JinglePop

JinglePop: Slot Overview

For a bit of popping around the holiday season, whatever that means, look no further than JinglePop from software provider AvatarUX. The team, which simply cannot get enough popping in their day, has focused their attention on Christmas and designed a slot making use of the studio's favourite device, PopWins, set amidst snow, Santa, and all that kind of stuff.

To keep players toasty warm while they try their luck, JinglePop spends its base game tucked away indoors. Its expandable gaming grid sits by a window with the curtains drawn, revealing glimpses of snowy terrain outside. The game is surprisingly low-key for AvatarUX. The studio hasn't gone mental with the tinsel or mistletoe, keeping the visuals tastefully restrained. JinglePop's music, too, is gently low energy and sounds like a novice piano player practising quietly in their room or tapping away on one of those learn-to-play apps on a tablet.

JinglePop plays out on a 5x3 game grid supplying 486 ways to win. At least, to start with, as the grid can grow to 8 rows high in free spins where 65,536 ways to win are available. The math model is a highly volatile one, with an RTP of 96.14% and a lower model available. Players can bet 20 c to $/€100 per spin and have the choice of activating an ante bet or three different feature buys.

One reason why JinglePop has so many ways to win is because it creates wins when matching symbols land on at least 3 adjacent reels starting from the leftmost side or the rightmost side of the grid. In other words, it pays both ways, although 5 OAK wins only pay from one side. On the low end of the paytable, we find 10 to A card ranks worth 1 to 1.5 times the bet for a 5 symbol hit, then a green decoration, a ball decoration, a candy cane, a gift box, a stocking, and Santa as the highs, worth 2 to 6 times the bet for 5 OAK. Wilds help link wins by substituting for any regular pay symbol, but they may only appear on the reels during free spins.

JinglePop: Slot Features

Time to reach into JinglePop's stocking and pluck out its features. These are PopWins, free spins, Rewards Reels, the ante bet, and feature buys.

PopWins

Each winning symbol pops from the grid and is replaced by 2 symbols, which also increases the reel height. This process repeats as long as wins form. The reels can reach 6 rows high in the base game or 8 rows high in free spins. When reels are unlocked in the base game (meaning they reach full height), +2 free spins are awarded.

Free Spins Mode

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters in the base game triggers free spins mode. There are three modes:

• 3 scatters grant 2,048 starting ways.
• 4 scatters grant 6,250 starting ways.
• 5 scatters grant 15,552 starting ways.

The round starts with at least 5 free spins, and the progress of unlocking reels does not reset between spins, but instead, each reel resets to the shortest achieved reel height. Reaching full height on all reels awards +2 extra free spins and +2 to the win multiplier. The win multiplier begins on x1, but it increases by +1 after pop wins and does not reset till the round ends.

Rewards Reels

Before free spins start, players get one spin on the Rewards Reels screen where it is possible to win:

• Starting free spins - +1, +2, +3.
• Starting multiplier - x1, x2, x3.
• Multiplier Growth - +x1, +x2.
• Mega symbols - random symbols 2x2 in size.
• Giga Symbols - random symbols 3x3 in size.
• Random Wild - wilds appear on the reels.
• High Symbol Multiplier - 1x, 2x, 3x.

Ante Bet and Feature Buys

Players can double their chance to trigger free spins by activating the ante bet, which increases the stake by 25%. Or, you can buy free spins with 2,048, 6,250, or 15,552 starting ways for 125x, 250x, or 500x the bet, respectively. A message at the buy screen also claims, 'The higher tier of bonus buy increases the chance for more rewards.'

JinglePop: Slot Verdict

Given there are around two dozen PopWins slots available for play at the time of review, it's surprising that JinglePop is the first Christmas one. The other surprise was how laid back the game's atmosphere was. PopWins games have been known to push the contrast up to 10; HippoPop, for instance, is one example of visuals that fair glow on the screen. JinglePop turns the dial back the other way, being a laid-back, relatively peaceful game much of the time.

Like its brothers and sisters, JinglePop is able to pop too, especially in free spins where there can be quite a lot of extras tipped in from Rewards Reels. Big symbols you don't see every day in a PopWins slot, so they're something for the fans to savour, though the rest is pretty standard stuff - a rising win multiplier, growing reels and ways, a high symbol multiplier, etcetera. JinglePop didn't come across as hectic as DonKey & the GOATS, but it's got a lot going on for a PopWins slot, though the Rewards Reels could well be the deciding factor there. One quick warning: on the buy bonus screen, there is no confirmation pop-up, meaning if you click a bonus, boom, you instantly bought it.

Clicking buy might be a fortuitous event if the bonus round went on to achieve or get close to JinglePop's 20,000x the bet win cap - a solid layer of icing on a tidily designed slot which scratches the need for PopWins action in a Christmas setting. JinglePop possesses a few neat tweaks and newish bits, but we're so far into the PopWins range now that a major revolution is needed in one of these slots to really make it stand out from the bunch.