Burning Desire Pokie
Although it sounds more like a nasty rash, Burning Desire is actually a traditionally styled Poker machine from Microgaming that features bonuses like free spins, a gamble round and their trademark 243 Ways To Win that dispenses with regular paylines. Considering its fairly basic design, it's got some eye-catching symbols in bright primary colours, as well as smooth animations to the reels and a wide range of bet sizes to cater for all budgets.
Classic pokies have remained popular with many players, and Burning Desire is one of those games that doesn't dazzle them with a myriad of bonus rounds. The symbols are about as straightforward as they get, with the 9 through to A card icons, Bells, Bars, Sevens and Diamonds, albeit with flames surrounding the higher paying ones just for good effect. The only unusual one is a Rose, which seems to be there to highlight the 'Desire' part of the name, but it's the lowest paying of the picture symbols so players shouldn't get too excited when it turns up.
Wagering options go from a measly 0.25 per spin right up to an extravagant 500.00, and as paylines have been done away with, a win is obtained whenever several of the same symbol land anywhere on adjacent reels, starting from the left hand side. Players just choose a bet amount which will then be multiplied by 25x to give the amount wagered per spin, so they need to bear this in mind and not stake 1.00 thinking that’s all they will be playing for as they will actually be gambling 25.00 which could be a bit of a shock.
Burning Desire
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As with a regular pokie, as more identical symbols land across adjacent reels, the payouts get correspondingly bigger, and here, players can get from 2 to 100 coins with between 3 and 5 of the lowest paying ‘9’ symbol, while the highest paying Diamond rewards them with 12 coins for just 2 adjacent ones, up to a whopping 3,000 coins if they are fortunate enough to land a full 5 across all reels at once.
Although Burning Desire looks very old-school, there are still a couple of extras that have helped to keep it a popular game for some time, starting off with a Wild symbol that can turn up on reels 2 and 4, substituting for all but the Scatter to potentially complete winning lines. The Scatter symbol is the Coin, and so long as 2 or more are on the reels after a spin, even if they are not on adjacent reels, players win a prize.
Three or more Scatters will pay out a prize first and then launche 15 free spins, played out automatically at the same betting level that triggered them. The difference is that all wins throughout the free games are tripled in value, although unlike some pokies that have reels enhanced with extra Wilds or high paying symbols, the ones here remain as standard. But 15 spins should be enough to get a couple of nice payouts, and they don’t cost anything, so maybe I shouldn’t grumble.
Another way to boost the value of a payout is to go for the optional Gamble round after a win. This opens up a second screen which features a turned-over playing card, and players can either guess if it will be Red or Black, to double the amount of their last win, or go for a quadrupling of the amount by correctly picking what suit it will be. Correct guesses give players the option to re-gamble the new amount, but of course a wrong guess anywhere along the way loses the lot.
A Desirable Pokie, or One That Should Burn?
Burning Desire is aimed squarely at people who like no-frills Poker machines and coming from Microgaming, those players will be assured that it’s a fair and reliable game that’s been designed with care. Those who want side games and flashy graphics may want to look elsewhere, but Wild substitutions and a high value free spins round are still nice extras, while the Gamble round can be rewarding as long as players don’t get carried away, as on average they will lose more than they win by entering it.