Lady in Red Pokies
The words Lady in Red haven’t been attached to anything good in popular culture so far, with a truly horrible Chris De Burgh song (sorry, but it is), being the main thing that comes to mind. But now there’s an online pokie from Microgaming that will hopefully banish the memories of it by rewarding players with bonus treats like free spins, multipliers and high value wild symbol and scatter payouts, all across 5 reels decorated with images of a jazz club.
The game looks suitably classy, with deep red hues everywhere, from the curtains above the reels to the control buttons below them and a black backing to many of the symbols which sets off the reds quite nicely. Much of the text is written in a style that gives the game a 1920’s to 1940’s feel, which is a very simple but effective way of creating an atmosphere.
With 25 paylines to activate, players can set their bets from as little as 0.01 per spin, although this will mean any winning combinations on the other 24 lines won’t count, so to qualify for them all, the minimum stake will be 0.25.
Bets per line can then be increased to 2.00 for a 50.00 maximum bet, which isn’t particularly high but should be enough for the vast majority of players.
The paytable reveals details of which symbols will pay what, and to get a prize, 3 or more of the same symbol will need to run across an active line from the left side. Payouts are listed as multiples by the amount staked per line, with the ubiquitous playing card 9, 10, J, Q, K and A symbols making up the lower value symbols.
Lady in Red
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There’s good and bad points to having these symbols appearing in so many pokies. On the plus side, players will know which ones will pay the least, but it can be a bit boring seeing exactly the same ones across an endless number of games.
Bigger rewards come with the game-specific picture symbols, starting with a glass of whiskey that’s worth 10x, 80x or 300x the bet per line when 3, 4 or 5 land on an active line, while the romantic image of red roses and pearls next to a lipstick marked letter is worth the same, and the piano player pays 2x when just 2 land on a line, with a full 5 being worth 500x.
The highest value regular symbol is the beautiful flame-haired singer, who is our lady in the red dress. When she lands right across the line, players will get rewarded with 2500x the line bet.
Some bonus features add a little interest to the run of play, with the Lady In Red logo being a wild that will help to complete winning lines by acting as all but the scatter and doubling the value of any win created that way. On top of this, players just need to land 2 wilds on a line for a 2x the line bet win, with 12500x for getting 5 right across an active line.
The other special symbol here is the photographer who acts as a scatter, which is worth between 2x and 500x the total bet per spin, not just the line bet, when landing in 2 to 5 places, anywhere on the reels. On top of this, if 3 scatters landed, players win 15 free spins, while 4 scatters will trigger 20 spins and 5 starts 25 of them. No matter how many spins are triggered, any wins throughout them will be tripled in value.
Should 3 or more scatters land during the round, more free spins will be added to the end of any still left to play out, along with a further scatter win.
The Verdict
Lady In Red certainly looks good, with a nice colour scheme and well-presented picture symbols. Whether the inclusion of the high card symbols is a good or bad thing is really a matter of opinion, but in this case it means that there are only a few theme-related ones to go with them.
A reasonable bet range should make this game suitable for most budgets and jackpot payouts can be substantial. There’s nothing wrong with the bonus features, with free spins, multiplier payouts and extra wins from wild substitutions, but there’s nothing particularly unusual about them either, so players will stick with this game more because they like the design rather than because of the extras.
Oh, and they will probably want to turn the volume down as well, as the soundtrack is every bit as grating as the 1980’s tune.