Spider Circus Hold and Win

Spider Circus Hold and Win Slot

Roll up, roll up, the circus is in town, and it looks like the sort of travelling attraction that might have a few health and safety inspectors running for the hills. BGaming's Spider Circus Hold and Win is a peculiar little production, combining a creepy carnival atmosphere with a cast of fruit and vegetable characters that appear to have escaped from a Tim Burton nightmare. There's a sinister clown keeping watch, spiders crawling into the action, and enough stitched-up produce to make the local greengrocer seriously reconsider his career choices. Behind the freak show is a fairly conventional slot, though, with expanding wilds and a Hold and Win bonus that attempts to put a few extra tricks up its sleeve.

Visually, BGaming has done a rather fine job. The action unfolds inside a dimly lit circus tent, with red curtains, glowing lanterns and a giant spiral-eyed clown looming beside the reels. Instead of the usual cherries, grapes and watermelons looking all fresh and appetising, these ones have been given sharp teeth, scars and other unpleasant alterations. Even the broccoli looks like it might bite. The artwork is detailed, the colours are rich, and a jaunty accordion soundtrack gives the whole thing a slightly deranged fairground personality. It's a playful sort of horror rather than anything genuinely frightening, but the atmosphere is easily one of the game's stronger qualities.

As for the nuts and bolts, Spider Circus Hold and Win is played on a 5x3 grid with a selectable number of paylines. Players can choose between 20, 40, 60, 80 or 100 lines, with stakes ranging from 0.10 to 100 per spin. The math model is medium volatile, with a default RTP of 97%, which is a rather attractive figure in a market where lower settings have become increasingly common. Maximum winnings are capped at 5,000x the bet.

The paytable is populated by the aforementioned mutant fruit and vegetables, with cherries, watermelons, oranges and grapes occupying the lower end. Broccoli sits somewhere in the middle, while peppers, eggplants and a stitched pumpkin provide the bigger regular payouts. Five matching pumpkins can award 10x the bet, making them the most valuable standard symbols. Wilds appear on reels 2, 3 and 4, expanding to cover their entire reel whenever they contribute to a winning combination. It's a familiar mechanic, but one that can help turn a single winning line into several.

Now, a circus wouldn't be much of a circus without a main attraction, and in this case, it's the Hold and Win feature. Landing at least six Spider symbols triggers the bonus, beginning with three respins. The triggering Spiders remain on the grid, and the objective is to collect additional symbols carrying cash prizes. So far, so ordinary, but BGaming has made a couple of adjustments to the usual routine.

First, three randomly selected positions receive multipliers ranging from x2 to x5 at the beginning of the feature. Any Spider landing on one of these positions has its cash value multiplied accordingly. It's a straightforward addition, but one that introduces a little extra anticipation when new Spiders appear, particularly if a valuable symbol happens to land in the right spot.

The other twist involves a progression meter that counts collected Spiders. Reaching 10, 15 or 20 symbols transforms the latest arrival into a Progressive Mystery symbol, which reveals one of several possible rewards. These include upgraded Spider values, Collect symbols, jackpots worth 10x, 25x, 100x or 500x the bet, and multipliers of x2 or x3 applied to the total grid win. The system gives players something to work towards beyond simply filling empty positions, although the underlying action remains very much in the Hold and Win mould.

For those wanting to skip the regular spins, Chance x2 doubles the likelihood of triggering the bonus, while a Bonus Buy provides direct entry for 60x the bet.

It's a bit of a shame that BGaming hasn't been quite as adventurous with the gameplay as it has with the artwork. The Progressive Mystery symbols and position multipliers are welcome additions, but neither changes the basic character of the bonus all that much. There's still a familiar sequence of collecting cash symbols, waiting for the next respin and hoping the grid produces something worthwhile. The progression thresholds add a bit of purpose, but don't expect the mechanics to be anywhere near as eccentric as the characters performing around them.

Spider Circus Hold and Win is therefore a slightly uneven attraction. On one side is a wonderfully odd collection of Halloween fruit monsters, backed by polished graphics and an unusually generous 97% RTP. On the other is a rather ordinary Hold and Win game with a handful of modest embellishments and a 5,000x max payout. The circus certainly knows how to dress for the occasion, but once the novelty of the freakish fruit wears off, the main act isn't quite as spectacular as the posters might suggest.