Papaya Pop

What’s popping y’all? It’s another day in the online casino world, and it’s bringing a brand new title marking the latest in a string of online slot games to have used the PopWin paying mechanic. PapayaPop is hot off the software shelf from AvatarUX and giving all players the chance to enjoy some captivating iGaming. Those familiar with PopWin’s will also know all about the cascading reels and expanding reels, while we also get a healthy dose of free spins popping up all over the show. Does PapayaPop have enough pop in its arsenal to keep you playing for a profitable period of time? Let’s pop in and see for ourselves

AvatarUX Studios isn’t a name that jumps out at us when checking out which casino software studio developed a slots title. This isn’t because they’re rubbish but rather because they’re very new on the scene. They also happen to be a sub-studio of Yggdrasil, a mega-studio most players will know for slots online such as Bounty Hunter as well as Raptor Double Max. AvatarUX is now quite famous for the PopWin mechanic. For those in the dark as to what this is, it sees all wins receive a respin. However, the reels that the winning symbols fell on will expand by one row. So, if it all starts at three rows, you might have a 5x6 grid after a series of consecutive wins. This also sees the paylines in PapayaPop grow to a maximum of 486, where they also manage to pay you both ways.

The theme of the slot isn't mind-blowing by any means, being something of a fruit feel but incorporating neon lights and sharp 3D graphics to liven things up. One thing that definitely stands out about PapayaPop is the maximum win amount, 10,542x your bet. This isn’t bad at all, although you’ll need help from the bonus feature to actually achieve it. There’s also a high level of volatility to PayapaPop, which will make wins hard to come by at points in the game, but when they do land, they will land at pretty high values. Depending on what you're wagering, there is potential for very high winds in a wagering window starting at 20p and ending at £100.

When it comes to the PopWin mechanic, it's all really more about the play and not so much the visuals. However, in saying that, the symbols are quite standard in look and serve their purpose to land winning combinations. The lower value symbols are traditional playing cards 9, 10, J, Q, K and A, with the Q, K and A all sharing the joint highest value. The medium paying icons are all tropical fruits – namely papayas – while the highest value symbol in PapayaPop is the silver pineapple.

There's also a symbol that carries a 'super high' value, being the gold fruit, but it only appears in the bonus feature.

Due to the way the PopWin online slots system works AvatarUX feel that the addition of a wild symbol probably would have made it just a little too easy to land wins, so for that reason, there isn't one. There also isn't a scatter symbol.

While PapayaPop doesn't have a scatter symbol, it doesn't mean that no bonus feature exists. It most certainly does and comes in the form of a free spins feature.

As explained, reels that saw winning symbols land will expand by +1 until they reach six rows high. If all five reels reach six rows, then the free spins will be triggered. You'll be awarded three free spins, but whenever you land any winning combination, the number of spins is reset to 3. You might also notice that the reels can expand up to 9 rows in the free spins, instead of just six like in the base game.

Before the feature starts, you can gamble to increase the number of rows the reels have as the feature starts and increase the multiplier number the free spins start at.

Multipliers are always great in helping you to win bigger, and PapayaPop makes excellent use of multipliers. The slot feels a little one-dimensional at times due to its very repetitive nature, but if that formula delivers the wins, who cares how they come? The PopWin formula absolutely can deliver, but with the high variance, it'll be a game of patience and belief that your wagers will be rewarded.