Matsuri Slot
Matsuri is a 5-reel, 25-pay line online slots game developed by Play'n GO. Matsuri (pronounced Ma-tsu-li) is a Japanese word that means 'holiday' or 'festival'. The Japanese love their festivals, and matsuri take place all over the country throughout the year, most of them sponsored by local temples or shrines. The late summer and early autumn is the main time in which these festivals take place, and most of them are a chance for local communities to get together and celebrate Japanese culture with elaborate floats and huge models. It's also a time to eat traditional 'festival food' such as takoyaki (a kind of doughnut that's served with takoyaki sauce – akin to Worcester sauce – and mayonnaise). It's also a time to enjoy matsuri-related games like karaoke and sumi contents, plus 'kingyo-sukui' which means 'goldfish scooping' in which players must scoop up a goldfish using a flimsy paper net. If they are successful they win … a goldfish.
All the symbols in this game are matsuri-related, including some very non-Oriental looking ladies in traditional Japanese clothing. There are also fans, lanterns, goldfish and takoyaki. There are twenty-five lines in this slot and that's a fixed number, so all twenty-five are in play upon every spin. You can choose your coin size from 0.01 all the way up to 4.00, and your line bet is this amount multiplied by twenty-five. When you're ready with your net to go goldfish-hunting, then hit the spin button.
Payout & bonus rounds
You win more than goldfish and takoyaki when you play this online slot. The lowest winning payout is for three takoyaki on a skewer which will win you three coins, as will three shaved ice desserts (kakigori). The top payout is for five lantern symbols, which will win you one thousand coins.
The lantern symbol is also wild in this game, and the wild symbol substitutes for all other symbols aside from the scatter symbol.
A cat-mask symbol acts as the scatter symbol. If you land three or more during the base game you are awarded eight free spins. Each mask you then land during your freebies will earn you a further two free spins, up to a maximum of twenty.
If a lantern symbol lands during free spins it will transform into a wild lamp banner which grows to cover the entire reel. This symbol then walks one reel to the left upon each spin, until it walks off the reels altogether.
If you land three goldfish symbols anywhere then you are in for a little bit of kingyo sukui. You must gather up as many goldfish as you can before your paper net breaks. The more goldfish you gather, the more cash you are rewarded with.
This is another wonderful-looking game from Play'n Go. The visuals are extremely effective, which makes for a very handsome online slot. Sadly, the game play does not match the slot's appearance, although it's still a very effective game, especially if you get to indulge in a little goldfish scooping. Happily, Play'n GO informed us that no goldfish were harmed in the making of this slot.