Cash n Curry

Microgaming seem rather fond or terrible puns for their themed online fruit machines and Cash 'n' Curry is no exception. But have they matched a terrible pun with a great pub-style fruity? We took these virtual reels for a spin to find out if this was a spicy treat or something on an online casino's menu of games that's best avoided.

Cash 'n' Curry, if it is not yet patently obvious, flavours its classic fruit machine format with a comedic curry house theme. It's all balti dishes, rings of fire and pints of lager garnishing the traditional fruit machine symbols and fascia with an appropriately 'geezers' curry house' vibe to the music and verbal encouragements offered by the Cash 'n' Curry waiter. Subtle it ain't, but then pub fruit machines have never been renowned for their sophisticated humour!

The base game has all the classic AWP fruit machine features with Nudge and Hold options being activated at random intervals during play. Cash 'n' Curry also includes the handy Nudge Peek feature and Nudge gamble to add a little more spice to the traditional extra reel functions that differentiate fruit machines from typical casino slots.

Cash 'n' Curry's bonus trail is triggered if a player manages to light up three bonus symbols in a row on the 3 x 3 grid to the left of the reels. The bonus symbols themselves are cartoon balti dishes containing red, green and yellow 'contents' the like of which we've never seen in a curry house (and would probably run a mile from if we did!). These appear attached occasionally to other more traditional symbols on the reels, and light one of the equivalent symbols on the bonus grid if they fall on the Win Line. If and when the bonus game is triggered, the on-screen reels are replaced with the Cash 'n' Curry Bonus Trail, which is a square trail with twenty-four stops. A single reel is spun to reveal the number of squares around the board the player can move forward. A graphic pint of lager (called the Coolant Level) is gradually emptied with each spin, so the aim is to get as far as you can around the trail before it's empty, or land on a feature you fancy collecting on. The big payout happens if you make it to the final square marked 'Curry Go-Round', which delivers a 500x multiplier of your original stake. Other bonus features that players can collect on are:

Spice-o-Meter - a 'cash ladder' style game with a click stop to win a multiplier of between 1x and 80x your original wager.

Bhaji Bonus - the player returns to the main reels and a guaranteed winning combination is awarded.

Rogan Dosh - again the player returns to the main game's reels and click-stops to select one of the symbols as they are lit consecutively on the three stationary reels. The player then clicks again to stop the light as it cycles around the three visible symbols on that selected reel. That final selected symbol is then spun up on the Win Line for all three reels, paying out the appropriate reward.

Belt Buster - the player is returned to the reels where a sequence of winning combinations is spun up. The player has a random period of time within which they can choose to collect one of this wins, before the game is ended and one automatically chosen for them.

Vindaloot - back on the main reels, a sequence of wins are shown on the reels and the awards accumulated into a final multiplier.

Chicken Ticker - the main reels are spun in slow motion, during which the player must aim to stop them when a desirable combination is sitting on the Win Line.

We have to say that this fruit machine curried much favour with us, delivering all the classic elements of a top- notch fruit machine with a generous helping of bonus round fun, which seemed to trigger at pretty regular intervals. Some of the curry puns are a bit laboured for our taste, but don't let that put you off feasting on the excellent features this fruit machine serves up.

Type	Three Reel Single Payline Online Fruit Machine
Reel Features	Nudge Nudge Peek Hold
Coin Sizes	Min: 10p - Max: £10
Jackpot	500x Stake
Bonus Features	Bonus Trail Feature.
Free Play Mode?	YES
Software	Microgaming - No Download Required