Mirrorball Slots feels so much like the real thing that for a minute, you might just think you’re in Vegas
Slots games are all the rage on Facebook right now, so much so that you’d wonder why anyone would want to enter such a crowded sub-genre of casual gaming. For the former Playfish employees who started Plumbee, though, the reason is probably that they feel they’ve struck on a winning formula. The result of that thinking is the company’s first game, Mirrorball Slots, which put a fairytale spin on authentic slots action.
Though the game promises more rooms in the future, the current slots room is called Enchanted Forest and houses three games, all based on very familiar tales: Goldilocks and the Wild Bears, Rapunzel’s Tower and The Magic Mirror (think Snow White). The Three Little Pigs are on deck, as the next machine being teased is called Big Bad Wolf.
The layouts for all three machines look a lot like slot machines you’d find in a real casino. All of them feature five reels with 25 pay lines each. Players simply choose how many coins they’d like to bet per line, hit the spin button and sit back to watch what pops up. There’s also a Fast Play option for those who would rather not watch the reels spin.
Along with the normal winning combinations, all three games offer slightly different bonus games that offer free spins and the chance to win a lot of coins very quickly. The Magic Mirror also has a bonus game that allows the player to pick from a variety of apples; picking a normal apple grants coins and the chance to pick again, while picking a poisoned apple ends the bonus round immediately. It fits the game’s theme well and is also the kind of thing players of real life slots are used to seeing.
Every 10 coins wagered through any game gives one experience point (XP), and earning enough XP advances a player to the next level. Every new level gives bonus coins, and some also unlock the ability to wager more coins per pay line – though any purchase of coins with real currency instantly unlocks the maximum bets per line on every game.
Speaking of purchases, Mirrorball Slots currently only sells more coins, with the promise of Cash, the game’s premium currency, and Charms, power-up items that send the machines into free spin mode, down the road. The lack of these features, plus others like progressive jackpots, leaves gameplay feeling a bit shallow at the moment.
And while the demographic profiles for slot players and casual Facebook gamers do tend to overlap quite a bit, the developers may want to add some more manly themes in order to attract other gamers. It’s hard to see the 25-to-34 male crowd spending too much time with Goldilocks or Rapunzel.
One thing Mirrorball Slots already has going for it is top notch presentation. The graphics and sound are both excellent, especially during the bonus rounds. All of the machines have a realistic feel that make them as satisfying to play as the real thing. If and when real money play is legalized over the internet, this game would stand out as one of the most comfortable transition points for real life slots players.
With that day still in the future, the folks at Plumbee at least have themselves a good start. Mirrorball Slots is a fun way to spend a little time doing some virtual reel-spinning, but the promised additions and further developments will be critical to get people to make repeated visits to the Enchanted Forest.
