Dia Del Mariachi Megaways

Dia Del Mariachi Megaways: Slot Overview

Dia Del Mariachi, or Mariachi Megaways is an online slot from All41 Studios and their fourth powered by Megaways via a licence from partner Microgaming. It's a celebration of the famous music of Mexico, and whether by luck or design, Dia Del Mariachi is an actual thing. January 21 was designated as Mariachi Day in 2011 after UNESCO labelled the music an Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Mariachi music has been described as a fundamental part of Mexican culture as it promotes heritage, values, and language. It also comes in handy for making an upbeat slot, as has been demonstrated many times in the past. Now it's All41's opportunity to strike up the band and get the party swinging.

Held on a sunny day in Mexico, Dia Del Mariachi Megaways doesn't start smack bang in the middle of a party. Without a soul in sight, it feels like we've arrived in town in the middle of a siesta. You can imagine a warm breeze sweeping through the empty streets as the townsfolk rest, gathering strength for the shindig to come. Dia Del Mariachi isn't as instantly riotous as an Esqueleto Explosivo 2 or a Wild Toro 2, but All41 has made a pleasant looking game, and the soundtrack is a joyous Mariachi celebration.

The fiesta takes place on a standard Megaways game grid, where 6 reels make up the bulk of the panel, with a 4-position horizontal reel located on the top. The number of symbols on the main reels varies from 2 to 7, creating up to 117,649 ways to win at the most. The RTP is a bit of a crapshoot, with four settings possible depending on jurisdiction. If you're after the most generous version, look for the one with a return value of 96.42%. This one comes with a highly volatile math model and knocks out a hit rate of 35.97%. Here, bets can be set from 20 p/c up to $/€20 per spin on tablets, desktops, or mobile devices.

Winning combinations are formed when matching symbols land in adjacent reels from the leftmost side; any row is fine. Starting things off are low pay card rank tiles, 9-A, awarding 1 to 1.5 times the stake for a six of a kind winning way. Next come ornately designed band items such as maracas, trumpets, violins, and guitars, which are worth 2 to 50 times the stake for six. The wild symbol pops up to assist players by substituting for any pay symbol. It appears organically on the upper reel, or it can land on the main reels as part of a Sombrero Spin.

Dia Del Mariachi Megaways: Slot Features

Dia Del Mariachi is essentially a jackpot focused game, with Rolling Reels, special symbols, and Sombrero Spins providing complementary thrills.

Rolling Reels

Rolling Reels remove winning combinations when they hit, and symbols remaining on the reels fall down into the spaces. If new combinations are created as a result, then Rolling Reels roll again.

Special Symbols

As well as being the place where wilds hit, the top reel is also where 4 special symbols appear. Each one awards something different when triggered by a Sombrero Spin:

• Piñata – awards a cash prize of 2x, 3x, 5x, or 10x the bet.
• Firecracker – turns itself and all symbols below it wild except scatters.
• Rocket – turns itself and up to 3 random positions on reels 2-6 into wilds. It does not transform wilds, scatters, or special symbols.

The fourth special symbol is the wheel. Trigger this, and you get one jackpot spin to win the Mini, Minor, Major, or Mega Jackpot, worth fixed amounts of 15x, 50x, 500x, 10,000x the bet, respectively.

Sombrero Spin

In the base game, when special symbols hit, they do not automatically award their prize. Instead, a Sombrero Spin must trigger first, which happens at random. Sombrero Spins highlight positions on the top reel, and if a special symbol lands in a highlighted spot, it is triggered.

Free Spins

Gold bars are scatter symbols, and having 4 of them in view triggers 10 free spins. If more than 4 scatters land, each additional one awards an extra +2 free spins. What changes in free spins is that Sombrero Spins are always active. This means every free spin can technically trigger special symbols.

Feature Buy

As well as activating free spins naturally, they can be bought for direct access to the bonus game. The cost for buying free spins in Dia Del Mariachi Megaways is 80 times the total stake.

Dia Del Mariachi Megaways: Slot Verdict

As long as a studio wedges in some bright Mexican visuals and cranks up the tunes, it's hard to get a Mariachi themed game totally wrong. In saying that, All41 has done more than the bare minimum to create what was a fun game to play. In Dia Del Mariachi, the band's there, the music bobs along in its uniquely Mexican manner, and the vibe is positive. All41's audio-visual team has created a buoyant game for Mariachi enthusiasts to try their luck, and the potential rewards aren't bad either.

Drilling into the gaming side of things, special symbols are a little lopsided. Firecracker full reel wilds could be useful for linking pay symbols into something good. Less exciting was the rocket symbol, which adds a maximum of 3 wilds to the reels instead of opening up the sort of shower of wild activity you might have thought an exploding firecracker would do. The piñata symbol was probably the least thrilling of all as it usually produced a paltry 2x or 3x the bet win. Even its max prize of 10x is hardly a major pulse quickener. That leaves the wheel symbol, the rarest of them all. This one will no doubt be highly sought after since it can lead directly to a 10,000x payday in one fell swoop, though the lesser prizes are more likely to be won, naturally.

While there are plenty of Mariachi games out there to choose from, there isn't a vast number of Mexican themed Megaways slots on the market, with the exception perhaps of Pragmatic Play's Chilli Heat, or BTG's Extra Chilli, at a stretch. And so, Megaways players looking for the chance to get jiggy with some cheerful Mexican tunes while they chase jackpots now have their needs met in a neatly designed slot.