Pinata Popper Dream Drop

Theme and Design

Typically Bright And Upbeat Production In This Mexican Party Slot

The artwork in this game flip-flops between being a little too stereotypical and being nothing short of brilliant. The pay symbols are on the former half of that, with sombreros, tequila, chilli peppers and tacos making up the bulk of the table. However, the background and bonus round graphics are much more creative. You play the base game looking out over the hazy rooftops of Mexico City at nighttime before being transported to the Chichen Itza for the bonus round. 

You’ve got to hand it to the graphics team here, they’ve done an excellent job. Better still, with the addition of mariachi music in the background and the brilliantly animated piñatas. Sure, there are a bunch of other great Mexico-themed slots, like Hot Fiesta and Hot Pepper, both by Pragmatic Play, but with artwork this fun, there’s room for one more at this fiesta.

RTP and Variance

With an RTP of 94% this online slot is on the lower side, but not particularly low for a slot that offers a progressive jackpot this generous. It’s also worth noting that 12% of every spin goes directly to the jackpot pool. If you still don’t like the RTP, you can also forego your shot at the progressive jackpot for an improved 96.14% RTP instead.

Like most of Relax Gaming’s Dream Drop slots, the variance of this game is high. If you’re after a title with a lower variance and a chance to shoot for that progressive jackpot then Temple of Fury Dream Drop is a great choice.

Maximum Win

Pinata Popper Dream Drop has a non-progressive max win of up to 10,000x. This is about the average for the Dream Drops games, but if you’re looking for something higher you could try Dueling Jokers Dream Drop with a massive 50,000x non-progressive max win - and that same cluster pays mechanic. 

The progressive jackpot seriously adds to the interest. The Mega Dream Drops jackpot seeds at €500,000 and doesn’t pay out until it hits at least a million. Plus, there’s no minimum bet to play for the progressive jackpot, giving even the £0.20 per spin players a chance to win big.

Symbols and Paytable

Pinata Popper has a generously sized grid of 7 rows by 7 reels. You can make your wins using the cluster pays mechanic. This works by connecting any matching pay symbols vertically or horizontally next to each other, with a minimum of 5 symbols and a maximum of 45.

The paytable with this game is a bit of a monster, with the potential to land up to 45 matching symbols! There are 8 different pay symbols, plus a Piñata and a Bonus symbol that we’ll come onto in a bit. The low value symbols are the card suits, valued at 0.1x the bet for 5x symbols, up to 200x the bet for 45x symbols. The high paying symbols are the taco, tequila, sombrero, and chilli pepper. The chilli is the highest of all valued at 1x the bet for 5x symbols up to 1000x the bet for 45x symbols.

The Piñata symbol awards re-spins and explodes, revealing other symbols in the marked positions. The Bonus symbol unlocks the bonus round, but only if at least three land on the reels at once.

Features and Gameplay

While most players are here for the Dream Drop jackpot, the Piñata feature is pretty nifty and the bonus game is fun too, let’s take a look at them in more detail.

Piñata Re Spins

The lack of a Wild symbol in this game might seem a little disappointing until you work out the Piñata mechanic! 

When at least one of these symbols lands it triggers a respin and is held in place. The respins continue for as long as the piñatas keep landing. Once the piñatas have finished landing, the respins end and one final spin is awarded. Before they come to a stop, all of those ‘stuck’ piñatas explode revealing a symbol in all of the positions around them, as follows: 

• Blue Piñata – reveals symbols diagonally
• Green Piñata – reveals symbols horizontally and vertically 
• Red Piñata – reveals symbols all around it
• Orange Piñata – reveals a multiplier of x2 to x5. Orange. These only appear in the bonus round.

Bonus Game

This hold & win style bonus round is triggered when you collect at least three of the B scatter symbols. They can only land on reels 3, 4, and 5, but won’t land at all in the bonus round. 

Once the round starts you’re whisked away to the Chichen Itza where you get three free spins in which only blanks or piñatas can land. Each time a piñata lands it stays in place and the free spins counter resets to three. 

Once the spin count ends, all piñatas explode revealing the symbols in the directions shown above. You get a +1 multiplier for each symbol that has an overlapping piñata. The final multiplier value adds together every visible multiplier and is applied to the total win of the round.

Dream Drop Bonus

The Dream Drop Bonus round can trigger at any moment. When it does, you’re given a screen with 15 skulls that you need to click one at a time. As soon as you match three jackpots underneath the skulls, you find out what you win. The seed values for each jackpot option are shown below. 

• Rapid (seeded at €1)
• Midi (seeded at €5)
• Maxi (seeded at €100)
• Major (seeded at €25,000)
• Mega (seeded at €500,000 with a minimum payout of €1,000,000)