Moonshine Pokie Machine
Moonshine is a powerful liquor made from fermented corn starch and usually brewed illegally in the USA. The Moonshine pokie from Microgaming is fortunately far less likely to explode, cause blindness or get people locked up for tax evasion and can be found across many of the online casinos which feature games and software from this popular developer.
Although loosely themed around the drink, it’s mostly focused on the crazy characters who brew it and some fairly random items that they eat, or possibly add to the mix to give it a bit more flavour and a to take away the taste of neat alcohol. The whole game could remind players of the movie Deliverance.
This 5-reel game has 25 paylines and bonus features like wild substitutions, free spins and multipliers, along with some neat animations when symbols make up winning combinations.
A fairly simple design has the reels filling the screen, leaving little room for a background image, but there’s the hint of some woodlands behind the game just to add a little to the remote wilderness atmosphere. Below the reels is the game title and a couple of moonshine bottles that take players to the payout table, while the numbers to each side of game show where each of the 25 lines start and finish.
Wins occur when at least 3 of the same type of symbols land across any active line on adjacent reels, as long as the line starts from the left side of the game. There’s the standard Microgamiing control panel at the bottom of the screen, which players use to set the coin values from as little as 0.01 to as much as 2.00, while they can play between 1 and 5 coins on a line and activate between 1 and all 25 lines.
Moonshine
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This gives a bet range of 0.01 to 250.00 which should be adequate for just about everyone.
All of the symbols fit in with the theme, starting with the kiwi fruit that’s worth a prize of 5x the bet per line when 3 land across the reels, up to 40x for a row of 5. Other low value symbols include a tin of sardines, kidney beans (or chillies?), and a pumpkin pie, all of which would make the moonshine taste even worse than it sounds.
Landing the character symbols across active lines will pay more, with a pink pig valued at between 10x and 100x, while we also get a couple of hillbillies with banjos, pipes and so on, plus a hapless policeman and granny who is in her rocking chair and holding a shotgun.
These last 2 have some special duties to perform, as grandma is a wild symbol, replacing any others, except for the cop, if that will complete a winning combination. She will also pay out a handsome reward when landing across an active line, with just 2 being worth 5x the line bet and a full run of 5 paying the game jackpot of 8000x.
The cop is a scatter symbol who can stop in any spots on the reels to pay prizes of 2x, 25x or 60x the total wager per spin when 3, 4 or 5 appear. He doesn’t however, start any bonus round, as that job is left to the moonshine bottle.
Landing 3, 4 or 5 of this symbol triggers a free spins round and although it’s only 3, 4 or 5 spins to start with, players initially get taken to a grid of 18 blocks which they need to click on to reveal more free spins or multipliers until they uncover the block that starts the bonus game. The most that can be found is 18 free spins during which all wins will be multiplied by 4x.
A Shining Example of an Online Pokie?
Moonshine has a relatively straightforward design, although the cartoon characters that populate its reels are a fun bunch. While there aren’t many bonus features the free spins game, with its multipliers and potential to add further spins by picking the right blocks, is a nice extra treat and grandma’s 8000x jackpot payout is very welcoming indeed, even if her character isn’t.
Maybe Microgaming could have added a gamble round, and the lower value symbols seem to have little to do with distilling moonshine, but other than these minor issues, there’s not much wrong with this fun pokie.