Bingo Mania

Bingo Mania: Slot Overview

Editor's note: This review is based on an early access version of the game. We may update the review after the full release if necessary.

Traditional in-person bingo remains popular amongst adults in countries like the UK, and its popularity on mobile and online platforms has significantly grown in the last few years, driven by factors such as integration with online slots or casino games. Increasing the list of bingo-inspired slot choices is developer Pragmatic Play's Bingo Mania, a game that blends classic slot mechanics with the goal of making lines on a game card to initiate wins.

Bingo Mania displays a stack of relevant elements to ensure gamblers know they're playing a bingo-themed slot. It also has plenty of that Pragmatic Play pizzazz going on; however, its personality is pretty skin deep. Its golden-bordered gaming area resembles a stack of bingo cards, and it's joined on stage with a ball roller and thick red curtains. The music is funky enough to enhance the jazzy atmosphere a notch or two. Still, as mentioned, the presentation is more a box-ticking event of the obvious elements, a pleasant-looking one, rather than an in-depth exposé of the bingo scene.

Gamblers may stake $/€0.20 to $/€240 per spin in Bingo Mania, where the maximum RTP is 96.51%. They also have the option of activating the ante bet to increase the chance of winning free spins, for an extra 50% added to the wager, putting the RTP at 96.49%. A total of 30 paylines line the 5x3 gaming area, and a highly volatile math model is in charge of calling out the bingo numbers, so to speak.

All symbols pay from the leftmost reel and include J-A bingo balls, sevens, slot machines, bundles of cash, safes, and bingo cards. Royals pay 1x the bet for 5 OAK, while the remaining symbols award 2x to 25x for a 5 OAK winning combination. Wilds replace any symbols except scatters, and they appear on all reels except the leftmost.

Bingo Mania: Slot Features

Tacked on as extras, Bingo Mania has free spins with Mystery symbols, a Bingo Bonus hold 'n' win, and feature buys.

Free Spins

Hitting 3 scatters awards players 6 free spins and 2x the stake. Mystery symbols appear in the free spins round, and when they hit, all instances of them reveal a wild or bingo symbol at random. If 6 or more Bingo symbols hit on the screen, the Bingo Bonus is activated. When the Bingo Bonus completes, any remaining free spins continue to play out. This feature cannot be retriggered.

Bingo Bonus

Hitting 6 or more Bingo scatters triggers the Bingo Bonus. Before it begins, all Bingo symbols on the screen transform into Coin symbols with a random value of 0.25x to 1,000x the bet. The round is played on a 5x5 grid, which lands Coins, Super Coins, and blanks. When the round starts, the value of all Coins on the screen is collected in the middle position of the grid. The middle position does not spin. Super Coins are special symbols that contain the 20x Mini, 40x Minor, 100x Major, 500x Mega, x2, or x3 multiplier. These values are locked until they are part of a line.

3 respins are awarded. After each respin, all Coins and Super Coins that hit remain on the reels, and landing at least 1 of either Coin resets the respin count. When a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal line is formed, the total value of all Coins in the line is added together at the centre position of the respective line, leaving this central Coin on the grid. If full lines have one or more multipliers, the multipliers are applied to each value on the line before they are collected into the central Coin. Should 10 lines form across a single bonus round, the Grand prize is 10,000x the bet. When respins end, the values of all unlocked symbols on the screen are added up and paid.

Feature Buy

The free spins feature and the Bingo Bonus round can both be accessed directly for a cost of 80 times the bet.

Bingo Mania: Slot Verdict

Bingo Mania is a lively game that combines some of the thrills of bingo into an online slot. It manages to both deviate from the way bingo is usually played while also cleaving tightly to some of the core mechanics. Making lines, for instance, is one of the main winning patterns in bingo, and doing so is critical for forming wins during the Bingo Bonus as well. It's jazzy, it's shiny, and anyone with a combined interest in gambling and bingo would do well to give Bingo Mania a crack. Be warned, though, this is not a totally bingo-focused game, compared to say, Immortal Romance Video Bingo, for example, but there are clear and obvious crossovers.

On the less positive side, and don't want to sound like a hater, but the free spins bonus round feels like a bit of a waste of space. It offers Mystery symbols, which can be fairly exciting at times as they go about revealing wilds or Bingo symbols, and may even end up triggering the Bingo Bonus. But if free spins had not been included, they probably wouldn't have been severely missed. Never mind, as said, Mystery symbols can lead to the Bingo Bonus, where the line-creating amusement can commence. To Pragmatic Play's creative credit, there's more to Bingo Mania than just landing Coins in lines, and that's that. Instead, lines consolidate into central positions, making space to land more Coins, while jackpot prizes and multis may appear, adding a pinch of diversity, not to mention solid potential for a bingo slot at 10,000x the bet.

After playing through a few Bingo Bonus rounds and getting the gist of things, interest in Bingo Mania did start to wane. Ultimately, while Bingo Mania is far from a flawless fusion of slot and bingo, its sizable win cap, hold 'n' win variation, and lively atmosphere make it one for fans of the two gaming forms to give a spin.