Lava Balls

Lava Balls: 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.

Plinko is a popular form of entertainment (though it pales in comparison to the multi-trillion yen pachinko gambling industry in Japan), and has a presence in online gambling. Print Studios' Pine of Plinko, Pine of Plinko 2 and Pond of Plinko are excellent starting points for dipping a curious toe into if this style appeals, while Quickspin's Pearl O' Plinko slots are solid choices as well. Pragmatic Play's partner Wild Streak Gaming has gotten in on the act with the release of Lava Balls. No, not a cute nickname for a partner, this is a Greek mythology-style game that mixes normal ways to win gaming with lashings of ball-dropping action.

Though it's not stated anywhere in the game or accompanying info, judging Lava Balls on its visual components suggests it's a game about the goddess of the underworld, Persephone, who ate pomegranate seeds when she was taken by Hades, binding her to the underworld for a part of the year - a symbol of the life and death cycle. As such, Lava Balls is held in an underground domain of rock, lava, and Plinko. Yeah, that last bit doesn't link instantly to the theme, but balls falling into prize pots is an integral part of Lava Balls in all phases of play.

To get the ball rolling (no pun intended), means choosing a stake where the minimum bet is $/€0.25 and the maximum is $/€250. Mathematically, Lava Balls is a highly volatile machine, with a top RTP of 96.5% whether regular betting or buying the feature. A 5x3 grid is the main play area, where there are 243 ways to win.

All pay symbols pay from left to right from the leftmost reel. Card ranks 10-A award 0.2x to 0.8x for 5 OAK, increasing to 1x to 4x the bet when landing 5 matching pomegranates, arrow heads, boats, female characters, and male character symbols. Wilds hit on the middle three reels, substituting all regular paying symbols.

Lava Balls: Slot Features

Dropping balls into prize pots is the name of the game in Lava Balls. This can occur with a Lava Balls Wild Multiplier feature, though it's at the end of free spins where a number of collected balls come tumbling down to award prizes.

Lava Balls Wild Multiplier

7 pots sit at the bottom of the screen during the base game, displaying random multipliers of x1 to x1,000 and free spins on each spin. When at least one wild hits and is part of a winning combination, before wins are awarded, a ball drops through a grid of pins to land in one of the pots at the bottom. If the ball falls into a pot with a multiplier, all wins containing wilds on the spin are multiplied by that multiplier. If the ball falls into a pot with free spins, the free spins round triggers.

Free Spins

Hitting 3 or more scatters or landing a ball in a free spins pot awards 12 free spins. The round starts with pots at the bottom of the screen carrying random money values of 0.2x to 200x the bet. The leftmost and rightmost pots increase in value after every spin by 0.2x to 120x the bet. The Extra Pot Values symbol may land on the reels with a value of 0.2x to 200x the bet, which gets added to the pot beneath it for the rest of the round. The Lava Balls Wild Multiplier feature can also occur in free spins, and when it happens, the pots at the bottom of the screen temporarily transform into random multiplier values.

Lava Balls symbols may land on the leftmost reel, while the Ball Drop symbol may land on the rightmost reel, carrying a random number of balls from 1 to 100. When a Lava Balls and Balls Drop symbol lands on the same spin, the number of balls on the Ball Drop is added to a meter. At the end of the round, a number of balls equal to the meter's amount drop through a grid of pins into pots under the screen. For each ball, the amount on the pot it landed in is added to the total win. Lastly, hitting an Additional Free Spins symbol awards an extra +1-5 free spins.

Feature Buy

The free spins feature may be bought from the base game at a cost of 100x the total bet.

Lava Balls: Slot Verdict

For a playable mix of slot and Plinko, Lava Balls is a pretty fun option. We've already seen just how versatile Plinko can be in a slot (see the games mentioned in the first paragraph, for example), and Lava Balls manages to deepen the pool of options. It's not as slickly presented as Print Studios' contributions, and lacks the same level of woodland charm, but there's no denying the ongoing allure of mythology in slots, so Lava Balls might hold greater appeal to a different segment of gamblers.

In addition, Lava Balls is one of the more polished slots to come from Wild Streak Gaming's workshop. Oftentimes, they've got an oddly dated look about them, like 3 Dancing Monkeys or Lucky Lightning, whereas Lava Balls looks closer to something Pragmatic Play itself might have produced. Perhaps there was a closer collaboration between the two studios than usual? Not sure, but Lava Balls' base game slides into its bonus round and back about as smoothly as you'd like, though the big win count-ups are as corny as ever. Quite nice too that players can experience some ball-dropping thrills in the base game when the Lava Balls Wild Multiplier feature triggers. However, the game's climax occurs at the end of free spins when collected balls are let loose to fall into whatever prize values have accumulated in pots, watching them bounce towards or away from the larger values in that tantalising way Plinko does it.

The game's potential could've been higher than its 4,800x cap, and the max win probability isn't amazing for a Pragmatic Play release. Meaning, there are better options for gamblers who'd prefer to chase bigger stats in a Plinko-type game. For players interested in experiencing slot thrills with the unpredictability of Plinko in a fiery setting, Lava Balls has its moments, yet it lacks the firepower to really dominate the growing pack of Plinko-slot hybrids.