Retro Sweets

Retro Sweets Slot Review

Slot Provider: Push Gaming

RTP: 96.49% | Variance: High | Maximum Win: 10,000x

Our Score: 8.0

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About Retro Sweets

Reviewed by:

Published Date: 22nd April 2024

How We Review Slot Games

We test and rate all slot games across 5 criteria, assigning a score out of 10 for each and an overall score that is an average of the 5. To build an accurate assessment of each game we gather information from the supplier and play in real play or demo mode. Find out more.

Retro Sweets is a feature-packed cluster pays slot from Push Gaming, played on a 6 reel, 9 row grid. Alongside pay symbols are instant prize ones with values of up to 1,000x. Instant Prize multipliers of up to 10x can instantly boost those values. Sweet Collectors magnetically attract symbols to form clusters and Wild Candys complete them. In the free spins round Instant Prize symbols lock in place for the round giving you the chance to create huge clusters before a bumper payout at the end. Top win is 10,000x and spins start at 10p.

Retro Sweets Game Information

  • RTP: 96.49% | 95.42% | 94.42% | 90.46% | 88.41%
  • Variance: High
  • Maximum Win: 10,000x
  • Progressive Jackpot: No
  • Reels: 6
  • Rows: 9
  • Paylines: Cluster Pays
  • Minimum Stake: £0.10
  • Theme: Sweets
  • Features: Cascading Wins, Wilds, Multipliers, Sweet Collectors, Instant Prize Symbols, Free Spins

Testing Notes: Here’s What Happened When We Played Retro Sweets

IMPORTANT: To give you an accurate assessment of the games we review our writers play 200 spins. Whilst this is a useful tool to help us review games and to give an example of what might happen when you play, keep in mind that 200 spins is only a very small sample and cannot be used to accurately predict what might happen over another 200 spins. The outcome of all slots play is always random.

Boom Or Bust? Our Session By The Numbers

I played 200 spins on Retro Sweets on Push Gaming’s test server prior to release to test the game. This is what happened.

  • Stake Size: 1
  • Start balance: 1,000
  • End balance: 1,067.1
  • Win Rate: 30% (60 winning spins in 200)
  • Biggest Win: 95x
  • Free Spins Round: 2

Like all Push Gaming slots, Retro Sweets had a really slick feel to it. It’s fun to play, moving at  a fast pace, and for a high volatility slot it had a surprisingly high win rate at 30% – 60 of my 200 spins produced a win of some kind. The best base game wins came when the Wild Candy multipliers grew, powered-up by the Wild Multiplier symbols.

Retro Sweets Free Spins Round Win
On the way to a 95x win in the free spins round with a big cluster at the bottom of the grid

The highlights were the two free spins rounds. The second produced a 95x win thanks to 13 instant prize symbols and wilds brought together by a Collector on one of the final spins. You can see that in the screenshot. This is the best chance to score big wins.  The Collectors, if positioned in the right place, can add big value to existing clusters by pulling in more instant win prizes. And if you combine that with a few wild multipliers, the payouts can soar.

What We Liked

  • Big Instant Prize Symbol values of up to 1,000x
  • Powerful Sweet Collectors draw clusters together
  • Multipliers power-up the Instant Prize values
  • Nicely produced with excellent graphics and soundtrack
  • Cascading Wins extend the payouts from every winning spin

What We Didn't like

  • Low RTP at some sites

Retro Sweets Review Scores

  • Theme and Design 8
  • RTP and Variance 8
  • Maximum Win 7
  • Symbols and Paytable 8
  • Features and Gameplay 9

What Our Reviewer Says ...

"Superb cluster pays action that will produce some dramatic payouts in the style of Jammin Jars and Retro Tapes from the same developer!"

Overall Score: 8.0

Theme & Design

Our Score 8

A Nostalgic Setting For This Feature-Fuelled Cluster Pays Game

Retro Sweets is a follow-on from Push’s November 2022 release, Retro Tapes, which based its theme around the classic magnetic tapes used to record music back in the 80s. Retro Sweets is similarly nostalgic, with classic sweets in wrappers packing out the paytable, and a 60s diner providing the backdrop, a ghetto-blaster sitting on one of the booth’s tables, and the whole scene bathed in a purplish-pink light. The soundtrack is a nice 80-s style electro one, completing the journey back in time. It feels quite chilled, not unlike the feeling you get from Hacksaw’s Vending Machine, though the volatility here means the experience is quite different.

Retro Sweets by Push Gaming
Retro Sweets – 60’s Diner-style nostalgia

RTP and Variance

Our Score 8

What is RTP?

RTP (Return to Player) refers to the amount a game will pay out in cash prizes expressed as a percentage of all the money wagered on that game. For example, a 96% RTP means a game will pay out £96 for every £100 wagered. This is an average number and will vary from one session to the next.  Read more here.

What is Variance?

Variance refers to how far a game will deviate from its RTP over time. High variance games deviate a lot and produce uneven win distributions and unexpected windfalls. Low variance games provide a more stable and even distribution of wins. Read more here.

Retro Sweets has five RTP rates – 96.49%, 95.42%, 94.42%, 90.46% and 88.41%. Your slot site operator can choose to run the game at any of these settings and I recommend finding one that sets the game to 96.49%. MrQ from Lindar Media consistently runs slots at the optimum settings and makes a good choice. You can check the RTP for yourself wherever you play by hitting the hamburger button on the top right of the game screen, then the ‘?’ button at the bottom of the pop-out. Scroll through until you see ‘Return to Player’.

This is also a high variance slot so it will have an uneven win distribution and it’s a good idea to set your stake to a low setting to ride out those dry spells whilst chasing down the big moments.

Maximum Win

Our Score 7

What Is Maximum Win?

