Bars and Bells

Bars and Bells is a video slot game from Amaya that I have played on couple of occasions. This is a simple slot and it is good for times when I feel nostalgic about the first and oldest slots, and this one resembles them a lot.

Bars and Bells is a 5 reels and 20 pay lines video slot game. This game does have the looks of the old slots but it is powered with special features. In my experience there are many other slots that are more generous than this one but still this game has a charm that lures me into playing it. On the other hand, the main reason I am coming back to this game is because it can be lucrative at times too.

In the Bars and Bells slot there are the free spins round and the Streak Breaker bonus. The first one is more of a betting option than a special feature. This is kind of like a consolation prize that you get if you have 5 losing spins. But it is totally up to you whether you like to try this feature or not. I am not a fan of this feature.
What I like the most in this game is the free spins round. To activate this feature you need the Bars and Bells logo. This symbol appears only on the second, third and the fourth reel. There is a mini game before you start with the free spins. The lowest number of free spins is 5 with x 2 multiplier, which was in my case most of the times, and the highest number is 20 with x 3 multiplier. Here you have to pick until you match 3. The wins are always different depending on the symbols I get. The highest amount that I have won was 120 x bet, but most of the times the wins were around 20 x bet.

Bars and Bells is a fine combination of an original, conventional 3-reel machine and a modern slot game that can provide extras and more opportunity to be unique. The classic part of the game basically only related to the used symbols as the figures here are the well-known fruits and bars and the name-giving bell icons. Perhaps Amaya had no idea for their next game and that’s why chose these symbols thinking they don’t require any theme to build around or any additional graphics solutions, but doesn’t matter what was the case, in this minimal environment this slot still has nice look.

The surprisingly many features improve the playing experience and the most uncommon is the Streak Breaker. To activate it the player has to pay for this feature 5 coins after every 20 coins were placed as bets but it can be optional used, and the meaning of the feature is to prevent a long unlucky streak. After 5 non-winning spins it reveals a randomly selected prize. It works a little bit like a progressive Jackpot as every time when it is used and coins are contributed to it the next payout amount by it will be higher, but as I’ve said it’s a random amount between 50% and 140% of coins that already turned to use this feature. Of course every single win reset the accumulated ‘number of unlucky spins’ and the 5 spins start to count again. During free spins this extra is not available. The specific symbol appearance on the, middle three reels trigger the free spin features where first, the players have to choose boxes out of 18 until 3 identical are picked. The boxes contain the number of free spins and the multiplier value. The variants are 5 spin at x2 multiplier, 7-x2, 10-x2, 15-x2 and 20-x3. Free spins can be re-triggered with the same conditions as the original free spins have.

Shake 'n' Pays Bonus has no rules or winning combination to activate it, it’s another randomly given bonus that can pay from 20 coins up to 25000 coins depending on the numbers of the coins bet per lines. A gambling feature also coloring the feature palette which is a simple 50-50 sided game. The game has Wild figure in use which is not just substitutes any other symbols but pays the best prize of the normal game with a potential x5000 of line bet.

Bars and Bells is a really strange slot for me because at the beginning of our relationship I didn’t feel at all to play a 20-payline game, I suppose mainly because of the symbols and for a long time I didn’t use the Streak Breaker feature because I found it useless and there were very rare times when I had 5 consecutive spins without any wins. Later, when I used this game to get out of wagering restrictions of a bonus I turned it on to wager more per spin but my initial thought proved to be right and at least after the 4th spin the next spin brought something rewarding combination. Without counting the spins and forgetting this features once it appeared and awarded more than 1300 coins (€85), from that moment I use it with purposes. At that time happened the bonus picks gave 20 spins at x3 and while playing this extra I got 3 bonus icons so my total attempts were 40 and the final result was almost €100. All in all, with playing just this slot I could complete all the requirements with not too many losses.

I can safely say I pleasantly disappointed in this slot and got more what I expected. Thanks to its features it’s a great game and fun to play with. If you’re an addict slot player and sometimes can’t decide to whether play with classic, traditional symbols using machines or rather choose feature, entertain richer multi-line game, well, maybe you’ve found a solution with Bars and Bells that makes this hard decision not to be done.