Gumball 3000 Slot Machine Review
The name of this slot brought back memories of the terrible 1970’s comedy film, which followed teams trying to win a race across the US. Gumball 3000 from Play N Go is not a comedy type slot. Instead this is tough, in your face and built to appeal to motor racing fans. There are two bonus games, one is a free spins round – with the other being a pick-em type game based on choosing your next destination in a race. If you are familiar with Play N Go slots, you will see that these use the same mix of a pick-em and free spins game as several other games including Aztec Idols and Chinese New Year – though the look is completely different.
Graphically, this slot is fairly basic, with bright orange playing card symbols making up a lot of the visuals on the reels. There are some very fast looking cars, and the background to the reels is a starting grid viewed from in front of the cars. The sound effects include some dance music and a lot of engine noises. Each spin gets a rev, and wins get more. This creates an upbeat and lively feel to the game – through is you are not a motor-racing fan I would imagine it could get annoying after a while.
For the free spins, you’ll get a separate game to determine a new scatter symbol and the amount of spins you’ll receive. These extra scatters do give you the chance of a big win. The pick-em game gives you the chance to win up to 150 times your total spin amount.
Setup and Play for Gumball 3000
Like many of the Play N Go slots range, this game has 15 win-lines. You will have 3 selections to make before you spin – the number of lines, the coin value and the number of coins per line. Coin values go from 1c to 25c, with up to 5 coins per line. This gives a spin range of 15c through to $18.75c per spin. Auto-play is available.
The cars are the top symbols; with the blue face-on one the biggest of all. This pays 2500 coins for 5, and 500 coins for 4. The green car comes next, worth 500 coins for 5 – with the red and yellow after that. Playing card symbols ace down to 10 make up the rest of the wins.
There are two special symbols in this game. First a wild, which appears in reels 1 and 5. If you cover both reels with these, the free spins game starts. These substitute for everything except the bonus symbols. The bonus symbols trigger the pick-em round with 3 or more – though they do not have any other wins attached.
Gumball 3000 Bonus Games
There are two different bonus games in this slot. First the3 bonus symbols take you to a break out screen via a very impressive video sequence. You will see 3 destinations on a map of Europe, and simply choose one of those. There is then another video sequence, while you reach this destination – and you are awarded a prize.
Free spins require the first and third reel to be covered in wild symbols. When this occurs you’ll get 15 spins. What I like about this bonus is that the wilds remain in place, meaning you can accumulate a lot of wins. This feature does not have a retrigger.
Gumball 3000 – Conclusion
This slot is bold, brash and loud – the appeal is obvious, with not everyone appreciating the multitude of games with ambient music and fairy symbols. While I did find the engine noises a little too much after a while, the combination of these and the high-adrenaline music does contribute to the atmosphere of the game.
The pick-em ‘destinations’ bonus has amazing graphics, though the interaction for the player is minimal (simply pick a destination and that is it). This is the smaller and more frequent of the two bonuses – the free spins with the sticky wilds is what you really want to see for the chance of some big wins.
I don’t think this is an all-time classic game, though it was very playable, and I can see myself coming back for another spin at some point down the line.
