La Fiesta

La Fiesta: Overview

Players, dust off the flamenco shoes, Relax Gaming is taking you off to sunny Spain for a spin in La Fiesta. Brimming in features, La Fiesta is like a meze that keeps on serving plates. Three random modifiers and four bonus games named after famous festivals help ensure there is plenty to look forward to. Add in the ability to gamble features for upgrades, an impressive potential, and a festive atmosphere, and the trip is off to a positive start.

Set in a small Spanish town, festooned in lights and flags, the game uses a 5 reel, 4 row grid, crisscrossed by 40 fixed paylines. Frequent background animations add a touch of life, as does the laid back jazzy soundtrack. The look is cartoon-like, a little comical, creating a video game quality that is easy to settle into.

Playable from 10 p/c to $/€100 per spin, the RTP varies from 96.19% in the default mode to 96.55% when the feature buy is engaged. Volatility, meanwhile, rests in the medium/high range; officially rate 4/5 by the developer - though it may alter depending on how the gamble feature is used. Wins come at a rate of greater than one in five spins (21.88%), so all in all, a respectable set of stats from the math model.

The symbols used throughout are cheerfully done in a recognisably Relax style. On the low pay side, we get the four card suits designed to look like flasks filled with colourful liquid. These are backed up by four premium symbols – a señorita, a señor, a matador, and a bull. Five of a kind value for the premiums ranges from 2 to 10 times the stake.

La Fiesta doesn’t do anything by halves, which also pertains to the wilds. Four different types appear in the game such as a tomato, a squashed tomato, a 1x2 or a 1x3 donkey wild. Each one substitutes for any of the regular pay symbols to form a combination. They are also worth the same as the premium bull when forming combinations of their own.

La Fiesta: Features

If there is one thing La Fiesta has a lot of, its features. This includes free spin rounds, as well as spin modifiers. Let’s start with those which appear randomly on any spin.

• La Tomatina – wild tomato symbols are thrown at the reels to land in any position.
• Pamplona – the bull symbol becomes mega stacked.
• San Joan – adds a donkey wild with a progressive multiplier. While the donkey is on two legs, the reels respin and the multiplier increases. When the donkey lies down, there is one final respin and +1 to the multiplier.

The fiesta heats up during the free spins game which is triggered by landing 3 scatter symbols. Now, there are 4 different free spins games on offer - the third scatter symbol on the last reel determines which one it will be. The rose scatter triggers Falleras Free Spins; the tomato scatter leads to La Tomatina Free Spins, the bull scatter equates to Pamplona Free Spins, while the last is the San Joan Free Spins.

Whichever one you win can then be gambled or collected during the La Fiesta Tour Bus phase. There is a set hierarchy, so if you gamble the lowest tier feature, there is a chance you lose the bonus round altogether. A successful gamble opens up the next feature on the ladder, which can also be gambled if you so choose. These are the available free spins games:

• 'Falleras' begins with a mini-game to determine the starting number of free spins. Each red rose that lands in this section awards a free spin, while gold roses add a free spin plus they increase the win multiplier by +1. When no new roses land, the feature begins with whatever you have collected. During the feature, roses may land to increase free spins.
• 'La Tomatina' starts with 7 free spins. During this feature any tomato wilds that land turn sticky and remain in place for the remainder of the round.
• The 'Pamplona' feature begins with 6 free spins. On each spin, the bull symbol is Mega Stacked on the reels. This means there are a lot of bull symbols floating around for bigger potential wins.
• The final 'San Joan' feature cannot be triggered so it must be won from the La Fiesta Tour Bus gamble. Here, a three-position high Stallion wild enters the game, with a progressive multiplier. As this symbol moves, the game respins and the multiplier increases by +1. When the Stallion Wild falls to a horizontal position, there is one last respin including a final +1 to the multiplier.

Last but not least is the bonus buy feature. At a price of 50 times the stake, you to get 3 guaranteed scatters on the next spin. Again, the feature is determined by the scatter on the fifth reel which can be gambled at the La Fiesta Tour Bus as normal.

La Fiesta: Verdict

It’s hard not to appreciate the effort that went into creating La Fiesta. The game begins with an animated intro which lays the scene and the high build quality is evident from the get-go. Relax has built a fun corner of the world to lose yourself in, teeming with infectious positivity.

There are loads of things to see and do, as in, features to explore, while random modifiers spice up the base game. A lot of thought clearly went into La Fiesta, evidenced by things like the naming of features after real festivals. Aspects like this tighten up the whole experience, giving it coherence. Whether you’re into the game or not, La Fiesta feels like quite the passion project.

On the gaming side, the multitude of features gives La Fiesta a sort of Blueprint Gaming feel. Being able to gamble them is a double-edged sword though. It’s brilliant when it works out, annoying if you lose them, especially if you’ve just forked out 50x for the privilege. All four had their good and bad moments during testing, though the overall potential is high. During simulations, Relax recorded a max win of 14,778 times the bet, so there is a lot to play for.

Adding everything up equates to an attractive, entertaining game. La Fiesta’s cinematic quality is sure to attract curious punters pining for some warm weather, while the feast of features keeps you engaged. The only problem is that after a while you can find yourself on Skyscanner looking for cheap flights to Barcelona.