Beetle Mania

Despite what the name implies, Beetle Mania should not be confused with the 1960s wave of cult-like enthusiasm for the music of Liverpuddlian rock band ‘The Beatles’. The only tenuous link we could find is that Beetle Mania the online slot game features a series of cutesy creepy crawlies (oddly not including beetles, at least not outside of the Free Spins game mode) that dance and wiggle to a musical beat when appearing on winning lines.

Also, there’s a very small sliver of background image visible above the game reels of some musical instruments and a microphone. Delving into Beetle Mania’s art assets reveals that the image is supposed to be a full music concert stage, though (again for reasons unknown) you never get to see this in the game.

Despite appearing to be its raison d’être, music actually appears to be a specific weak point for Beetle Mania. The game features no background sound effects when out of play, only introducing its irritating old school fruit machine reel spin noises during play, abruptly ending the second a no win spin ends. Winning results in a few more electronic chirps before bursting into a cacophony of ringing shop till bells and metal coins being poured out over a hard surface. Catchy as that last sound effect might be, it’s in no way evocative of the kind of pop-rock sounds a game with this sort of name-play ought to be employing.

The game display itself also feel pretty hurriedly put together—as we mentioned before, the reels just seem to have been dumped over the background imagery with no attempt to marry the two elements together. Apart from that, we can see that Beetle Mania’s bold and colourful symbols take clear inspiration from the 1998 Pixar movie ‘A Bug’s Life’. You’ll see similar (but legally distinct) faces looking up at you across this game’s 5 reels.

There are just 10 winning lines criss-crossing those reels and the maximum win from a line is 500 times your stake. That can be more or less rewarding depending on how much you play; bets begin at just £0.40 a spin but can be ramped right up to a reasonably respectable £100 a go. Reported estimated RTP (return to player) for Beetle Mania is a little on the low side too, at 94.19%.

Feature Symbols

The back bone of all modern slots are their wilds, versatile little symbols that match up with surrounding tiles to improve the chances of completing winning lines. Beetle Mania follow this trend, though instead of creating a special symbol for this feature, they’ve instead bestowed an ordinary appearing character (the bee symbol) with the additional power of being wild. 5 bees on a payline also represents the top level pay out in this game, scooping you 500 times your stake.

The only other symbol worth looking out for during standard play are the musical notes as 3 or more of these will trigger the Free Spins round. It’s worth noting that these musical notes are not scatters and must appear in consecutive order on a pay line starting from the first reel to at least reel 3 in order to award the Free Spins game.

The Free Spins round kicks off with 10 Free Spins. Further Free Spins are not available and retriggering is not an available feature either. However there is one more unique symbol available during the Free Spins round—the beetle! If one of these rare and cheery looking little invertebrates appears on the centre reel during Free Spins, it’ll act as a multiplier, doubling your total Free Spins winning for the entire round.

Bonuses and Jackpots

Beetle Mania’s bonus features and jackpot win figures might be disappointing, but it does include a gamble feature that gives you the chance to play with fate and multiply your winnings up as high as you’d like!

After any winning spin you’ll be able to click Gamble or Claim. Hitting gamble swooshes in a new game screen with a line of cards and the option to gamble on whether the next one drawn will be red or black, ostensibly with a 50/50 chance of winning and doubling your current winnings. The obvious downside of this is that making the wrong call means you lose all your winnings for that spin.

Play Beetle Mania at PartyCasino

Beetle Mania looks and feels like a more old-school slot game. Low production quality finishes and an uninspiring musical ambiance leave it relying on its gameplay—which is also somewhat lacking, with few special features and a disappointing 94.19% RTP. Despite that, if you’re curious to discover what a more simplistic slot looks and feels like, you can try it out for yourself at PartyCasino (you can even play it for free if you want).