Party in Rio Pokie
Party In Rio is a carnival crazy online pokie from Aristocrat that takes players to a land of colour, music and hopefully, winning lines of symbols. Cocktails, macaws, whistles, masks and drums bring the excitement of the party to players of this 5 reel pokie, while some bonus rounds like free spins, wild wins and multiplier payouts should have them dancing in the streets when the right symbols appear.
Like all games from Aristocrat, Party In Rio sticks to the rules of fair play and can be enjoyed online or on mobile platforms without needing any software to be downloaded, plus it’s got the signature style that this developer is known for, with detailed background images, well-crafted symbols and an unusual twist on standard bonus features.
Off to Rio
The reels spin against a nice image of the Rio shoreline and as players would expect from a game that covers carnival time, the whole affair is a blaze of colour. There’s certainly enough here to appeal to players who like vibrant games, although the Samba music that plays along with it could get a bit much so many will be clicking the Mute button sooner rather than later.
The Reel Power format does away with paylines and replaces them with a system where players win any time matching symbols land in any positions on adjacent reels running from the left side, with 243 different ways that symbols can line up to pay out a prize. On top of this is the potential for the scatter symbol to pay out multiples of the total bet per spin, rather than the coins per line which standard icons are worth.
The minimum number of coins that can be used is 30, with the value of each win, along with how bonuses are triggered and what happens during them, revealed by the payout table. Rather predictably, the playing card 9, 10, J, Q and K symbols take up the bottom end of the scale, with wins of between 5 and 100 coins when the 9 or 10 make up a line, to between 10 and 250 for the Q and K. While these are all colourful symbols, there’s nothing special about them and no attempt to make them fit in with the carnival theme, which seems a bit of a wasted opportunity.
Picture symbols will return bigger rewards, and these are much more interesting to look at, all culminating with the bright gold and pink crown which pays 25 coins when it lands on the first 3 reels, 200 for 4 of them and a full line of 5 being worth 2000.
Party in Rio
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Brazilian Bonuses
An attractive dancer in a typically flamboyant outfit is a wild symbol and while she can’t make up any wins on her own, she will substitute for all but the scatter to help complete winning lines, doing a little dance when she does so.
That scatter symbol is a whistle and it can turn up in any positions to be worth 2x, 5x or 25x the triggering bet when 3, 4 or 5 appear. This is also what players need to enter the Samba Free Games round, where they will be rewarded with up to 20 extra spins at no extra cost.
Before they start however, they will need to select 5 musical instruments from the 10 that will be laid out before them, with the actual number of spins determined by the ones they pick. Even if just a few spins are awarded, they shouldn’t worry as all wins are doubled in value throughout the free games and each time the wild symbol appears they get a bonus of between 1 and 20 coins.
The feature can be re-triggered from within, so anyone landing 3 scatters during the free spins will restart the round once the current one has ended.
The Verdict
Party In Rio covers a theme that’s exciting, colourful and full of fun by tapping into that carnival atmosphere with equally colourful symbols and enjoyable features. It’s a shame that Aristocrat didn’t go all-out and give the playing card symbols a bit more of a distinctive style, but the images from the carnival are well designed and make up for any shortfalls.
Another minor issue is that the wild symbol, only appears on the middle 3 reels and won’t be worth anything on its own, while having the free spins wins doubled in value is nice, but the reels are standard so there’s not actually any guarantee of getting any wins in the first place, especially if only a few are granted.