Beautiful Bones

Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, is an annual holiday celebrated in Mexico and Latin America, with its roots in the traditions of the Aztecs. While you might not be instantly familiar with the festival and its cultural significance, you probably recognise the main symbology of the celebrations. Those celebrating the event paint their faces to resemble skulls. But far from the Halloween-style skulls and skeletons you’re probably more familiar with, these skulls are anything but scary – instead, the represent rebirth, as well as a chance for people to pay their respects to friends and family who have departed, and the festivities are full of colour and incredibly upbeat.

So what has all this got to do with slots? You’ll know soon enough once you take Microgaming’s Beautiful Bones Slot for a spin. While this is certainly an unusual theme, it lends itself well to this highly ornate online slot. The reels are adorned with characters sporting the characteristic skull face paint, along with a host of other symbols and designs that are styled to match what you’d expect from a Dia de los Muertos celebration. It’s also something a little different, as far as the theme is concerned, which makes for a refreshing change in a slots game.

Behind the artistry, Microgaming have put together an engaging slots game with plenty of features for casual to serious slots players. Firstly, this is a standard 5-reel affair, with a range of icons set out across just three rows. There are 243 paylines in play on any given spin, essentially rewarding you for any combination of 3 like for like symbols across the reels, provided they start from left to right.

Players can spin from as little as £0.30 per spin, right up to £30.00 per spin for those who want to maximise their potential returns. While the in-game jackpot is relatively low at 10x, there are ample chances to win, and the bonus features also help ramp up your chances of building a bankroll from this game. In terms of RTP, it’s also a strong performer, clocking in at 96.55% – well above the 95% threshold most players consider to be good value for money.

As with many casino slots, there are five main value symbols on the reels, alongside the usual high cards, albeit styled in keeping with the overall theme. Aside from the main symbols, there are a couple of feature symbols worthy of note as you’re playing through the game.

Feature Symbols

Wild Symbol: The wild symbol in Beautiful Bones is a heart, almost in the style of those tattoos you’d expect to see on the arms of a sailor. This is very much typical of the Dia de los Muertos designs that you’ll see as part of the celebrations, and so is in keeping with the wider theme of the game. In terms of its functionality, it behaves in the usual way, helping you complete paylines to form winning combinations. It doesn’t substitute for the game’s bonus symbol which is the only exception to the rule, but otherwise, it acts like any other wild.

Bonus Symbol: The bonus symbol is the Sugar Skull, and it provides the key to the game’s free spins bonus round. But unlike with most games, where you have to line up bonus symbols, here it’s all about the aggregate across all the spins in your session.

Bonuses & Jackpots

The Sugar Skull symbol acts differently to regular bonuses, but can be helpful in securing profitable spins, introducing both free spins and a multiplier, depending on when you choose to use the bonus. A meter records the number of these symbols that have appeared throughout the game, and it’s up to you to ‘cash in’ your bonus to claim your free spins. 10 symbols delivers 10 free spins and a 3x multiplier, while 15 delivers 15 free spins and a 4x multiplier. If you keep going all the way to 30, you can claim 18 free spins with a 5x multiplier.

There’s also another added feature – Wild Spins Again – which comes into play whenever you line up three symbols in a row either vertically or horizontally. This grants you a single extra free spin, during which the centre of your vertical or horizontal row also transforms into another wild.

Play Beautiful Bones at PartyCasino

Beautiful Bones is a highly stylised slot, and a great example of Microgaming at their finest. The range of bonuses help keep the game interesting, while the free spins and multipliers can be particularly powerful, provided you don’t get too unlucky. But don’t just take our word for it – celebrate the Day of the Dead yourself, and take Beautiful Bones for a spin, available right here at PartyCasino.