Maximum win refers to the maximum amount a player can win from one spin. It is expressed as a multiple of the stake. For example, where the maximum win is 100,000x, from a £1 stake, the maximum win would be £100,000.  

The maximum payout in Retro Sweets is 10,000x. That isn’t bad – you can win £10,000 from just a £1 bet. If you like that and what to find much bigger potential from the same studio then check out our list of Push slots with the highest max wins.

Symbols and Paytable

Our Score 8

The Retro Sweets game grid is big with 6 reels, each displaying 9 rows of symbols. It is a cluster pays game so you need to be landing 5 or more identical symbols on adjacent positions, horizontally or vertically, to score wins. With so many positions on the grid there is the chance to build really big clusters.

Retro Sweets Paytable
Retro Sweets paytable with 500x for 17 or more red sweets

There are six paying sweets in the paytable. They are the purple, blue, green, pink, orange and red ones, valued at from 0.1x for 5 purples up to 500x for 17 or more reds.

There is also a multi-colored Wild Candy symbol that substitutes for all pay symbols to complete clusters. It starts with a 1x multiplier which grows by 1x each time it is involved in a winning cluster.

Features and Gameplay

Our Score 9

Retro Sweets is packed with features that create some really exciting gameplay. Here is how it all works:

Cascading Wins

First of all, this game uses the classic Cascading Wins mechanic. After each win, winning symbols are removed from the grid, existing ones drop down to fill the spaces, and new ones drop in from above to complete the grid once more. If more wins are created, then the process repeats. And so on, until no more wins occur.

Wild Multiplier

Look out for the Wild multiplier, shaped like a multi-colored candy bomb. It carries a multiplier of 1x, 2x, 3x or 5x. When it lands it distributes that value to any visible Wild Candy symbols before transforming into an instant prize symbol with a random value.

Instant Prize Symbols

These are different colored symbols that display bet multiplier values of 1x, 2x, 5x, 10x, 25x, 50x, 100x, 250x, 500x or 1,000x. If they land as a cluster of 5 then the prize value is paid out.

Instant Prize Multiplier 

Just like the Wild Multiplier, the Instant Prize Multiplier has a value of 2x, 5x or 10x. This one applies its value to all Instant Prize symbols in view before transforming into another Instant Prize symbol itself.

Sweet Collector

The Sweet Collector is the letter ‘C’. It works like a magnet, attracting identical pay symbols from across the grid to form a cluster around it. It can do the same with Instant Prize symbols if 4 or more are visible. It can drawn in anywhere between 4 and 9 symbols in this way and it can attract Wilds too to help complete the clusters.

Once a cluster is created by the collector it transforms into the matching pay symbol or an Instant Prize symbol.

Cluster Links

Look out for the Cluster Links too. For these to trigger you need to land a specified number of Instant Prizes in a cluster. These clusters and enhancements can bring up big wins. 

Up To 12 Free Spins

Wild Candy symbols don’t just help to complete clusters. When 3 or more land on one spin, then the free spins feature is triggered like this:

  • 3 Wild Candy – 6 free spins
  • 4 Wild Candy – 8 free spins
  • 5 Wild Candy – 10 free spins
  • 6 Wild Candy – 12 free spins

At the start of the round, any Wild Candy and Instant Prize symbols stick in place from the triggering spin. And for each spin, the remaining positions on the grid display any of the following symbols:

  • Instant Prize – locks in place for the rest of the feature
  • Instant Prize Multiplier – applies its value to any visible Instant Prizes
  • Wild Candy – completes clusters
  • Wild Multiplier – applied to any Wild Candy on the grid
  • Extra Spin – gets you 1 or 2 more spins before transforming into an Instant Prize symbol
  • Sweet Collector – picks out pay symbols, instant prize symbols and wilds not yet involved in a cluster and attracts them around it
  • Blanks – do not pay out

Instant Prize cluster payouts are only calculated and paid out at the end of the round. As these symbols stick throughout, that means there is potential to build some really nice wins.

The Final Verdict

Retro Sweets is another excellent grid slot from Push Gaming, capable of producing dramatic moments thanks to its clever mix of Instant Win symbols with those multipliers and collectors. The base game ticks along very nicely, with a surprisingly good win rate, but it’s the free spins round that’s got potential to create the best moments where the massive game grid can fill with big clusters of high value symbols drawn together by collectors and powered-up by Candy Wild multipliers. Top stuff!

Useful Tips When Playing Retro Sweets

Remember, online slots are games of chance, there is NO strategy that can improve your odds of winning. However, reading our review and following these tips will help you get the most out of your time playing this slot game.

1. Watch Out For Multiplier Symbols

Keep your eyes out for those multiplier symbols which are powerful in boosting the value of your Instant Win symbols AND your Candy Wilds. They can help produce some of the best wins.

2. Keep Your Eyes Out For Collectors Too

Next to the multipliers, the Sweet Collectors are the most powerful features of this game. They can do amazing things when they pull any symbols into a cluster, particularly when adding Candy Wild Multipliers too. They are represented by the letter C.

3. Make Sure You Check The RTP Rate

Before you play anywhere, check the RTP rate on the game info screen. As a rule, if its less than 94% then I recommend you try somewhere else. A low RTP reduces your chances of coming away with a positive balance.

4. Play At Our Recommended Slot Sites

We have chosen the sites on this page because they scored high in our reviews and they are all licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. That makes them fair, safe and secure. Never play at unlicensed sites.

Who Made Retro Sweets?

  • Name: Push Gaming
  • Established: 2010
  • UK License: 54984
  • Total Games: 30 +
  • Known For: High variance grid slots, smart artwork, high max win slots
  • Popular Slots: Big Bamboo, Mad Cars, Razor Returns, Fat Rabbit
Find More Push Gaming slots

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