Get ready for the upcoming season when kids and their parents hit the streets in costumes, going door to door for candy on Halloween. This tradition, popular in North America, is catching on in other parts of the world and even in the world of online gambling. NetEnt brings us a Halloween-themed slot game called Don’t Eat The Candy, and while indulging in candy is fun in moderation, this game is all about the excitement of winning.
In Don’t Eat The Candy, you’ll find yourself in a spooky setting. The game takes place on a 5-reel expandable grid set in a creepy old cart. The backdrop features a black cat, pumpkins, and even a noose, which adds a dark twist. The overall atmosphere is eerie, with shades of grey and black creating a graveyard filled with tombstones, ghosts, and eerie trees. However, don’t be too spooked; these Halloween-themed slots are more about fun scares than actual horror.
This slot game is high in volatility and revolves around a Sticky Win mechanic. Here’s how it works: when you land 3 or more pay symbols in a winning combination or get 3 scatters anywhere on the reels, the winning symbols lock in place, triggering the Sticky Win feature. The other positions then respin, and if you manage to get more matching symbols, they also lock in place while the remaining symbols respin. The process continues until the screen is filled with winning symbols or no new winning symbols appear, resulting in a payout. Initially, when you have 3 rows of symbols active, there are 25 paylines, but when the grid expands to 4 rows, the number of paylines increases to 75. We’ll explain how this expansion occurs in the next section. Before that, it’s worth noting that Don’t Eat The Candy has a decent return to player value of 96.13% and accepts bets ranging from 10 p/c to £/€20 per spin.
The symbols on the paytable can be divided into two categories: low-paying candies and high-paying spooky items. The low-paying symbols consist of five sweet treats, offering rewards of 0.3 to 1.2 times your bet for landing five of a kind. In contrast, the high-paying symbols include wormed apples, potion bottles, dolls, and skulls, which can award you 2.4 to 8 times your bet for a winning line of five symbols. Additionally, the game features a wild symbol, represented by Don’t Eat The Candy itself, which can substitute for all regular pay symbols on reels 2, 3, and 4.
In this game, you’ll encounter some intriguing symbols that add excitement to your gameplay. First, there’s the scatter symbol, featuring a trio of mischievous ghosts. This symbol plays a crucial role in triggering the free spins round. Alongside free spins, keep an eye out for the Pumpkin symbol, as it introduces three different game-changing features.
The Pumpkin symbol can land anywhere on the reels, and when it does, it bestows one of three modifications to enhance your experience. During the main game, these Pumpkin modifiers are randomly granted and are effective for the spin in which they appear.
To enter the thrilling free spins phase and receive a payout equal to 3 times your initial bet, you’ll need to land 5 scatter symbols on the reels. Each extra scatter symbol that appears during this triggering spin grants an additional 3 free spins. During the free spins round, the Pumpkin features activate in a specific order and remain active until the free spins conclude.
The first time the Pumpkin symbol appears, you’ll benefit from the x2 multiplier. Subsequently, when the Pumpkin lands again, the reels will expand. As the free spins continue, each subsequent Pumpkin landing will replace the low-paying symbols with higher-paying ones, step by step.
It’s important to note that free spins cannot be retriggered, so make the most of each spin during this exciting phase of the game.
Don’t Eat The Candy by NetEnt, while having its charms, may seem a bit outdated when measured against today’s standards. It’s interesting to note that NetEnt was a pioneer in introducing sticky winning pay systems with “Jack Hammer” back in 2011. That’s a whole 12 years prior to Don’t Eat The Candy, which can be quite mind-boggling. To put things in perspective, 2011 witnessed significant events, including the Operation Neptune Spear that eliminated Osama Bin Laden, the devastating Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami leading to the Fukushima disaster in Japan, the birth of the Occupy movement, South Sudan gaining independence, and the release of the gaming sensation, Minecraft. Time certainly does fly!
This prompts the question of whether in 2035, we might see another NetEnt slot featuring the Sticky Win pay mechanic. It’s possible, as this mechanic can be quite entertaining, especially when a sufficient number of desired symbols stick to create impressive results. In Don’t Eat The Candy, the Pumpkin symbol plays a pivotal role in enhancing your results. More is indeed merrier in this case, as the x2 multiplier, expanded reels, and additional paylines from the extra row are highly desirable. Symbol upgrades also contribute to your potential winnings. Since Pumpkin modifiers stack during free spins, this is where players have the best opportunity to aim for the maximum win of 3,110.6 times their initial bet. While not a colossal sum, it’s worth noting that “Don’t Eat The Candy” is not NetEnt’s most massive game.
In the realm of Halloween-themed slots, Don’t Eat The Candy comfortably occupies a mid-tier position. It has a few surprises up its sleeve, although it won’t shower you with an enormous haul of virtual candy. To put it in Halloween terms, if this slot were dressing up for the occasion, it would be more likely to throw on a simple sheet and go as a friendly ghost rather than going all out with intricate and elaborate cosplay.