CherryPop Review
Avatar UX is back with a third installation featuring their innovative
PopWins mechanic. The previous releases have not really🌛 gotten the attention they might
have deserved, and this might be due to the somewhat obscure and asian-inspired themes.
Judging🌛 from the glossy fruit machine inspired appearance of this release, it looks
like CherryPop slot is an attempt to break🌛 into the mainstream. The math model is
somewhat in the middle of the two previous releases, but the 56,386x potential🌛 is still
a lot bigger than most slots out there.
The reel setup is a standard 5x3 by default,
but this🌛 will soon change as you get started. Every win is followed by the PopWins
mechanic, which removes the winning symbols🌛 and splits the empty reel positions into
two for a cascading refill. This is really the only thing that goes🌛 on in the base game
here, as there are no wilds or other features that can come to the rescue🌛 like in the
previous release. This makes the base game a bit dry after a while, and it can take🌛 a
while to trigger the all-important bonus round.
Visually, the game is quite pleasing to
the eye, but Avatar UX really🌛 needs to do something about the pace. Waiting for the
empty positions to be filled takes way too long, something🌛 we pointed out about the
previous release also. A fast play option would be nice, at the very least, but🌛 an
overall change of pace and fine-tuning is recommended to make the next game a more
satisfying experience. The bonus🌛 round is the big highlight here, and it comes with an
expanded reel set and the possibility of locking in🌛 a 5x9 grid with a progressive win
multiplier to boot.
Cherry Pop
What are the bonus features?
There is a lot more to🌛 this
game than just another glossy fruit machine looking kind of game, as the features are
anything but ordinary. Perhaps🌛 you’ve already tested the previous PopWins mechanic
games from this developer, and in that case you know what the defining🌛 feature is all
about. Either way, we will walk you through everything here.
Everytime you land a
winning combo the PopWins🌛 mechanic comes into play. The winning symbols will be
removed, and the empty positions split in 2 with a “pop”.🌛 This effectively expands the
reel set, and the doubled up empty reel positions are then filled with new symbols. The
🌛 reels can be expanded from the regular 3 rows in height to 6 rows in the base game. The
process🌛 goes on as long as you keep winning, and then the reel setup is reset back to
the standard 5x3.
Free🌛 spins in CherryPop
In order to trigger the free spins bonus
round in this game, you need to expand all 5🌛 reels to the maximum base game height of 6
rows. This gives you 5 free spins to start with, but🌛 you can choose to gamble for more
spins before the bonus round starts. You’ll then spin a Wheel of Fortune🌛 where you can
win up to 11 extra spins. However, you also risk losing everything here, and get booted
back🌛 into the base game with nothing.
You will benefit from a progressive win
multiplier that starts at 2x, and each PopWin🌛 will increase the multiplier by +1 in the
bonus round. There is no upper limit as to how high this🌛 multiplier can go, and all
PopWins also double the reel positions of the winning symbols, just like in the base
🌛 game. The difference is that the reel setup by default is expanded to a 5x6 grid here,
and the PopWins🌛 feature can expand each row further up to 9 symbols in height.
If you
manage to expand all 5 rows to🌛 the maximum height, the progressive multiplier is
increased by +3. What’s more, each new PopWin on a fully expanded reel🌛 set will
increase the win multiplier by +4 instead of just +1. You are now playing with 59,049
ways to🌛 win, but in reality it’s 2x that because of the win both ways feature. On
non-winning spins, the reels will🌛 reset to the height of the shortest row, instead of
resetting completely.
Avatar UX Studios has decided to include a Bonus🌛 Buy option in
CherryPop slot, and it will cost you 75x your stake to get the bonus round whenever you
🌛 want. Of course, this option is not available in all jurisdictions, and UK players
cannot buy the bonus round.
How to🌛 play
The PopWins mechanic is really quite simple to
grasp once you get into the gameplay, although it might sound a🌛 bit complicated when
reading about it. We will take a closer look at all the essential info you need to🌛 get
started with this game, and tell you all about how to play CherryPoP slot below.
The
first thing to know🌛 about this game is that you win by landing at least 3 adjacent
identical symbols starting from reel 1 or🌛 reel 5. This is due to the win both ways
mechanic, and it effectively doubles the default ways to win🌛 from 243 to 486. We have
already described the PopWin mechanics above, so we’ll move on to the paytable.
You’ll
find🌛 the paytable via the hamburger menu down in the right-hand side corner, and there
are a total of 13 symbols🌛 here. The premiums are all classic fruit machine symbols, and
the cherries are naturally the most valuable of the bunch.🌛 Land 5 of these juicy
looking things, and you will win 15x your stake. However, the cherries can only appear
🌛 via the PopWins feature, or during the bonus round.
Cherry Pop
Right below the spin
button you’ll find a button to choose🌛 your stake. The bet range goes from 20p to £40
per spin, which is decent enough for most players. You🌛 can expect to land winning
combos on roughly every 5th spin or so, as the hit frequency is 22 %🌛 according to the
developer. However, you will most likely get smaller to medium sized wins only during
the base game.
Above🌛 the spin button you’ll find the autoplay feature button, and here
you can set up between 10 and 1,000 autospins.🌛 You can even choose to let the reels
spin for “all eternity” if you want, but there are no advanced🌛 options to automatically
stop the feature. Of course, you can also choose to spin the reels manually, and double
clicking🌛 on the spin button is the only way to increase the game’s pace.
Where to play
CherryPop?
The wide release of this🌛 game has not yet happened at the time of writing
this review, but judging from the reception of the 2🌛 previous games in the PopWins
series, you can expect to find CherryPop slot in many different quality casinos. We
will🌛 present you with your main options below, and tell you how to best proceed to get
started with this game🌛 immediately.
