Zombie aPOPalypse MultiPop

Zombie aPOPalypse MultiPop: Slot Overview

Hold down the phone, players; here's one for you, an online slot from casino game maker AvatarUX that does not have the word PopWins associated with it. Before rushing outside to see if pigs are flying, don't worry; there is still plenty of popping going on. The game in question is Zombie aPOPalypse MultiPop and showcases a new mechanic from the studio called, you guessed it, MultiPop. If you're keen on some brain-hungry zombies shambling alongside a stack of individual cell multipliers, Infectious Multipliers, free spins where multipliers are persistent, and a bonus buy option, come take a wee look with us.

You know if zombies are ambling about the place, things have gone somewhat awry. So it is in Zombie aPOPalypse MultiPop, which is set in a smoky, flamey, uninviting downtown spot that looks smashed to bits. Basically, this is somewhere you really don't want to be. Makes you wonder, would it be better to survive this scenario, living from basement to basement, subsisting on scraps, always looking over your shoulder, always on the run from the overflow of undead, or just give in and become one? Hopefully, it's a question we'll never have to ponder. Anyway, plonked in the middle of this dystopic scenario is Zombie aPOPalypse MultiPop's game grid which starts each base game spin in a 5x4, 2,048 ways to win configuration – symbols pay both ways.

Next, players select a bet from 20 p/c to $/€40 using any device to get on with the job of surviving. Zombie aPOPalypse MultiPop is highly volatile, while producing an RTP value of 96.0% when playing regularly. Some players may have the option of buying free spins if they prefer, but there is no mention if doing so affects the RTP or not. One more possible way of playing is by activating the ante bet style option, which increases the stake by 25% whilst also doubling the chance of triggering free spins.

Symbols pay for three to five of a kind and are divided into Q-A lows, a lock of hair (yes, hair), footballs, and hats as mediums, and five-character symbols as the highs. Five-of-a-kind wins are worth 0.4x the bet for the royals, 0.5x for the mids, and 0.75-2x the stake for the highs. Important to note is that five-of-a-kind wins pay one way, not both. Finally, for this section, Zombie aPOPalypse MultiPop does not make use of wilds.

Zombie aPOPalypse MultiPop: Slot Features

Let's walk through the process of what happens when a winning combination hits, thereby triggering several of Zombie aPOPalypse MultiPop's features. The first thing that occurs is the winning symbols are popped off the grid by the cascade mechanic, and new symbols are placed in the empty cells. If another win is created from the new symbols, the cascade process will trigger again until no new win hits.

MultiPop

In addition, the positions which held the winning symbols have a +x1 multiplier added to them by the MultiPop feature. This multiplier is attached to the individual cell, not the symbol. If wins occur in cells with multipliers, the values increase by +1, up to a maximum of x5 in the base game. Multipliers reset between paid game spins.

Infectious Multipliers

Should a cell reach x5, the Infectious Multipliers is triggered. Here, from 4 to 12 positions are randomly picked to have their multipliers increased by +1. The focus is on cells not already possessing a multiplier.

Free Spins

Getting 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols in the base game awards 10, 12, or 15 free spins, respectively. Next, players are given the chance to gamble the free spins they have won, up to 20 max, or collect and move to the bonus round. During free spins, what changes is that the grid increases to 5x5 in size, with 6,250 ways to win (including the pay both ways element). Also, individual cell multipliers do not reset between free spins and can now reach x10 at the most. If all cells on the grid get multipliers, +2 additional free spins are awarded.

Buy Bonus

Hit the Buy Bonus button to buy instant access to the bonus round. A 10 free spins trigger costs 100x the bet, while 15 free spins cost 500x the bet.

Zombie aPOPalypse MultiPop: Slot Verdict

Okay, so Zombie aPOPalypse MultiPop isn't a billion light years away from the PopWins concept, yet it is evidence of AvatarUX pushing boundaries and themselves to try new things. Sure, there may be a few naysayers out there saying that Zombie aPOPalypse MultiPop still pops, in a way, like your regular PopWins game. However, there is some fascinating stuff going on in Zombie aPOPalypse MultiPop, and it does make one wonder what else AvatarUX might be holding up its sleeve for the future.

It's not just the gameplay that's morphed from what we know and are used to in a PopWins slot. The comic book artwork is phenomenal, and the theme and its execution are bravely out of character for AvatarUX, too. Zombie aPOPalypse MultiPop is more subtle, less in-your-face with the zombies than games like Lost Vegas or Wild Walker, but it's certainly no humorous Zombie Carnival representation of the shuffling dead, either. There is an edginess, an implied horror, a hair prickling creepiness that you don't really find in many of Avatar UX's previous releases. Has Avatar UX looked at competitors like Nolimit City and decided to take the masters of mayhem on at their own game? Perhaps, because there are echoes of NLC throughout Zombie aPOPalypse MultiPop, like, say, Book of Shadows meets Infectious 5 xWays. Not in an overt copycat way, yet the fact that we are comparing the two studios is intriguing in itself.

The gaming certainly has its moments, too, and Zombie aPOPalypse MultiPop brings a number of exciting ideas to the table. As we've seen in games such as Fruit Party 2 in the past, stacking multipliers on potentially every single frame of a 5x5 sized game grid with thousands of ways is an intoxicating concoction. During testing, the game could thrill and on paper, wins of up to 20,000x the bet are possible. Even the audio's good. The music might not be to everyone's taste, but the random noise effects, the gurgling sound, in particular, are kind of unsettling and deepen the experience.

Put it all together, Zombie aPOPalypse MultiPop is an excellently designed online slot, which exposes a side to AvatarUX few might have suspected. It's unlikely that players used to games like CherryPop or CritterPop would have seen this coming unless perhaps their gaming memories stretch back as far as Lilith's Inferno. Anyway, the team surprised us with a darker, dangerous, more disconcerting, yet playable as ever slot, which is sure to whet one to two appetites about what might pop next from the AvatarUX drawing board.