Money Stacks: Slot Overview
It might sound like a hardcore no-holds-barred spending spree, but Money Stacks is actually the name of a classic-looking, modern-sounding online slot designed by casino game maker Pragmatic Play. The trip to the past doesn't just include a classic, funky slot presentation; its features are a blast from the past as well. This applies not only on an individual level, such as the standard Money Collect mechanic but also to the features as a whole since they've been similarly bundled together before, not once but twice (at least) from a rival studio.
Money Stacks' appearance will have been experienced in one form or another before, on more than one occasion, no doubt. Its background attempts to dazzle players with energetically flashing lights while its game grid bursts with classic slot symbols. Instead of a jazzy disco hit for your toe-tapping pleasure, though, Money Stacks spins something closer to hip hop or some sort of trancey hip hop. Suppose that's something relatively fresh, or maybe it just seems that way since everything else looks kinda rote.
One focal point in Money Stacks is its 6-reel, 4-row gaming grid, flanked by 3 jackpot prizes, an Ante Bet and a Feature Buy button. Before getting to these latter two options, it is possible for users to select wagers of 20 c to $/€240 per spin, leading to an RTP of 96.51%-96.55% when betting this way. Stakes double when using the Ante Bet (RTP 96.51%-96.59%), tripling the chance of triggering the feature. Money Stacks pairs its high volatility with 4,096 ways to win.
All symbols pay left to right on adjacent reels from the leftmost side of the grid, and there are eleven regular pay symbols. The lows are 9-A ranks; the highs are lemons, cherries, grapes, watermelons, and 7s. Royals pay 1 to 1.5 times the bet for a 6 OAK way, while the highs are worth 2 to 5 times the bet for 6 matching symbols in a win. Wilds hit on all reels except the leftmost reel, substituting for anything except scatters, Money symbols, and Collect symbols.
Money Stacks: Slot Features
Blitzing may occur via a Money Collect feature or in the bonus round, where players can choose either free spins with random multipliers or Bullion Blitz Spins. Both are quite different and can be accessed by the feature buy.
Money Collect Feature
When Money symbols hit, they display a value of 0.5x to 20x the bet, or the 25x Mini, 250x Major, or the 2,500x Grand prizes. Collect symbols appear on the leftmost and rightmost reels. Collect symbols collect all of the Money symbol values in view when they land.
Free Spins
Landing 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatter symbols awards 1x, 2x, 3x, or 5x the bet, plus access to the bonus round where players pick free spins with random multipliers or Bullion Blitz Spins.
Free Spins With Random Multipliers
If this bonus is triggered with 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatters, then 8, 12, 20, or 30 free spins are respectively awarded. During the round, wild symbols randomly have values of x2, x3, or x5. These wilds increase the number of symbols they substitute for with a number equal to the multiplier, increasing the number of ways that winning combinations are formed. Hitting 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatter symbols awards a further 5, 8, 12, 20, or 30 free spins. Money Collect is not included in this bonus.
Bullion Blitz Spins
If this feature was triggered by 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatters, then 2, 3, 5, or 7 free spins are respectively awarded. During this round, only Money, Collect, or blank symbols may appear. At least 1 Collect symbol is guaranteed to land on each spin. This feature cannot be retriggered.
Feature Buy
Free spins can be bought from the base game for 80x for a 3-scatter trigger, 120x for a 4-scatter trigger, 200x for a 5-scatter trigger, or 240x for a 6-scatter trigger. The feature buy RTP varies from 96.49% to 96.59%.
Money Stacks: Slot Verdict
For what it is, some may find Money Stacks an irresistible proposal, fair enough, acknowledged. The problem is that Money Stacks contained so much common and/or copied stuff it was far from seductive. These fixed jackpot prize games, advertising their wares like sales items at a 99c discount store, are tedious enough in and of themselves. Couple that with some commonplace Money symbol collection action, and you know, eh. The prizes themselves are okay, nothing special. The final contribution to the boner killer was the way everything non-theme related felt very close to what Mask of Amun (and by extension Blazing Bison Gold Blitz) offered way back when, and very possibly as other slots have done, too.
One strong connector was Bullion Blitz Spins, aka Gold Blitz spins in the other games, and you can kind of see how this might pique the interest of some players. A potential draw card is that literally every spin has a Collect symbol, maybe more than one. Naturally, this doesn't mean every spin guarantees a major windfall, but at least one Collect symbol will be present on each and every spin. There are worse things out there. As for the free spins with random multipliers choice, well, it is possible to get a significant number of spins, depending on the number of triggering/retriggering scatters, but it did not induce as much of a pulse-quickening reaction as the Bullion Blitz option.
With no mention of whether Money Stacks' 5,000x win cap cannot be hit in either of the bonus round choices, one would assume both are just as capable as the other of achieving max payout. And so, that's Money Stacks, a glitzily put-together slot, as is Pragmatic Play's usual way, though an unoriginal game, and one which is unlikely to be much more than a reference buried in a footnote in the book of online slots.
Money Stacks offers the allure of constant action with its ever-present Collect symbols, yet it ultimately fails to impress, recycling too many elements to stand out in the crowded slot game market.
