Developer Mancala Gaming describes Cherry Bombs as a “unique, multi-level slot game”… I can’t argue with them there. Even the presentation of the Cherry Bombs slot game is extremely unique, as it is designed to represent a physical arcade cabinet. Perspective is used to make each row of buttons appear further away from you, and there is even a space at the top for a marquee logo. I couldn’t help but wonder if the game was displaying incorrectly on my machine – indeed, the game’s name is meant to appear in this space? I tried all my devices with the same result – the Cherry Bombs text appears either half off-screen or half covered by the game board. Perhaps this will be fixed in the future? As for the vitals, we have 25 pay lines, a 95% RTP, and a jackpot prize of 3,000x your bet.
Over to the features, and… ah. Mancala Gaming has gone a little crazy again with this one! The “multi-level” part of their description makes sense once you look at the paytable – The payoff for every symbol is listed three different times, each referring to a different level. You should see level two relatively soon after you first begin playing Cherry Bombs online slot, but level three takes far more time – and luck – to reach. The eponymous Cherry Bombs act as an additional feature by exploding and enabling you to win multiple times from a single paid spin.
This is one of those games that you simply need to play to understand fully. Our free demo slot of Cherry Bombs will help – check it out below.
| Provider | Mancala Gaming |
| Reels | 5 |
| Rows | 3 |
| Paylines | 25 |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.25 - 22.50 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 3,000x |
| Bonus Buy | No |
| RTP | 95.00% |
| Our Rating | 7.2 |
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Cherry Bombs Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
The symbol of the Cherry Bombs video slot consists of simple fruit-shaped outlines, which work well with the arcade machine backdrop and the 80s-style neon logo. If somebody told you this was an emulation of a decades-old fruit machine cabinet, you would have no reason not to believe them – it truly does feel that authentic. I’m not sure if I would have gone as far as the perspective-driven button layout, but it’s refreshing to see Mancala attempting to spice up the typical fruit-themed online slot machine.
Things only start to get truly crazy once you begin to look at the paytable; the top-paying watermelon slice pays 1,000x your bet for five-of-a-kind, which is an enormous amount for a regular symbol combination in any online slot. The second-placed orange symbol also has a huge return – 400x your bet for all five – whilst the bundle of grapes isn’t half-bad either at 200x. In short, the payouts for level one seem high in Cherry Bombs online slot. And things only continue getting crazier from there – the aforementioned watermelon slice has a maximum payout of 2,500x your stake at level two, which uses a cluster pays mechanic rather than the simple paylines used at level one. It would be natural to expect the numbers to jump even higher for level three, but the opposite is true – the watermelon maxes out at just 300x here. Mancala really didn’t want to keep this simple, did they?
Let’s rewind for a moment and go back to level two – this part of the game bumps the grid size up to 6×4 rather than the 5×3 layout used at level one. To get that huge prize of 2,500x your bet, you’ll need to hit a cluster of 24 watermelon symbols – by my count, that would require an entire screen of just that one symbol. I’m sure it is theoretically possible, but after testing this game for a while, I have to state that it seems overwhelmingly unlikely you will ever see an entire screen of matching symbols whilst playing Cherry Bombs online slot. The third level uses an even bigger grid – 7×5 in size – and the maximum prizes at that stage also require an entire screen of matching symbols.
Looking at the wagering limits, a tiny bit of normality returned temporarily. Mancala has opted for a minimum bet of €0.25 per spin and a maximum of €22.50. These numbers make perfect sense for a 25-payline game and should be more than enough to satisfy 99.9% of players.
Base Game & Modifiers
I’m going to try and rationalise things at this point – sure, there are some crazy numbers on the paytable. Still, if you accept that many of the highest prizes are entirely unrealistic, then the game becomes much easier to wrap your head around.
Returning to level one, the base game features a 5×3 playfield with 25 fixed pay lines and winning combinations pay in both directions. All five-of-a-kind prizes at this level are unusually high, so I wasn’t surprised to find that I saw very few of them during the entire time I was testing the Cherry Bombs online slot.
Levels two and three are cluster-pays stages, the first of which takes place on a 6×4 grid whilst the higher level expands things even further with a huge 7×5 grid. All three levels include cherry bomb symbols, but the higher levels incorporate bigger bombs.
The cherry bombs have no prizes of their own, but they trigger explosions, allowing additional symbols to drop in from the top of the screen. I found this part of the game quite jarring – you expect winning combinations to explode and disappear because that is what you keep seeing on-screen, but it only happens when a cherry bomb appears on the reels. The cherry bombs also have a secondary purpose – they will fill the “Level-Up” meter, which moves you between the game’s three levels.
2nd Chance Spin
If a matchstick appears next to a cherry bomb symbol, but the head is not pointing towards the fuse, then the game will give you a second chance with a 1 in 4 chance of the match spinning to light the cherry bomb.
Level Up Meter
These meters are shown on both sides of the main reel set. To fill them, you need to light as many cherry bombs as possible; each time a bomb explodes, it will add energy to the meter. Consecutive explosions will increase in effectiveness.
Cherry Bombs Slot Free Spins Feature
When you move from level one to two, the game will award five free spins, whilst moving from level two to level three awards ten free spins. Because of this, it makes sense to think of the higher two levels as the bonus round in Cherry Bombs online slot. If additional cherry bombs continue to land whilst you are playing on the higher levels, they will re-fill the level-up meters, allowing you to continue playing the higher levels for longer.
Although the maximum prizes available on levels two and three are much higher than level one, according to the paytable, my experience of this game was that clusters larger than ten symbols were extremely rare. You can’t complain, of course – you don’t have to pay for your spins on levels two and three – but I still found it unusual that my winnings were often much lower during the “bonus round” part of the game than the base game.
Cherry Bombs Slot Review Final Thoughts
Cherry Bombs sure is an unusual online slot – Mancala have tried something unique here, and in many ways, it does work, but the paytable is confusing. The level system would have been better represented as a more straightforward “free spins” bonus round. The result is a slightly confusing and mixed-up online slot; it isn’t something that I would play for real money myself, but I am sure it will appeal more to players who enjoy complex and unusual slot machines. If that sounds like you, maybe check it out?
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