Carnival Queen Slot

I’ve never been to Rio De Janeiro to experience a Samba Carnival, but I’ve played many games themed on it, but so far, none has made it into my favourite games list. Somehow, my luck on such games has never been good, or maybe those Samba Dancers simply don’t like me because I haven’t meet them live at Rio, hehehe.

This Carnival Queen by Thunderkick is a 6 reels 4 rows 4096 ways to win game, with a starting bet of only $0.10 per spin, so there’s no need to buy a plane ticket to go to Rio. The overall atmosphere in the game is lively and colourful, as it should be, but I really don’t like that both the Wild and Bonus symbols are non-paying. A lot of missed extra wins there. Typically of all other similar games too, the win values of all the symbols are really low, starting from 12x down to just 1x the bet amount for getting any six of them. If not for the 4096 ways and the increasing multipliers during the cascading, big wins could never be achieved at all.

Getting 3, 4, 5 or 6 Bonus symbols don’t win anything, except for triggering 12, 16, 20 or 24 free spins. Each time 2 Bonus symbols land on the reels during a free spin, 3 more free spins would be added. Getting 3 or more Bonus symbols would retrigger the initial amount of free spins. This can go on indefinitely but it’s simply impossible to happen. Also, any Wild that doesn’t make a win would explode and remove symbols vertically and horizontally, allowing for new symbols to drop down. Nope, new wins doesn’t always happen either.

Carnival Queen is a high volatility game, with a maximum possible win of 22,700x, which is most probably only a once-in-a-lifetime win, so the game would play with many dead spins and many insignificant small wins, both in the base game and during the free spins. It took me almost 500 spins just to get my first free spins feature game, but that game didn’t pay anything good either. The second game came after over 200 spins later, but paid a more decent 106x. My balance had gone down a lot by then, and I wasn’t about to take any more chances on those Samba Dancers. I got some money back, still lost most of it, so I said “hasta la vista baby” and quit the game. Maybe I’ll come back for another try, maybe not, but for now, it’s a no-go.

In my opinion, this is probably the best slot, that Thunderkick ever released. I know, this is a bold statement, given that this innovative provider has graced us with a lot of classics over the years: Fruit Warp, Flame Busters, Pink Scammy Elephants, Wild Heist and The Falcon Huntress to name but a few. However, over time I've found Carnival Queen to be the most enjoyable of the lot, as it combines a very solid base game with a high potential bonus feature, all carried out in a colourful atmosphere with great graphics and a suiting soundtrack worthy of the Mardi Gras theme.

I use this slot a lot, if I have to wager. Actually, I rate Carnival Queen as one of my Top 5 wager slots; it has replaced slots like Bonanza a looooong time ago, haha! The pattern is usually this: If this slot doesn't give the free spins easily, the base game keeps the balance steady, and if you trigger the free spins often, the winnings make up for any shortcomings in the base game. It's normally a very well balanced slot imho.

Speaking of the free spins, this slot has somehow earned a reputation of being hard to bonus, but in my experience this isn't the case. 9 out of my last 10 sessions on Carnival Queen have resulted in one or more features, usually paying 40x-100x. You trigger the free spins by landing 3 or more of the scatter symbol, the Carnival Queen herself. 3 scatters give you 12 initial spins, any additional scatter symbol adds 4 more spins. But these are pretty rare, at least I have never had more than 3 initial scatters in my >50 bonus rounds.

You can scoop up some pretty solid wins in the base game too, as the 4096 ways layout has an increasing multiplier for each win you get. The slot makes use of a cascading mechanic, as known from eg. Bonanza, which means that winning symbols "explode" and make way for new symbols to drop down. Each explosion ups the multiplier by one, and if you trigger the free spins during the process, you keep the enhanced multiplier. This could eg. give you a 5x start in the bonus round. Unfortunately, a highly increased multiplier usually results in very mediocre hits during the free spins - that's my experience at least...

So, to sum things up: Carnival Queen is very well balanced between giving the occasional big hit and not sucking your balance dry, which makes it a pleasant slot to play. Recommended for clearing wagers.

No major dislikes. If I have to mention anything negative, it would be the rather low variance within the bonus feature: It always seems to pay in the range 40-100x. I would like to see some "insane" hits once in a while, when you get that 5-6x starting multiplier...

Carnival Queen is one of the latest releases from Thunderkick, which is based on the world-famous Mardi Gras carnival. This slot takes place at a carnival where it's all about dressing up and parading. The graphics of the slot is seriously cool, and the vibe and sound fit in the slot. The slot has 4096 ways and if you are a fan of bonanza you will love this slot.

Symbols on the reels include your standard card deck symbols including 4 carnival dressed characters. The crown is the most that can pay x20 your stake for 6 of a kind. The W is the wild and substitutes for everything except scatter. The wild pays most probably the same as the crown.

The game uses an avalanche feature, that when you get a winning combination, symbols forming the combination disappear and gets replaced by new ones falling. The spin completes once there are no more winning combinations. During the spin there is a multiplier that increases on every win and it has an unlimited multiplier.

Free spins are triggered when 3 of mask scatter symbol lands on the reels. 12 spins are awarded initially and for every extra scatter an addition 4 spins are added. Similar like the +5 symbol in bonanza. You can win a maximum of 24 spins and can retrigger as well. The free spins play with an unlimited multiplier feature as well and the best part if the multiplier that you triggered the bonus with starts with the free spins feature. Can imagine you start of with x12 multiplier, you will be breaking the bank.

During free spins the multiplier does not reset back to x1 after you have created win, if during a spin you get 4 wins, the multiplier stays at 4 wins and increases until you have no more free spins left.

Now I am a big fan of the Megaways features in Bonanza which mean you can win up to 117749 ways, however this slot only has 4096 ways, but what I like more is that you can start the free spins with a multiplier from x1 up to x10 most probably on a good day. Which can be very lucrative.

I triggered the bonus a couple of times but cannot pass the x150 mark at all. I doubt Ill get x1000 in here soon, however bonus triggered quicker than getting GOLD in bonanza.

It's fun and I'm not even a festive type of individual. This is a very captivating game and it's whole multiplies wins for every win gimic, can dish out some decent pays.

Theres only one bonus feature to this game, the scatter feature dosnt hit as often for me personally as often as the majority of slots I've played. (a fair bit)