Retro Tapes (Push Gaming) Slot Demo & Review

Blues and purples have become almost the de-facto colour scheme whenever you want to create something based around the 1980s nowadays, although funnily enough, I don’t remember those colours being especially dominant at the time. I was probably too young to remember correctly (Ed: You’re trying too hard now), but I’m sure I remember it being a fairly colourful era overall. Retro Tapes has a lot in common with the Jammin’ Jars games and other titles they inspired, such as Space Stacks, so if those games were your thing, then I suspect you will enjoy playing this one.

I’m pretty sure that the sort of smug face appearance of the Red Tape is no coincidence; he’s feeling good because he’s sitting at the top of the paytable with a return of 1,000x your bet for a maximum cluster of 20 or more symbols! Behind him, you have the Orange Tape at 500x, the Purple and Green Tapes at 25x, and then the Blue and Woolworths own brand tape each at 5x your bet for the maximum cluster size. Not that you probably won’t be seeing a whole lot of 20+ symbol clusters, so it’s worth noting that smaller clusters of 17-19 symbols pay around one-fifth of the value of the headline numbers.

The betting range runs between €0.10 and €100.00 per spin, which is fine, but the lack of options between these two extremes may be an issue for some players.

The enormous reel set used in Retro Tapes is common to games of the Jammin’ Jars style, but those are the only machines I can think of which utilise this enormous 6×9 playfield design. As a grid slot, there are no paylines or payways to worry about here, and you simply need to assemble a cluster of five or more adjacent matching symbols anywhere on the grid to score yourself a win.

Wild Tape Symbol

The wild tape acts as a substitute for all other symbols on the grid except the wild multiplier and magnet symbols. Each tape starts with no multiplier attached, but this will increase by 1x each time the tape is included as part of a winning combination. When no more winning combinations are available on the grid, the tape will remove itself from proceedings.

Wild Multiplier Symbol

These symbols have a random multiplier of up to 5x right out of the gate, which will also spread itself onto any wild tape symbols currently in view each time it appears. After the multiplier value has been distributed, the wild multiplier symbol will transform into an instant prize symbol of a random value.

Instant Prize Symbol

These special symbols have a random prize value between 1x and 1,000x your bet attached to them and can appear in both the base game and Top Charts bonus round. You’ll need to land the instant prize symbols in the middle of another winning cluster in order to receive the attached prize, which can be a little frustrating if you see lots of instant prize symbols with values of 100x, 250x, or 500x your bet littered around the screen in non-paying positions!

Magnet Modifier

Nobody said that Retro Tapes’s base game would be dull! This modifier can activate randomly, pulling together all of the symbols of a random type into a cluster around itself. After the new winning cluster has been created, the magnet modifier will transform into either a matching symbol or an instant prize symbol.

Cluster Link

The final tweak available in the base game is the so-called cluster link, which will activate whenever a large number of instant prize symbols cluster on the reels. The feature will then build a winning cluster around those symbols, giving the potential for some truly enormous wins.

The base game of Retro Tapes is so action-packed that you may be forgiven for thinking that the features you have already seen were the “main event”! But no, hitting three or more wild tape symbols on a single spin will trigger the Top Charts feature – the highlight of your week!

Top Charts Bonus Feature

Before the bonus round begins, the Top Charts feature will lock any instant prize and wild tape symbols in place where they were in the base game on the triggering spin.

The game will then cycle through the playfield multiple times with only special symbols available to drop – wild tapes, wild multipliers, instant prizes, magnet symbols, extra spin symbols, and blank tapes all make an appearance here.

Any instant prize symbols appearing whilst the Top Charts feature is active will become sticky until the end of the bonus round when the grid layout will be evaluated, and your winnings will be paid. Keep your fingers crossed for some hefty multipliers building and connecting in this bonus round; it can lead to massive wins.

Bonus Buy

Players who wish to enter the free spins feature immediately can do so via the bonus buy option, which costs 100x the current bet.