The phrase film noir conjures images of black-and-white detective stories, and with good reason. That’s when the genre was really born. Its themes and lighting effects are, however, just as effective today.

My favorite modern film noir movies are, without doubt, the criminally under-watched Kiss Bang Bang and The Nice Guys. Both have great actors, hilarious comedy, fun action, and an intelligent whodunit storyline.

While certainly created for film with novels as their inspiration, film noir has made an impact in other areas, including slot games. Avatar UX is just the most recent slot provider to use the theme with its new game Pop Noir slot.

Time to study the evidence

Pop Noir slot features the AvatarUX PopWins feature, which combines cascading and expanding reels. Basically, the reels expand by one row on every reel that includes symbols involved in a winning combination. The symbols involved in the winning combination are removed, allowing new symbols to fall into the empty spots, giving you another shot at winning and expanding the reels further.

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In the base game, the reels can be expanded to a maximum of six rows and will be reset following the completion of each spin. During a round of free spins, the maximum number of rows is increased to eight, and rows reset to the level of the reel that is least expanded following the completion of each spin.

A round of the slot’s free spins is triggered with the appearance of three or more bonus symbols. Before a round of free spins, four bonus wheels will be spun to determine the number of free spins you will be awarded, the reel height that you will start from, the base global multiplier value, and the multiplier growth interval.

If you’re not keen on unlocking the mystery the old-fashioned way, you can select to purchase a round of the slot’s free spins feature.

Is Pop Noir slot ready to reveal who did it?

There’s very little to complain about when there’s a shot at a 20,000x multiplier. Sure, the high volatility means that you’ll have to endure some dry periods between wins. But that’s a small price to pay to take a shot at up to $200,000 in winnings betting at just $10 a spin. If you’re all about entertainment, though, the max multiplier will ensure that you’ll still be able to win up to $2,000 even when you’re betting at the $0.10 a spin minimum. The slot offers an RTP of 96%.

Along with that giant max multiplier, the slot offers some really fantastic graphics. It’s not the most perfect execution I’ve ever come across but the pops of color against the monochromatic background really are striking. The slot also has some interesting bonus features. I give this one a nine out of ten.

AvatarUX can sometimes be a bit hit-and-miss. However, when they get it right, its slots are usually great. If you’re looking for recommendations, Donkey and the Goats and Zombie aPOPalypse are great places to start.