Fruit Shop Grand Re-Opening

Fruit Shop Grand Re-Opening: Slot Overview

After dabbling in newer concepts for games like In And Out, and What's Up Witches, veteran developer NetEnt has revisited the past, pored through old photo albums, reminisced on the good old days, then returned from memory lane with an inspired-by-yesteryear sequel. Specifically, that sequel is Fruit Shop Grand Re-Opening, a continuation of a franchise which began in 2013's Fruit Shop, moved onto a Christmas edition, had a dalliance with Megaways, then dipped into Fruit Shop Frenzy. The Grand Re-Opening has stocked its shelves with more features than ever before, from respins and bonus spins to a Flavor Meter bursting with bonuses and multipliers.

A wholesome street-side stall has long been part of the Fruit Shop charm, and this Fruit Shop Grand Re-Opening lays on with gusto. Here, the vibe is of taking a leisurely weekend stroll through a French farmers' market, where the produce is fresh out of the ground, organically grown, and every single carrot, raspberry, and sprout is completely carbon offset. After selecting the right ingredients for an afternoon soup, it's time for a cup of ethically sourced coffee served in cups that are compostable in the earth. It's a feel-good game which doesn't just serve fruit symbols on its reels like some slots might, but gives players a holistically satisfying food shopping experience, where one can feel thematically guilt-free with their fruity purchases.

Fruit Shop Grand Re-Opening's default game grid is 5x3 in size, with 13 paylines, but it can grow to 5x6 in size, where there are 34 paylines in play. The mechanical shopkeeper is a highly volatile math model, and of the three RTP options, 96.37% is the preferred variant. By clicking the plus or minus bet buttons, users can choose a stake from $/€0.20 to $/€200 before taking the shop on.

The salad of pay symbols includes 10-A royals, grapes, plums, oranges, watermelons, and cherries. Hitting 5 matching royals pays 4x the stake, or players win 10x to 50x their stake for landing a line of 5 matching fruit. Wilds can appear on all reels except the leftmost reel, and they substitute for all regular paying symbols.

Fruit Shop Grand Re-Opening: Slot Features

Fruitier than ever, the game comes with respins, free bonus spins, a Flavor Meter, multipliers, meter features, Jumper Wilds, and feature buys.

Respins

During base game spins and respins, any winning combination containing fruit symbols awards respins. Wins made up of 2-5 Cherries, or 3-5 other fruit awards +1 to +5 Respins.

Bonus Spins

During the base game and respins, landing 3 or more Fruit Bonus scatters triggers free spins. Landing 3 scatters award 5 Backyard Spins on a 5x3 grid, 4 scatters award 8 Garden Spins on a 5x4 grid, and 5 scatters award 10 Orchard Spins on a 5x5 grid. If free spins are triggered during respins, any remaining respins are converted into extra free spins. During free spins, 3 scatters award +3 free spins, while winning fruit combinations award +1 to +5 extra free spins.

Flavor Meter & Jumper Wild

The Flavor Meter sits beneath the reels and is activated during respins and bonus spins. The meter is divided into 36 steps, after which it can progress until the max win. At the end of respins and bonus spins, the meter resets. The Flavor Meter collects winning combinations, progressing by 1-5 steps when 2-5 Cherries, or 3-5 OAK of the other pay symbols hit.

Every four steps on the meter grants a multiplier progressing in value from x2 to x14 in respins and x4 to x75 in bonus spins. Reaching a new multiplier awards +1 bonus spin. When the max multiplier is reached in bonus spins, any further progression increases by x2 in Backyard Spins, x3 in Garden Spins and x5 in Orchard Spins.

Also, during bonus spins, the Jumper Wild can appear on reels 2-5 with a value of 5-15 jumps. It can appear once per spin. When a winning combination involves a Jumper Wild, the Flavor Meter progresses an extra number of steps equal to the wild's jump value.

Flavor Meter Bonuses

In bonus spins, the Flavor Meter offers 6-15 bonus features, which are randomly selected and placed on the meter.

• Extra Row - Adds an extra row at the bottom of the grid. Up to 3 extra rows are possible in Backyard Spins, 2 in Garden Spins, and 1 in Orchard Spins.
• Sticky Wild - Adds a sticky wild to any reel except the leftmost.
• Mystery Drop - Awards a cash prize of 4x to 40x, which is multiplied by applicable multipliers.
• Activated Fruit - Applies an x2 multiplier on winning combinations of a specific fruit symbol. Can be obtained once per fruit and is multiplied by applicable multipliers.
• Upgrade - Upgrades the 10 symbol to the Cherries symbol.

Elevate Feature

The Elevate Feature is where players are able to activate various in-game features. For 2x the stake, the Bonus Hunt guarantees at least one scatter symbol appears, or for 10x the stake, the Fruit Win guarantees a winning combination of fruit symbols. For 70x at least 3 scatters land to trigger Backyard Spins, while 100x lands at least 4 scatters to trigger Garden Spins, or 150x buys Orchard Spins.

Fruit Shop Grand Re-Opening: Slot Verdict

NetEnt's return to its iconic franchise with Fruit Shop Grand Re-Opening is a visually delightful, wholesome experience that taps into nostalgia while ramming in an unexpectedly large volume of features. The charming, eco-friendly farmer's market provides a soothing backdrop, but don't let the relaxing vibes lull you into a conscientious consumer fugue state. There is gaming to be done, and NetEnt has paired the lengthy list of features with high volatility, doled out in a cycle of base game spins, respins, and free spins bonus rounds. Instead of feeling like an afternoon snack, Fruit Shop Grand Re-Opening is a fuller game, though one which also holds onto things that made its predecessors fun.

On the not-so-sunny side, while it was nice getting a refreshed Fruit Shop slot all these years after the first one sprouted, it was also hard to deny a little nagging voice that found the game a little sleepy at times as well. Despite boasting a large number of features, they often felt quite powerless to do anything remarkable. It seemed easy to get on a respin run that circled back to nowhere, or charge through bonus spins, which didn't seem to do much regardless of how well the Flavor Meter was progressing. Suppose all slots can get stuck in ruts from time to time. And, that's not to say Fruit Shop Grand Re-Opening completely lacks tang, boasting a max win of 5,000x, and a shelf full of extras with the technical capability to mix up a chunky fruit salad, from multipliers to Flavor Meter bonuses.

So a nice game then, pleasantly executed. There is a feeling with all of these new extras on board that Fruit Shop Grand Re-Opening could have done more in the raw, visceral excitement department. But that's not really what Fruit Shop slots have been about. Instead, much of the focus revolves around wholesome, feel-good gaming, of which Fruit Shop Grand Re-Opening provides another round of.