Pine of Plinko

Pine of Plinko: Slot Overview

Like Forrest Gump might have said if he was an online gambler, 'slots are like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get.' One minute we're reviewing the zombie apocalypse in Hacksaw Gaming's Rotten, and the next, an ultra-charming slot comes our way. The game in question is Pine of Plinko and comes courtesy of software provider Print Studios in association with Relax Gaming. Unlike a lot of what Print Studios does, Pine of Plinko is a simple game that is unlikely to tax your thinking capabilities to any noticeable degree. However, its lack of complexity only amplifies Pine of Plinko's charm, which comes in two forms. One is linked to Relax Gaming's Dream Drop progressive jackpot network, and the other is a non-jackpot version, which we focus more on here.

Pine of Plinko is a fantasy woodland adventure appearing to revolve around a bunch of characters who reside inside a pinecone/cuckoo clock. It's a little like Royal Potato from a storytelling/thematic perspective and just as charming to behold. The base game takes place outside the pinecone, while the bonus game moves inside, where the inner workings can more clearly be made out. The atmosphere is super cosy, and if ever an online slot is worthy of the word 'hygge', this is one of them.

Then again, this is a Print Studios production, so don't get too cosy. The math model is highly volatile, after all, and the characters, while charming, are governed by it. Set-up-wise, the highly volatile gaming occurs on a 5x3 matrix with 10 fixed paylines and a return to player of 96.48% (Dream Drop version is 93.48%). Whether paying the jackpot or non-jackpot version, the base game doesn't have much going on except line wins, though some symbols are quite valuable. Wins occur when three to five matching symbols land, starting from the first reel, from left to right. The first three lower-paying symbols are green, purple, and orange pines, and pay 2-3x the bet for five-of-a-kind, while the next four go by the names of Miney, Sleepy, Santa, and Piney, and pay 10-200x the bet for five of a kind. Lastly, Pine of Plinko does not have a wild symbol.

Pine of Plinko: Slot Features

Pine of Plinko's base game comes with no features, modifiers, or extra bits, so hitting line wins is the main thrill there. Until the Plinko Bonus round is triggered (or bought), that is, or in the Dream Drop version when the DD Plinko Bonus activates.

Plinko Bonus

Landing 3 or more scatter symbols triggers the Plinko Bonus round. Each scatter displays a number, and all are tallied up. This total is the number of starting drops available in the Plinko Bonus. Each time players press the button to create a drop, one or more balls fall into the Plinko space and land in a gap at the bottom. Each gap is associated with a prize of 0.1x to 1,000x the bet, which gets added up to create a total winning amount.

In the middle of the field are three bumpers. Whenever a ball hits a bumper, a meter is increased. If the meter is filled, players are awarded +10 drops at the next level. When moving up levels, the number of balls released with each press of the drop button doubles. So round 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 drops 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, or 256 balls with each drop, respectively. When no more drops or stages are left, the total amount is awarded.

Feature Bet

Where available, the Feature Bet allows players to activate a Scatter Boost or buy the bonus round. The Scatter Boost ups the stake by 75% whilst increasing the number of scatters on the reel. The RTP for this is 96.78%. Buying the Plinko Bonus costs 79x the bet and has an RTP value of 96.94%.

Dream Drop

When playing the Dream Drop version of Pine of Plinko, landing 3 DD symbols triggers the Dream Drop Plinko Jackpot. When pressing the Drop Button, a ball falls into one of five gaps at the bottom, filling a corresponding meter. When the meter is filled, the jackpot is awarded. This could be the Rapid, Midi, Maxi, Major, or Mega, with starting values of €1, €5, €100, €25,000, or €500,000. This version of Pine of Plinko has RTPs of 93.48% when playing normally or 93.79% with the Scatter Boost. You cannot buy the Plinko Bonus on this one.

Pine of Plinko: Slot Verdict

The previous Print Studios slot that came our way was the mind-meltingly good sci-fi extravaganza Reapers. A game so in-depth, it had a set of tutorials pointing out what was happening as the action unfolded. It was wildly complex for an online slot and is a game where you buckle in, hit spin, and hopefully, in time, it all makes sense. By comparison, Pine of Plinko is the complete opposite. It could not be any simpler, in just about every regard, from mechanical set-up, general rules, to bonus round. To match the simplicity, Print Studios has developed an utterly charming world to set it all in. Pine of Plinko really was the slot version of a cuckoo clock, where every element has a role to play, a task to perform that contributes to the greater good. Not entirely sure what that sentence means, but such was the twee inspiration given off by Pine of Plinko in the review.

Pine of Plinko's simplicity certainly did not damage the enjoyment extracted from it, however - far from it. The game had insane levels of replayability, more so the bonus game, for numerous reasons. There was something almost joyous about releasing balls during the Plinko round, which had us coming back for more. So high was the feel-good factor evoked by balls bouncing about the place, hitting bumpers, and pushing Piney to slam the level-up button; it literally caused a laugh-out-loud moment. One of the neat things is you can hit the play button to release balls as fast or as slow as you like, varying the drop rate from dribs and drabs to all-out avalanche. It's fun. Potentially lucrative too, where non-jackpot wins can reach as high as 10,000x the bet. Interestingly, at times it was so easy to get drawn into the whole ball drop process that the prize value accruing kind of dwindled in importance.

It's funny; a slot with no extras in its main game and a Plinko-style bonus round might sound kinda dull on paper. However, Print Studios has lavished attention over practically every single detail in Pine of Plinko, making it a joy to play, with a bonus round possessing a formidable level of compelling replayability.