Day of the Dead Slot Game Review

Day of the Dead is a successful endeavor by IGT that explores the popular Mexican holiday – Dia de Muertos. Connected to Christian celebrations known as All Saints’ Day, this fest is celebrated within families praying for their passed away relatives and friends. Resembling Halloween a lot, this festival is far not doom or gloom. The game play is filled with sounds of guitars and trumpets, traditional Mexican instruments, the soundtrack is thematic as well. In terms of graphics, the game is OK. Of course, it can hardly compete with some other slots in terms of visuals, quality 3D animations and vividness of the approaches to symbols’ and features’ design. Still, there is nothing annoying or disturbing. Put on top the quality OSTs and sound effects, and the resulting conclusion would be that visual experience with Day of the Dead is rather positive.

Given the popularity of this celebration happening on October, 31^st, it is not a wonder that many other gaming development agencies implemented the same concept, like Dia de Los Muertos by Endorphina, or Esqueleto Explosivo by Net Entertainment. Nonetheless, this particular release by IGT that has seen light in November, 2013, enjoys special popularity among the all. Overall, this is a controversial classic slot packed with many interesting options, while having the lowest possible return to player index (hereinafter, RTP) among its counterparts – it is only 92.85%. The reason for that is the historical past of IGT that has entered into the casino business since 1960’s, in the era of land based casinos and real one-armed bandits – physical establishments offer a lower RTP than online slot sites.  

This video slot provides 5 reels with outstanding 720 pay lines. Coins are values from 1 to 50 US dollars, with maximum 1 coin per line allowed. The jackpot per spin may reach as much as 1 000 coins. Lack of progressive jackpot feature is a minus, however the slot is packed with many options to compensate this gap and provide an interesting and prolific gaming experience. The game has Wilds and Scatters, Multiplies, bonus game where Wilds can be stacked, while the number of free spins may go very high. One of the main attractions of this video slot as slots’ enthusiasts’ report it in slot review posts, is the Multiway Xtra feature – conceptualized and patented by IGT. This feature is aimed to compensate the low RTP offering an increased winning potential. The slot is absolutely mobile friendly, it can be enjoyed in full fledge from any device connected to the internet and having a browser regardless of the OS in use. Android, iOS, Windows or MacOS – player will not feel any difference, this being one of the reasons for such an overwhelming popularity.

Even novice players with no prior experience with slots would quickly grasp the concepts behind it after playing a couple of free play demos and quickly scanning the rules. Multiple best online casino sites offer such a possibility, some even include this game into their Welcome Bonus offer thereby offering a chance to win real money without betting anything. As a bottom line, it is worth pointing out that players seeking bit rewards and multimillion jackpots are rarely playing it, preference being given to slot games enthusiasts’ who prefer the dynamic process over immense wins, and respectively high risks.

Symbols and Winning Combinations

Day of the Dead symbols are split into two categories – special and regular symbols. The regular symbols are divided into high and low paid ones. All symbols are showcasing designed thematically and feature colors and identities typical for this festival.

Special symbols used in the game are:

• Wild – shown as colorful coffins with WILD label on them, appears only on second, third and fourth reel;
• Scatter – shown as colorful skull, scatters are paid in this game apart from triggering the bonus feature. With at least 3 symbols on reels, player might get up to 50x multiplier;

Regular highest paid symbols include:

• Game logo – the highest paid symbol within the game, followed by
• Mariachi Skeletons, and
• Dancing Skeletons

The lowest paid regular symbols include:

• Pan de Muerto,
• Mug,
• Fruits,
• Marigold

Not a huge diversity of symbols. In order to see a comprehensive and exhaustive pay table for this slot machine, players are invited to check on any of the multiple sites that feature this game in their portfolio, or access the pay table directly in the game.

Day of the Dead Free Spins & Bonuses

Day of the Dead slot machine demonstrates a moderate hit rate – on average, a bonus is received every 5 spins. A combo of 5 Scatters offers 8 free spins, however here steps in the Multiway Xtra feature that helps form such combinations across several pay lines – thus the total amount of free spins might reach 96.

The bonus game has a slightly differing design from the base one, though symbols and their acting way remains as previously. The total of free spins possible to gather while in bonus game amount to 240 free spins.

How to Play

This slot game is not complicated at all. Just as most traditional slots, it hardly requires the player to keep anything in mind or contemplate a strategy. Anyone who has previously played classic slots can proceed playing immediately, while those with no such prior experience are welcome to get all of the answers to their how to play related questions using the official website of IGT or one of multiple online casino sites with even the chance to win real money with no deposit required.

Before rushing to bet real money, it is advisable to test the game in a free play demo mode using multiple opportunities available. Firstly, it is the official website of IGT WagerWorks. There any player can find comprehensive tutorials on the slot machine, with trailers and screenshots. Also, it offers the possibility to try the game out in a risk free manner, with no deposit and even registration required. After a couple of tries, as soon as the logic of the game runtime is clear, it is time to adjust the bet size and proceed.

Conclusion

Judging by slot reviews, Day of the Dead proves to be reported as a very amusing slot, with original solutions and many funny things, such as the design of main symbols and the OSTs within the game. This traditional slot seems to have conquered the hearts of countless slot enthusiasts due to its straightforwardness and simplicity, but also to its lucrative cash out potential. It does not provide huge awards, yet does it regularly. Overall, the pros and cons of this video slot machine come as follows:

PROS:

• Interesting theme, the Mexican Dia de Muertos, that is cherished by people – fact that resulted in the appearance of many movies, music and of course, many slot games working this topic out;
• Nice pack of gaming features, such as Wilds, Scatters and the famous IGT-patented Multiway Xtra;
• Jackpot of up to 1 000 coins per spin, which on max bet would mean 50 000 US dollars, quite an impressive amount;

CONS:

• Surprisingly low RTP rating of 92.85%;
• Absence of Progressive Jackpot;
• Graphics’ standards could be higher.