Puebla Parade

Puebla Parade: Slot Overview

Cast your mind to Mexico in the year 1862, where General Ignacio Zaragoza and his poorly-equipped force faced down a numerically superior French army and defeated them at the Battle of Puebla. This morale-boosting victory has been commemorated down to the present day in a celebration called Cinco de Mayo (Fifth of May). Interestingly, an even larger French force defeated the Mexican army at the second Battle of Puebla, which allowed the invaders to occupy Mexico City. Never mind, no one's so interested in the follow-up fight anymore, especially developer Play'n GO, it seems, who has brought the festival to the reels in an online slot called Puebla Parade.

Mexican culture is popular in slots, and it's not hard to see why. It gives software providers a chance to use brighter colours than usual, add in energetic soundtracks, and pepper the reels with festive symbology. Puebla Parade pretty much delivers all of this on an expandable game grid, surrounded by background imagery that evokes a party spirit. Puebla Parade isn't the sort of slot that scratches very far beneath the surface of the theme, but it's certainly boisterous looking, and its positive presentation provides motivation to crank up the shindig by hitting spin.

Played on a 5-reel, 4-row game panel, Puebla Parade's grid can grow up to 7 rows high, and at that height, there are 421 paylines in play. Winning combinations are made up when three to five matching symbols land on a pay line, starting from the left side of the grid. Highly volatile (7 out of 10), Puebla Parade is playable on any device and comes with stake options of 5 p/c to $/€100. Hit the info button on the bottom left of the screen to check the machine's RTP, which tops out at 96.2%, but can be configured as low as 84.2%, depending on the market.

Play'n GO has taken the opportunity to get all colourful on the paytable, which includes 11 regular pay symbols, a wild, yet no scatters appear at any time. On the lower end of the table are 9-A card royals, all paying a prize of 0.6 times the stake for a five of a kind win. The premium symbols include chips' n dip, tacos, guitars, skulls and piñatas, where a winning line of five is worth 0.8 to 4 times the stake.

Puebla Parade: Slot Features

Since there are no scatter or bonus symbols in Puebla Parade, it's up to wild symbols to really fire the entertainment. There are two wilds actually, a Señorita Wild and a Señor Wild. The first thing the wilds can do is substitute for any pay symbol to help complete winning lines. They land on any reel and can make winning lines of their own which are worth the same amount as the highest paying premium symbol.

Respins

Landing a Señorita Wild and a Señor Wild triggers 2 respins. Wilds are sticky and walk during respins or free spins. The respin count resets back to 2 if another wild lands on a respin. If the Señorita Wild and Señor Wild come together during respins, they form a pair of dancers called a Pareja Wild. When a Pareja Wild is created, it gains an x2 multiplier and extends the height of the reels by +1 – up to a maximum of 7 rows high.

Free Spins

It is possible to create up to 3 Pareja Wilds in a respin sequence. When 3 Pareja Wilds are created, 8 free spins are awarded. During free spins, Pareja Wilds are upgraded with x3 multipliers, and these wild symbols roam around the reels during the feature.

Puebla Parade: Slot Verdict

As Cinco de Mayo has become more mainstream outside of Mexico, some are wary of a perceived level of cultural appropriation going on. It might pay to give Puebla Parade a miss if you're in this camp and feel like the celebration is descending into a corporate cash in. If not, well, there is as much Mexican flavoured action going on in Puebla Parade as there is in most other slots using a similar theme. The game is packed with a number of icons closely associated with slot versions of Mexico, and the overall vibe is vivacious. Puebla Parade makes it easy to lighten up and bust into a bit of Jarabe Tapatio for a bit.

The game certainly doesn't throw up anything complicated that could possibly get in the way. The goal is simple - land the two wild characters, bring them together to form a dancing couple and hope that three Pareja Wilds are created to trigger free spins. Players who liked the clash of symbols approach of games like The Invisible Man, Bison Battle, or even Wild Toro might be intrigued by Puebla Parade's approach. It is pretty simple, maybe a little too simple, though the addition of multipliers sweetens the deal. More so when the triggering Pareja Wild dancers are carried over to free spins and their multipliers are increased to the x3 rather than x2. Play'n GO hasn't gone bananas in terms of potential, yet Puebla Parade still packs a respectable 5,000x the bet when pushed to its limit.

All in all, Puebla Parade is a lively game, and its positives outweigh the negatives. It's not exactly party of the century, but players with a soft spot for all things south of the border should be able to find value in Puebla Parade without too much trouble.