Heres another unusual looking pokie machine, this time courtesy of industry newcomer Booming Games. This is a seven reel game but has just thirty paylines spanning the expansive reel area, which seems a little low with such a huge number of possible outcomes.
A special mode can be activated which temporarily enables payouts in both directions, effectively doubling the number of pay lines for a finite period of time.
The aptly named Sushi Cuties has an endearing look, with beautiful high definition graphics and overall outstanding presentation that is easily on a par with games from the more established pokie developers.
About The Developer
Booming Games have only been around for a couple of years but have already built a library of more than fifty first rate video pokies. The Isle of Man based software house clearly has a long way to go in terms of market penetration, as I was only able to find roughly fifteen casinos that were offering their games at present.
Because of this, it was very difficult to find even a single casino that was available in my country where I was able to play their games for real money. That’s a real shame, because from what I have seen so far the quality of Booming Games pokie machines is extremely high, and I hope they will become more widely available soon.
One interesting fact about this developer is their public endorsement of the Bitcoin digital currency, and their support of bitcoin-based online casinos.
This new “crypto-currency” promises to enable instant fee-free deposits and withdrawals, and some bitcoin casinos even process the outcome of each individual spin or hand directly to your bitcoin wallet without the need to actually hold a balance with the casino.
If more casinos continue to support this currency it could have enormous benefits for both casinos and players. Booming Games ought to be well placed to be at the forefront of any future bitcoin revolution, which many believe is just a case of when – not if.
How To Play
When you first load Sushi Cuties a gray overlay appears on top of the machine with arrows and captions pointing at the various buttons and controls, which is a great way to help new players familiarise themselves with the machine.
Booming Games have done a great job with the user interface design too, as all of the settings and information pages can be accessed with just a single click.
The intuitive design means you will be ready to spin in no time. Understanding the seven reel layout, unusual pay line configuration, and multiple bonus modes will probably take a little bit longer.
Special Features
Seven reels means up to seven-of-a-kind combinations are possible in Sushi Cuties. The centre reel contains just stacked wilds and scatters, which is a nice touch.
There are two sets of bonus symbols, the first of which is the exceptionally cute cats face “special” symbol, four or more of these will enable pay-both-ways for the next ten spins. Whilst in pay-both-ways mode, all seven of a kind combinations will award you double the amount shown on the paytable.
There is also a free spins bonus mode which can be triggered by hitting five or more scatter symbols. The scatters are designated by what appears to be a cooking pot of some kind with a smiley face on its side, and award ten free spins to begin with but can also be retriggered.
Disappointingly, the pay-both-ways feature is not available during free spins. Instead, if you happen to hit five or more scatters whilst in pay-both-ways mode, any remaining both-ways spins will be placed on hold until your free spins session has concluded.
I’m unsure why Booming Games chose to do things this way as it just seems to complicate the game unnecessarily, but it isn’t a huge problem.
Payouts
With seven reels I was expecting some huge wins to be offered in Sushi Cuties, and I was initially quite impressed. The wild symbol pays 333x your stake for a regular seven-of-a-kind, and as there is a fixed stack of wilds on the centre reel you can potentially hit three of these on a single spin.
With the pay-both-ways feature thrown into the mix, the maximum jackpot spin in this game will return 2,000x your total stake.
Unfortunately, most of the other symbols are relatively tight by comparison. I was particularly disappointed to see that the “special” symbol which activates the pay-both-ways mode awards just 3.5x your total bet for all seven, which is surely at odds with the likelihood of such a combination landing on the reels.
The scatters pay just a little better, at 15x your stake for all seven at once. There are plenty of games which offer much more than this for just five bonus symbols, and I’m sure Booming Games could have been much more generous.
I wondered if perhaps I might be missing something – perhaps I had missed some stacked symbols or other opportunities to win on a large number of pay lines simultaneously, but I wasn’t able to find anything. It seems that in general, you will be relying on the wilds to provide you with a big win on this game.
Summary
When I first loaded this game I was initially impressed, but my enthusiasm was largely dampened by the time I had finished this review because of the immensely disappointing paytable.
Despite the possibility of a 2,000x stake jackpot, my conclusion is that this is a very low variance machine, which is really unusual for a seven reel pokie. Sushi Cuties is undeniably cute, but I can’t see it holding the interest of most players.
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