LIKED
Okaaay, who wants to join me at the movies? All on me of course! Hmm, I think I hear some "me, darling" and some "me, mate" whispers, but I cannot be sure. Anyway, all those who wants to join me at the movies, sit back now, relax, and here we go - my review on the game At The Movies. What? You want to go to a real movie? Oh gees, have to wait till we meet up, darlings and mates, but for now, I can only offer a review, like it or not. Hehehe.
This is not a new game from BetSoft, but is one of the earliest 3D games though. Even today, you would still find the graphics acceptable, but it does look a little bit faded, doesn't it? Anyway, back in those days, players would be delighted enough with this game. Honestly speaking, the game alone doesn't offer much in terms of features, having only the Free Spins game to look forward to, but it plays quite well nonetheless. Playing with 25 paylines, the minimum starting bet per spin is set at 0.50, for one reason or another, but the lines can be selected for a lower starting bet per spin. I like this.
The Masks is the Wild symbol in the game, not paying anything for itself, sadly, but it substitutes for other symbols except the Scatter symbol, and doubles all wins with it. Hmm, better than nothing I guess. The Projector is the Scatter symbol, getting 2 of them pays 1x the total bet, but getting 3 or more of them doesn't pay anything, except to award 8, 12 or 20 free spins with all wins doubled. Argh. 8 free spins isn't enough for me, not with only a 2x multiplier. It should be with a 5x multiplier to be really attractive. Ah well, BetSoft games are not known to be of the high variance kind, mostly being the low to medium variance kind of games, as is for this game too - low variance. Don't know if the Free Spins can be retriggered or not, nothing has been indicated in the paytable, but I'm quite sure that it can, because the Scatter symbols are still in play during the free spins. As for the other symbols, the Oscar pays 2000x, the Popcorn pays 1000x, the Magazine pays 400x, and the rest pay from 200x to 40x, all per line bet for getting 5 of each kind. A very low paytable no doubt.
What can anyone expect from a game such as this? The Wild doubles all wins with it, and the free spins has a 2x multiplier, so that would make some decent wins with the combined 4x multiplier. Not a lot really, hence a higher multiplier would have made a nicer difference and for bigger wins. As it is, the maximum possible win would be a low 320x the total bet amount, by getting 5 Oscars with a Wild symbol during the free spins, with a final payout of up to 350x perhaps. No way of going much higher than this, but I may be wrong.
DISLIKED
Nonetheless, the few times that I have played this game haven't been that disappointing at all. The payouts may be small, but it did come frequently, keeping the credits balance quite stable, and extending the game play period quite nicely too. My only disappointment was that I couldn't get any wins above 50x my bet amount, otherwise I would rate At The Movies with 6 Stars instead.