Strawberry Cocktail

Lazing on the beach slots are something of a clashing-personality phenomenon, aren’t they? On the one hand, they’re trying to induce the feeling of taking a break, recharging the batteries, and relaxing somewhere nice where the weather is pleasant. On the other hand, they’re gambling tools like any other slot, possessing all the highs, lows, thrills and spills that entails. Strawberry Cocktail from developer Pragmatic Play is a classic example. This is a slot which offers a relaxing vibe thematically while cranking up some nail-biting, fist-pumping, up-and-down action in an unusual slot meets board game-style bonus round.

A lot of bamboo went into the making of Strawberry Cocktail, it seems. The stuff’s been used to make a sort of bar or boardwalk by the beach, and a bunch of bamboo has been lashed together to form the grid’s frame – then topped by a bit of thatch. Strawberry Cocktail makes you feel like you’re on holiday at the seaside, somewhere warm, of course, where the locals are friendly, rain happens about three times a year in the off-season, and the drinks never stop flowing. Eh, it’s not badly done. Factor in neon dabs, and it’s not hard to imagine yourself far away from the grind, letting all the stressors flow from your psyche like the receding tide.

When it’s time to take a punt and not just melt into the surroundings, Strawberry Cocktail’s stake options go from 20 c up to $/€240 per game round, and while there is no ante bet, there are three bonus buy options to ponder. No matter how you play Strawberry Cocktail, this highly volatile gambling machine utilities a default RTP of 96%, though lower models are something to keep an eye out for. Also, keep an eye on the 5-reel, 3-row gaming grid, where winning combinations pay left to right on 9 paylines, beginning from the leftmost reel onwards.

There are some sizable payout values here, too. Not the 4 card suit low pays, as usual, where hitting 5 matching diamonds, clubs, hearts, or spades pays 5 to 15 times the bet. However, hit a line of 5 identical green drinks, yellow drinks, or pink drinks, and the values quickly blast up to 30x, 50x, and 1,000x the bet, respectively. Hopefully, chasing big line wins is of personal interest since there are no other features in the base game. A wild exists, though, on all five reels, substituting all regular pay symbols. Like the pink drink symbol, a winning line of five wilds awards 1,000 times the stake.

Strawberry Cocktail: Slot Features

Chasing big value win lines is all the base game’s got. It’s not till 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols hit that the bonus round is triggered, and play starts mixing its drink. The bonus round does away with the 5×3 game grid. In its place, a 1-row, 3-symbol mini slot sits in the middle of the screen, surrounded by a Monopoly board square of 26 cells holding pay symbols and Exit signs. The mini reel spins, and a cell is highlighted on each game round. If the highlighted cell shows a symbol that is present on the mini reel, a reward is paid.

Each diamond, club, heart, spade, green drink, yellow drink, or pink drink is worth 2x, 3x, 5x, 10x, 20x, 30x, or 50x the bet, respectively. In addition, if the highlighted cell symbol is present twice on the mini reel, the win is multiplied by x3, or if it appears on all 3 positions on the mini reel, the win is multiplied by x10. The round also has a general multiplier that applies to all wins, starting on x1. After every 4 spins, the multiplier is doubled. The round continues like this until an Exit sign is highlighted, ending the bonus. If the round started with 3, 4, or 5 scatters on the triggering spin, there are 4, 3, or 1 Exit signs on the board.

Buy Free Spins

Players may buy free spins from the base game for 60x, 200x, or 600x the bet to trigger the round with 3, 4, or 5 scatters, respectively. The RTP remains the same when buying free spins as when not.

Strawberry Cocktail: Slot Verdict

Strawberry Cocktail is pretty much the definition of a game of two halves. Oftentimes, a Pragmatic Play slot teases with a slot’s main feature in the base game before lifting the brakes and letting it really flaunt its stuff when the bonus round has been activated. Not so, Strawberry Cocktail, which does little in the base game except tease with its 1 (2 if you count the wild) mega high pay symbol. Hopefully, you like the beach scene and the beats if you’re going to grind your way through the main game till the bonus round trips the on switch.

Or you can buy it, of course, but the upper, more desirable option is quite steep for a Pragmatic Play release. Hitting 5 scatters instead of 3 makes a big difference, though, since there is one-quarter the number of Exit signs on the board. Also, an internal debate raged over whether it would have been better to have a regular set number of free spins instead of using Exit signs to shut the round down. Theoretically, using Exit signs is better if the round drags on longer, but a pain if the highlighter jumps quickly to an Exit. Swings and roundabouts, sure. Still, the action gets pretty tense when the highlighter moves near an Exit sign. It’s like playing Monopoly where your opponent has hotels on the two dark blue streets (Mayfair and Park Lane on the UK version, e.g.), and clenching your butt as you either safely roll past them with your bankroll intact or land on one and take a hit.

Monopoly can go the other way, though, and if the dice are playing ball, it could be you who ends up with hotels on the swanky streets. So it is in Strawberry Cocktail, where the win cap has been set at 16,000x the bet, which is surprising after seeing so many circa 5-10K or so win caps from Pragmatic Play around this time. Certainly, it’s a number which adds heft to a game that might be a little too weird or swingy for some tastes, or the ideal fantasy destination for others.