Play for real money
If you’ve already tried at
least one of the two previous PopWins games from Avatar UX, you🌛 will have no trouble
getting right into this one. You already know a lot about this game from what you’ve
🌛 read above, and this means you’re pretty much ready to get started. To give you the
best overview of where🌛 to play, we scan the whole casino market for you. You’ll find
the best casinos to play CherryPop slot at🌛 the top of this page. Simply follow the link
up there, and grab a sweet welcome offer while you’re at🌛 it.
Play free demo version
If
you’re brand new to the PopWins feature, you might not feel quite ready to go for🌛 the
real money play right away. You can then check out the free demo version of the game
first, and🌛 see if this innovative mechanic is to your liking. This way you don’t risk
anything, while gaining valuable experience with🌛 the game at the same time. Just follow
the link to the very top of this page, and get started🌛 with CherryPop demo game
immediately.
The 200 Spins CherryPop Experience
Having already tried the previous
games, we knew pretty much what we🌛 were getting ourselves into with CherryPop slot. We
enjoy the innovative PopWins mechanic for sure, but we just wish there🌛 was a fast play
option. The pace of the game is quite annoying, and this becomes especially apparent in
lengthy🌛 winning streaks that might not even pay that much.
This game could have scored
8 out of 10 on our unofficial🌛 “oddly satisfying” gameplay scale, if the speed of the
PopWins mechanic was up to par. It doesn’t take all that🌛 long before the novelty wears
off somewhat, and having to endure the new symbols popping into the empty positions one
🌛 by one becomes rather tedious. For this reason, we give CherryPop 6 out of 10 points
instead, and you can🌛 double the speed on the video to see how much better it
feels.
Anyway, back to the 200 spins session at🌛 hand. We expected nothing less than
plenty of dead spins and smaller wins from such a high volatility game as🌛 this, and
that’s exactly what we got for a while also. We then hit a bit of a winning streak,🌛 and
managed to get 4 reels expanded to the maximum of 6 rows. We really hoped to get the
final🌛 reel onboard too, but it just didn’t happen.
We were left with an okay base game
win of 10.7x, and it🌛 felt somewhat bad coming this close to triggering the bonus round
only to see our chance vanish. For this reason,🌛 we decided to simply buy the bonus
round instead. It kind of felt like a satisfying middle finger to the🌛 game, and we
crossed a few other fingers for a successful free spins round (although it was hardly
“free” now,🌛 was it).
We took our chances in the gamble feature, and luckily we won 3
extra spins instead of losing the🌛 75x we had invested in this feature. Nothing could
stop us now, and we saw the grid expand as the🌛 first spin started. Our first 4 spins
were dead as a doornail, but then we had a few cascading PopWins🌛 that increased the
multiplier to 4x.
The reels got reset to 6 rows again, and the next spin landed us a
🌛 40x win. This was due to the 5x multiplier we’d racked up so far, and the final spins
got us🌛 a few smaller wins. The multiplier never got above 8x, and we did not manage to
increase the rows above🌛 6. In the end we won 63.3x from the bonus round, which was less
than we spent buying it.
Review Summary
CherryPop🌛 walks the tightrope of the golden
middle way between the 2 previous releases. The first game in the series had🌛 an insane
potential and ditto volatility, while the second game was a bit more forgiving due to
the wild feature🌛 that kept the cascades going. CherryPop comes with a very solid
56,386x potential, and it’s more brutal than the second🌛 game for sure.
There is no base
game feature to help you out here, and triggering the bonus round can take🌛 a while. The
big difference is the fact that you can now buy the bonus round if you don’t feel🌛 like
waiting, but this is not available for UK players. The classic fruity visuals are more
mainstream than the previous🌛 releases, but we feel that more fine-tuning and tweaking
is necessary before the PopWins mechanic will “pop its cherry” with🌛 a proper mainstream
breakthrough.
Pros
PopWins mechanic still feels fresh and innovative
Free spins with
progressive win multiplier
Bonus Buy option (not UK) and🌛 free spins gamble feature
High
volatility and 56,386x max win potential
Cons
The PopWins pace is still a bit tedious
and slow
If you🌛 enjoy CherryPop you should also try:
You’ll find more than enough fruit
slots in our catalog, but none of them come🌛 with the unique and innovative PopWins
mechanic. You can still try the 2 previous games from Avatar UX of course,🌛 and below
we’ll also introduce you to a third game with a somewhat similar mechanic to the game
at hand.
PopRocks🌛 - is the game that started it all, and this is a visually pleasing,
but very volatile slot from Avatar🌛 UX. The PopWins mechanic is the defining feature
here, of course, and you can win up to a staggering 72,188x🌛 your stake in the bonus
round. There is a progressive multiplier in play, and reels can grow as high as🌛 7
symbols here.
Wildpops - is the second in line from the same Yggdrasil associated
developer, and this game comes with🌛 up to 33,614 ways to win. Of course, the PopWins
mechanic takes center stage here too, and the progressive win🌛 multiplier will increase
on every 7th pop. Random wilds can be a lifesaver here, and wins up to 17,707x is
🌛 possible in this game, which is a bit less volatile than the first one.
Star Clusters
Megaclusters - is the world’s🌛 first Megaclusters engine slot from the inventors of the
Megaways engine. This mechanic is somewhat similar to PopWins, but winning🌛 symbols will
be split into 4 smaller versions of themselves, instead of giving you double up of new
symbols. Wins🌛 with the smaller symbols activates cascading reels however, and you can
win up to 23,000x your stake via the bonus🌛 round’s progressive wild multiplier.
