Club Tropicana Happy Hour

Club Tropicana Happy Hour: Slot Overview

Viewer discretion is advised; any players who are repelled by the thought of doing anything twice best be looking away right now. Over two years before this review, Pragmatic Play partner Reel Kingdom reskinned Bigger Bass Blizzard to design the non-fishing-related slot Club Tropicana. The studio has since deemed the time right to release a follow-up titled Club Tropicana Happy Hour. Given the history, you're probably wondering if this one's a reskin as well. The answer is yes indeedy, as Reel Kingdom has stripped the scales off Bigger Bass Splash and plopped the guts into a drink mixer before putting a tiny umbrella on top to produce Club Tropicana Happy Hour.

Happy hours tend to occur outside of peak trading hours, and in Club Tropicana Happy Hour, that time is when the sunlight is fading away, and the day is melting into night, causing reds and oranges to inflame a tropical sky. The Big Bass guy is here, not reeling in fish this time but mixing up cocktails in the role of bartender. This guy has appeared in so many slots by now it is a little unusual Reel Kingdom hasn't gotten around to giving him a name. In Club Tropicana Happy Hour, he's got a distinctive style, all neon flower shirt, rugged chest, medallion, and flowing hair, so he might have an equally distinctive name. And… that is about the biggest mystery Club Tropicana Happy Hour has to offer.

Twelve paylines line Club Tropicana Happy Hour's 5x4, 12-payline gaming grid, creating winning combinations that, like Big Bass-related slots often do, get interesting at their upper values. A highly volatile math model shakes the cocktails and produces a max RTP of 96.50% when better 10 c to $/€200, buying free spins or using the ante bet. The ante bet increases the stake by 50% to make triggering free spins naturally higher.

Casting our beady little eyes over the paytable reveals cherries, lemons, oranges, grapes, and watermelons, paying 5 to 10 times the bet for 5 OAK. After them are cocktails, flowers, drinks, umbrellas, and pouring liquid, paying 50x to 200x when landing 5 matching symbols. One thing about cocktail symbols is that they are also Money symbols, and each appears with a value of 2x to 5,000x the bet. When cocktail symbols make a winning combination 5 symbols in length, they pay the total money value they display. Wild bartender symbols only appear in free spins, and one thing they can do is substitute regular paying symbols.

Club Tropicana Happy Hour: Slot Features

The features in Club Tropicana Happy Hour are the same as those from Bigger Bass Splash, which means collecting money symbols in free spins, free spins modifiers, random modifiers, and feature buys.

Free Spins

Hitting 3, 4, or 5 scatters in the base game triggers the bonus round, where 10, 15, or 20 free spins are awarded, respectively. During the base game, when 2 scatters are in view, there is a chance another scatter is randomly brought onto the screen by a respin feature, or a beer can pull. Before free spins begin, 0 to 5 modifiers are randomly awarded, which apply to the bonus round:

• More Cocktails- more cocktail symbols are present on the reels.
• More Bartenders - more wild bartender symbols are present on the reels.
• More Beers, Exotic Drinks, and Shakers - these random modifiers are more likely to occur.
• Start From level 2 - the progressive feature starts from level 2.
• +2 Spins - the round starts with 2 extra free spins and +2 spins are added to every retrigger.

During the bonus round, each landed bartender collects the values of all cocktail symbols in view. Wild symbols are also collected. Every 4th collected bartender retriggers +10 free spins, and the multiplier for cocktail symbol collection increases to x2 for the second level, x3 for the third level, and x10 for the fourth level.

While the bonus feature is in play, when there are bartender symbols on screen, but no cocktails, then cocktail symbols can randomly appear at the end of the spin from the exotic drinks feature. When there are cocktail symbols on screen but no bartenders, a beer may randomly appear at the end of the spin to bring bartender symbols into view. Lastly, when there are bartender symbols in view but no cocktails, a shaker animation may change all symbols on the screen except bartenders into something else at the end of the spin.

Feature Buy

Players may buy the free spins round for 100 times their bet, or paying 350x the bet buys super free spins where all modifiers are awarded. In both cases, 3, 4, or 5 scatters will trigger the feature.

Club Tropicana Happy Hour: Slot Verdict

If you thought the Big Bass stone had been bled completely dry a long time ago, Reel Kingdom has managed to squeeze even more mileage out of its popular, never-ending fish slot range. Brand-new releases aren't so bad. Hey, they're something new to try, after all. Gamblers, in general, seem to love fish slots, and Reel Kingdom definitely hit upon a winning formula. But the endless repeats, clones, and reskins are getting a tad tiresome, and unless you're a mega dyed-in-the-wool Big Bass zealot, the joke ceased being funny a long time ago.

What's more head-scratching is that Bigger Bass Splash wasn't an amazing game to start with, being not hugely different to Big Bass Splash, and so the circle continues. On the positive side, Club Tropicana Happy Hour delivers the collecting mechanic a good number of gamblers appear to enjoy, the RTP is strong, and winning potential is no empty tip jar at 5,000x the bet. But, and it kind of goes without saying, if you're looking for innovation from the Big Bass (and related slots) phenomenon, don't expect to find any here. It just isn't going to happen. In fact, unless the thought of mixing drinks again with the beardy BB guy really, really gets the blood flowing, there's little to no reason to even consider knocking one back with Club Tropicana Happy Hour.