You Lucky Barstard

Terrible puns seem to be the order of the day for Microgaming's online fruit machines. And so it is that we find ourselves reviewing You Lucky Barstard, a fruit machine game that simply features the classic 'bar' symbols on its three reels. And simplicity seems to be the underlying theme with this three reel, single win line game as it's very much a bread and butter example of the online fruit machine genre.

Just five symbols appear on You Lucky Barstard's reels, a yellow bar, red bar, black bar, double black bar and triple black bar. Three-of-a-kind combinations on the win line award the player a multiple of their bet as shown on the paytable to the right of the reel windows. The one exception is the combination of any three of the black bar symbols (which pays 8x your bet) so, for example, spinning up a single, double and triple black bar on the win line will trigger a payout. The big Barstard jackpot possible from this base game is a very tasty 100x your bet if you get the combination of three triple bar symbols lined up. That translates to £1000 if you were brave enough to wager the maximum bet of a tenner on that fortuitous spin.

The extra reel feature's we've come to expect of Microgaming's online fruit machines are all here; Nudge, Hold and Peek Hold. The Nudge feature also comes with randomly activated options that can hold a bank of nudges over to the next spin if you can't make worthwhile use of them on the current stopped reels, repeat Nudge events or offer players a skill stop game to gamble a bank of nudges up to a maximum of four. These extra Nudge features are very welcome as they can really help players convert a worthless combination into one on the paytable.

Beyond the base game, You Lucky Barstard has a cash ladder bonus feature that is activated if a player achieves any three black bar wins in a row. This bonus feature is where the maximum win of 250x your bet can be achieved by skilfully stopping a light sequence on the top segment as it rises and falls on the on-screen cash ladder. The minimum win is 25x your bet, which isn't to be sniffed at, and with extra luck you may get the 'repeater' option giving you a further 50/50 chance to get a second bite at You Lucky Barstard's bonus feature.

You Lucky Barstard is clearly a pretty basic online fruit machine, but therein lies its appeal. If you're looking to play fruit machines online for the very first time, a game like You Lucky Barstard is probably a great choice to start with as it has all the core features of the genre. The probability of activating the bonus feature of this online fruit machine isn't that high - you'll certainly get more chances to play the bonus feature with more advanced games like The Gee Gees and Treasure Ireland - but wins on the base game are pretty frequent so if your thrill is in winning smaller regular payouts rather than hanging out for large jackpots this won't bother you. We personally like to play fruit machine games with a few more bell and whistles than You Lucky Barstard but, that said, it's still a fine fruity and plays 'n' pays in the very pleasing way we've come to expect from Microgaming's casino machines.

Type	Three Reel Single Payline Online Fruit Machine
Reel Features	Nudge Nudge Peek Hold
Coin Sizes	Min: 10p - Max: £10
Jackpot	250x Stake
Bonus Features	Skill Stop Cash Ladder.
Free Play Mode?	YES
Software	Microgaming - No Download Required