Day of Dead (Pragmatic Play): Slot Review & Theme:
While the theme of Día de los Muertos may seem too ominous to be popular among slot enthusiasts, you’d actually be surprised at how many developers have ventured into this celebration. Out of all the Día de los Muertos slots in the genre, Day of Dead by Pragmatic Play might be the most visually attractive. This title perfectly captures the often misunderstood connection that the Mexican culture shares with their dearly departed loved ones, a truly beautiful but slightly ominous relationship.
As mentioned earlier, this could easily be one of the most visually attractive Día de los Muertos slots in the genre; the symbols are expertly designed with an unusual Mexican touch that is extremely entertaining; there’s even a chihuahua with Day of the Dead face paint. Beyond the symbols, the background features a dark graveyard lit with candles while marigold flowers are scattered at the bottom of the grid. Of course, it’s not a Día de los Muertos slot without signature Mexican music, and that’s exactly what the soundtrack provides.
Pay Table and Bet Sizes
Pragmatic Play has undoubtedly taken notice of the immense popularity of Día de los Muertos video slots and thus has created a vast betting range that allows all player types to find a comfortable bet amount. The minimum betting amount is $0.2, and the maximum is $100.
The symbols within Day of Dead are all entirely unique and do well to make a more coherent theme throughout the gameplay of this title. The low-paying symbols can include glowing card suits such as spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs, awarding 2x, 2x, 2.5x, and 2.5x payouts. The high-paying symbols consist of rumba shakers, a drum, a guitar, a chihuahua, a skeleton señorita, a young woman, and a young boy, awarding 3.5x, 4x, 5x, 6x, 7.5x, 10x, and 15x payouts. These payouts are only achieved when landing 5 symbols of a kind in a winning line.
About Day of Dead
Any video slot can be visually appealing, but without a promise of reasonable wins, it likely will not attract many players. Therefore, being the excellent developer it is, Pragmatic Play has created a reassuring math model that ensures captivating and rewarding gameplay. The RTP of Dead of Dead is set at an alluring 96.49%.
The gameplay occurs on a 5-reel by 3-row grid with 20 fixed paylines. The math model becomes truly alluring when considering that Day of Dead offers an excellent maximum payout potential of 4,500x the base bet. Like most slots, the high payout potential is counteracted by a high volatility rating.
Features of Day of Dead
For such an attractive video slot by Pragmatic Play, one would expect to see a host of bonus features that promise immense diversity throughout the gameplay. While that isn’t exactly the case within Day of Dead, it’s certainly not far from it. The majority of excitement will arise once the free spin round activates.
During free spins, special walking wild symbols will not only expand but stick to the reels while only moving one position to the left between each spin until it reaches the end of the grid. During the base game, players must rely on wild symbols for more frequent winning combinations.
Wild Symbols
Players may land a wild symbol designed as a marigold flower bed during the base game. The wild symbol can appear on all reels within the grid while also substituting for all regular pay symbols. The wild symbol will also award a 15x payout when landing 5 symbols of a kind in a payline.
Walking Wilds
The second wild symbol is designed as a tombstone. Whenever a wild tombstone lands, it expands to cover all positions on its respective reel, and if it contributes to a winning combination, it will award the payout, then trigger a respin. These expanded Walking Wilds move one reel to the left until they fall off the grid. While walking, additional expanding wilds may land, also expanding to cover whole reels. Respins continue to take place until no walking Wilds remain in view. Keep in mind that the wild tombstone symbol will only appear during the free spin round.
Free Respins
The scatter symbol is styled as a Día de los Muertos skull. Landing 3 scatter symbols in the base game triggers free respins. The scatter symbol will only appear on reels 1, 3, and 5. There is no set number of spins here, but as long as there are walking wilds on screen, the feature remains active. During free respins, another glowing tombstone symbol appears, which is collected. These collected symbols are gathered at the top of the game grid, where they may be added to the reels as Expanded Wilds. The round begins with 2 collectible wilds. When one or more are added to the grid, they become walking wilds, and respins begin. Collected wilds may be added back to the reels on random respins or when no expanded wilds remain on the screen. The round ends when there are no more walking wilds on the reels, and no collected wilds remain.
Summary
With the immense number of Día de los Muertos slots in the genre, it can often be difficult to decide which is most worth one’s time. Day of Dead is certainly worth consideration, at the very least. This slot has excellent graphics, a handful of bonus features for added entertainment, and a promise of reasonable wins. Altogether, this slot excellently represents the intriguing relationship that we all have with death. Celebrating life can be extremely entertaining and fulfilling, especially when the reels are spinning and wins are just beyond the horizon.
