Lucky Buzz Pokie
Players could be left bug-eyed at the potential winnings from the Lucky Buzz video pokie. Released by Euro Games Technology, (EGT), there’s some ant-icipation about this game, but it looks like they could get a real buzz from spinning the reels and bonus features like free spins with stacked wilds, the chance to multiply wins in a gamble game, plus a 4-level progressive jackpot feature, ensures that there’s no sting in the tail waiting for anyone.
Enough with the bad puns, it’s time to take a review of this pokie and see if it’s worth playing or if it should be mothballed.
Cartoon insects are up to all sorts on the 5 reels of Lucky Buzz, where we see a drunk mosquito, a beetle driving a Volkswagen and a hungry caterpillar. It’s all very bright, colourful and cheery. 20 fixed paylines run across the reels, with players needing to land matching symbols across a line on adjacent reels from the left side to get a winning combination. A bet range that starts at just 0.20 per spin should be within most budgets, while the high limit is set at 40.00, but it can be tested out at most online casinos, where free Lucky Buzz video pokies can be found.
Playing Lucky Buzz
Set in a grassy meadow, the reels are flanked by payline indicators to either side and above them sits 4 boxes, each showing the current values of the Club, Diamond, Heart or Spade progressive prizes that are part of the Jackpot Cards round. A review of the pay table shows players how this, and the other bonuses works, along with details of how much each symbol combination pays out.
Playing card symbols J, Q and K will each return winnings of 5, 20 or 100x the line bet when landing on 3, 4 or 5 reels, while the A is worth 10, 25 or 150x. The various insects are more valuable, starting from the bottom with the caterpillar and mosquito, each of which is valued at 15, 30 or 200x, and then we have some green bug dressed as a waiter who pays out 25, 75 or 250x the line bet.
The Beetle-driving beetle is worth 25, 100 or 500x for landing on 3, 4 or 5 reels across a payline, and the top symbol is a lady ant, who returns 5x the line bet if she’s on reels 1 and 2, and the top prize of 1000x when on all 5 reels. Although she isn’t worth anything on her own, a butterfly is able to substitute for any of these symbols when she flutters onto any of the middle 3 reels. This wild symbol helps players to get extra wins, either completing a winline or extending lines of 3 matching symbols across the fourth reel. Any time an insect becomes part of a win, there’s a nice little animation that plays out, adding to the visual appeal of this game.
Lucky Buzz
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Free Spins Bonus
A happy-looking bee, holding a jar of honey, is a scatter symbol that triggers a free spins game when it lands in any 3 spots on reels 2, 3 or 4. There’s only an initial 3 spins awarded, but on the first, all of reel 2 will be filled with wild symbols that remain in place for any subsequent spins, while on the second free game, reel 3 is also wild and on the third spin, reel 4 also becomes fully wild.
This will inevitably lead to multiple winning combinations being formed and if the ladybird symbol appears on reel 1 at any point, an additional spin is added to the total, with no upper limit to how many times this can happen.
Other Features
Like all EGT fruit machines, there’s the option to gamble wins up to a certain level, and here, if a prize is for 700 coins or less, players can try to double it by guessing the colour of a playing card. Getting it right means that they can go again, potentially several times over, but getting it wrong at any point loses the gamble.
The Jackpot Cards progressive game is awarded at random, and once players find 3 matching suits from the 12 playing cards of the round, the corresponding jackpot is paid out.
The Verdict
Cartoon-style casino pokie machines are always going to appeal to many players, but fortunately, Lucky Buzz has more than just good looks on its side. The free spins game with guaranteed wins is a particularly welcome feature, and although there’s possibly only 3 spins to play out, this still makes it as valuable as a game that offers lots more bonus spins, but no assurance that players will actually win anything.