobile wild, which substitutes for any symbol except Cash scatters.

West Coast Cash Infinity Reels: Slot Features

If you have played the earlier ReelPlay release Money Mariachi Infinity Reels, then the features here should feel quite familiar. They include an Infinity Bonus, LevelUp Respins, and a bonus buy.

Infinity Bonus

As mentioned, there is no limit to the number of reels which can be added in a game round. Should a game round add 12 or more reels, then players win the Infinity Bonus, awarding a prize worth 888x the total bet. The Symbol Multiplier does not affect the Infinity Bonus, and it can be won in the base game or in LevelUp Respins.

LevelUp Respins

Landing at least 3 Cash symbols in a game round awards the LevelUp Respins bonus. Triggering Cash symbols are held to the reels, and 3 respins are awarded on a grid which only has Cash or Special symbols. When new Cash symbols land during the bonus, they are held, and respins are reset to 3. When a reel is filled with 4 Cash or Special Symbols, an extra reel is added to the side of the board.

Cash symbols start with prize values of 1 to 5 times the bet. On each respin, each Cash symbol, Dealer, or Enforcer in view has a dollar sign ($) added to it. When a Cash, Dealer, or Enforcer symbol collects 6 dollar signs, it levels up, and its prize value increases by 1x to 5x the bet. The dollar signs are removed after levelling up, and the collection starts again. Each time a Cash symbol levels up, there is a chance it transforms into one of these Special symbols:

• Hustler – levels its prize value up on every spin by 1x to 5x the bet without needing dollar signs.
• Pimp – increases prize value by 10-50x the bet, then transforms back to a Cash symbol.
• Dealer – adds its prize to adjacent Cash or special symbols each time it levels up (not diagonally adjacent).
• Enforcer – adds prizes from adjacent symbols to itself each time it levels up (not diagonally adjacent).

When respins end, all values in view are added up and awarded. The Symbol Multiplier is not applied to the win.

Buy Bonus

Players willing and able to buy the LevelUp bonus round can do so for the cost of 100x the bet. A spin occurs that triggers the bonus round with 6 to 15 reels, and it is possible to win the Infinity Bonus from the trigger game round. RTP when buying free spins is 97.04%.

West Coast Cash Infinity Reels: Slot Verdict

The Infinity Reels mechanism has an interestingly patchy track record. Some games that use it are good, some not so good, so you never know quite what you are going to get next. The mechanic, while highly dynamic and versatile, hasn't captured the imagination like, say, Megaways has, despite a number of studios licensing it from ReelPlay and making their own contributions, including PG Soft and Relax Gaming. Anyway, one of the better Infinity Reels slots to come our way was Money Mariachi Infinity Reels, so it stands to reason that ReelPlay would want to get a bit of extra mileage out of the ideas that went into it.

The result is West Coast Cash Infinity Reels, which might not be as vibrantly colourful as Money Mariachi, but packs an entertaining hip-hop, gangster, San Andreas vibe. It shuns the lighter-hearted approach some studios have used when going down the gangster rap route, East Coast vs West Coast and Top Dawg$ being prime examples. Instead, West Coast Cash Infinity Reels sticks to a more serious side of the business the way Hustling or HipHopPop PopWins did. Although, in saying that, the game sheet was quite amusing. Both angles can work, and West Coast Cash Infinity Reels pulls off the gangster theme like a charm.

One of the main draws here is the LevelUp Respins bonus, and it was nice to see a few changes had been made to the Special symbols. As before, LevelUp Respins could be rather lengthy; like seriously, this must be one of the longest-running bonus rounds it's possible to trigger in an online slot. Perhaps it's not quite so long in West Coast Cash Infinity Reels as it was in Money Mariachi Infinity Reels since it has a reduced max win of 20,350x the bet. This is less than half of what was available in its sibling slot, yet it remains a respectable sack of potential loot all the same.

All in all, West Coast Cash Infinity Reels provided a glossy dose of fun, and it was nice to see LevelUp Respins do their thing again. The gaming might not be totally new, but ReelPlay has tied it all up in a highly polished package, ideal for players keen to let their keyboard OG personas loose.