Fear the Fortune that Awaits in Retro Horror Slot
The 60s and 70s were the golden age of horror films. During these 20 years, we got classics like Psycho, The Exorcist, Rosemary’s Baby, Carrie, Alien, The Haunting, Halloween, and Jaws! If you weren’t around when they were released, which you probably weren’t, I recommend checking them out. They hold up.
What if you could bottle that horror nostalgia in a slot and call it something like Retro Horror slot? Well, Spinomenal has done just yet. But is it any good?
I’m sure I’ve seen this one before
If you think you’ve seen a few slots with Retro in their title lately, you’re not going crazy. In fact, Retro Horror slot is the seventh in the Retro series that has Spinomenal released in 2022 alone. And when they say retro, they’re not talking about something like Stranger Things, Wonder Woman 1984, or Thor: Ragnarok that uses retro music or graphical elements to give the audience a dose of nostalgia. These graphics looked plucked from 1990s clip art.
What is most disappointing is that there are so many places to take a theme like Retro Horror. They could have taken inspiration from Night of the Living Dead, The Shining, Psycho, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and others and made it a homage to classic horror films. Instead, it has a weird seance aesthetic that looks like something a parents’ action group would have used to demonize rock music.
Are we going retro with the bonus features?
Spinomenal isn’t known for venturing outside their comfort zone, and they haven’t with Retro Horror slot. The game is one of many in a series, and all have more or less the same set of bonus features save one – more on that later.
In the base game, you can select the Retro Bet feature. It’s an interesting concept, and it would have been really cool if there was a graphical change to the reels that bumped up the retro styling. Instead, it’s the same bonus features utilized by the developer many times before. It doubles your bet amount in exchange for adding a guaranteed wild symbol to the center of the third reel on each spin. If this feature is activated when a round of free spins is triggered, it will remain active for the duration of free spins.
That brings us to free spins. Again, no surprises here. It’s triggered with three or more scatter symbols and unlocks no unique features. The only thing worth noting is that the free spins amounts are large. If you unlock the feature with five scatter symbols, you will receive 50 free spins.
It wouldn’t be a great horror story without a mystery, though. And this is where the slot distinguishes itself. The slot has a Mystery symbol. When it appears on the reels, all instances of it will transform into a single symbol. And since symbols in Retro Horror slot can stack, it’ll open up the possibility for some rather large wins!
Is Retro Horror slot a classic or straight to DVD?
How to sum up Retro Horror slot… let’s start here. I have nothing against skinning a game, which is the process of keeping the core aspects of a slot, including the bonus features, and just changing out the theme. If you’re creative with it, I’m more than happy to accept it. The Spinomenal Retro series, however, just feels lazy. The graphics looked like they’ve been pulled out of a theme pack on Shutterstock, and there has been little attempt to theme the existing bonus features. Put it this way; if you’ve played one of the Spinomenal Retro slots, you’ve quite literally played them all.
So, maybe you’re just there for the wins. Well, with a 250x max multiplier and an anemic base RTP rating of 95.99%, you’re not going to be doing much winning on this one.
If you’re looking for some retro slots to get excited about, I recommend giving Toshi Video Club or Cat to the Future.