Birthday! Slot Review

Intro

How didn’t anyone think of this before? A super fun slot game themed on everyone’s favourite celebration – birthday! ELK Studio is has it all figured out; every day is someone’s birthday and a perfect excuse to bring people together. So, why not do it in form of a video slot? The game is called simply Birthday! and it is packed with familiar ELK characters who have gathered round the bar preparing a surprising party for all of you birthday boys and girls out there. As you load the game you’ll notice the party is about to start, and more star guests are on their way. The gifts take form of Happy Spins respins, Free Spins, Walking Wilds and Sticky Wilds but the biggest surprise of them all is surely a top win of 250,000 coins.

Game Symbols

The Birthday! Slot from ELK Studios honours the birthday party tradition by inviting well-known characters from games past, namely the Camel, the Matador, the Wild Toro, Electric Sam, the pirate Anne Bonny from Wild Seas, Maggie and the Soundtech Blooper, but they go around the tradition of introducing at least 8 base game symbols. Here, there are only 6 of them, 3 low value icons and 3 premium symbols. Low value symbols are balloons; the red one is heart-shaped while the blue and green ones are regular light bulb-shaped balloons. As for high value icons, they are represented by a Birthday! Logo a red rose and two drinks about to propose a toast.

There’s more than one Wild in the game, but the regular one is a birthday cake. Two more Wilds appear during bonus mode and can take shape of a Sticky Wild or a Walking Wild. They are awarded by the Soundtech Blooper and look like a present with springs sticking out of it, or a present with a winding key.

Gameplay

Playable on desktop as well as on mobile (in both portrait and landscape mode), Birthday! slot offers 178 ways to win through so-called connecting paylines across 5 reels and 4 rows. The ‘how to play’ procedure may be a but expanded in comparison to most slots as ELK games have betting strategy levels and not just an option to lower or up your bets. When you click on the ‘Coin Stack’ you’ll navigate to the betting strategies panel where you’ll be able to choose among four different betting patterns: Optimizer, Jumper, Leveller and Booster.

Birthday also supports Auto Spin. You can activate the feature by either clicking on the designated button or by holding the Spin button. There will always be a wide range of automatic spins to choose from, but they might not always be the same at every casino due to different regulations.

Bonus Features

A party is now at its peak and it’s time to experience the feast of special features! Here you can see a quick overview of the most notable special features and bonuses in Birthday! video slot. In a bread sense, the game offers three main features: Happy Spins, Free Spins and Blooper Wilds.

• Happy Spins – Happy Spins are announced by the doorbell and, depending on the guest at the door there are five different gifts, or sub-features. The Camel awards the player with a respin which goes on until a given number of wins is achieved (3 to 5). Mr Lake’s respin gift continues until a five of a kind is reached. Electric Sam gifts a respin with an electrified/sticky symbol. The Matador’s respin will continue until a win is achieved with a symbol of his choosing, and Anne Bonny’s respin will keep repeating until 15 x bet or higher win is achieved.
• Free Spins – When Maggie joins the party she brings 10 freebies with her, which can be retriggered.
• Sticky/Walking Wilds – During Happy Spins and/or Free Spins the Soundtech Blooper may barge in and hand out different kinds of Wilds. Up to 3 Sticky Wilds can be awarded and they will stay in position until the feature ends. Walking Wilds move leftwards one reel for every spin and the Soundtech Blooper won’t give away more than 3 of them as well.

Payouts

Birthday! is played with coins sized 0.10 – 50 and has a max payout worth 5,000x the bet. According to the developer’s variance scale Birthday! slot’s rating is 7 out of 10 which makes it a high variance machine. When on a lucky streak, one should expect 500-1000x the stake wins. Theoretical return to player rate for Birthday! is 96.3%, which is pretty much a standard figure.

Verdict

Devised as one memorable party, Birthday! is definitely a unique slot on the market. It’s dynamic, volatile, colourful and packed with surprises which we all love. The mobile version is flawless and only confirms the ability of ELK Studio to produce premium mobile video slots. Birtday! is bound to give someone the gift of a smile each day at the least; at beast, the gift will take form of a huge 250,000 coins payout.