Do you need your slot games to have a crazily high RTP if you’re going to play it, or will the gameplay itself be enough for you? Read our review of Life of Leisure to figure out if you’ll be tempted to give it a whirl.
Special Features
Slot play is similar regardless of the theme of the game, with the thing that sets each one apart being the special features that the game boasts. Here’s a look at the ones you’ll encounter when playing Life of Leisure:
Wilds
The Life of Leisure Wild can crop up at any point. They’ll replace any symbol that’s landed on your reel apart from the Scatters that will send you into bonus game. Get three or more Wilds on the same Win line and you’ll get a prize, with five in a row paying out a decent amount depending on your stake.
The Path of Plenty Bonus Round
Hit a Bonus Scatter on reels one, three and five and you’ll find yourself playing the Path of Plenty bonus game. It’s nice and simply to enjoy this one, merely being asked to roll an electronic die in order to find out how many spaces along the path you’ll move.
If you end up on a special square then you’ll benefit from one of several different scenarios. The Cash square does exactly what it says on the tin, with Travel moving you further along the path. You’ll keep going until you hit a Collect square, so the one you’ll want to watch out for the most is the Mini Game square that will see you play one of five Mini Games. Here’s the Mini Games you could end up playing:
House Mini Game
This mini game involves you renovating your house, with each room you’re able to do up seeing you rewarded with a cash prize. Keep going with your renovation works and you’ll keep earning money, up until the point that you see a ‘Continue’ on the screen, at which point your mini game will come to an end.
Golf Mini Game
How far can you hit a golf ball? That’s the question you’ll be asking of your character in the game, hoping that the answer is ‘very far indeed’. The further you’re able to hit it, the more money you’re going to be paid. A simple mini game but one that can see a decent prize entering your account.
Beach Mini Game
Have you got a favourite child? You won’t say it out loud but you probably have. Is there one that can build a really good sandcastle? Again, that’s what you’ll be hoping for here because you’ll need to choose a child to sit in the sand and build themselves a castle. The better the castle is the more money you’re going to get paid out.
Skiing Mini Game
Skiing is a tricky activity at the best of times, but it’s even harder when you add a trick into the equation. In the Skiing Mini Game you’ll be given the choice of three different tricks, winning cash prizes for each successful stunt that the skier is able to perform. The game will keep going until the skier gets one of the tricks wrong.
Shopping Mini Game
Everyone loves hitting the shops when they’ve got some disposal income to get rid of, don’t they? You’ll love it even more in the Shopping Mini Game, thanks to the fact that each package you choose from the shop will see you receive some cash in return. Keep giving packages to your porter and the game will keep going until he can’t take any more and drops them all.
Wheel of Wealth
This is technically still part of the Path of Wealth, thanks to the fact that you’ll only enter this game if you reach the end of the Path of Wealth. Get here, though, and you’ll be poised to win some money that reflects the size of your stake.
Say your stake is the minimum of 20p, you’ll be able to win from £5 through to the jackpot, whilst if you’ve staked the maximum of £100 then the least you’ll win from your Wheel of Wealth spin is £2,500, going all the way up to £250,000 before the jackpot.
Free Spins
Get a Free Spin symbol on reels three, four and five and you’ll be rewarded with ten Free Spins. The fun doesn’t stop there, though, as you’ll also be able to get Bonus Scatters during the Free Spin phase. Get three or more Bonus Scatters and you’ll head off to the Path of Plenty, returning afterwards to complete your Free Spins.
You’ll also be able to win ten more Free Spins if you get three or more Free Spins symbols. The real joy of this comes in the fact that that could keep going until you’ve received seven hundred Free Spins! The Line Stake of the Free Spins will be determined by the stake on the line that received the Free Spin symbols in the first place.
Wheel of Wealth Progressive Jackpot
The more observant amongst you will have noticed a reference to a ‘Jackpot’ when we were discussing the Wheel of Wealth earlier. That’s because one of the twelve slices on the Wheel of Wealth that your spin could see you land on is labelled ‘Jackpot’.
Hit it and you’ll be rewarded by winning the Progressive Jackpot, which could see you win up to five-thousand times your stake. If you want to win the full amount, of course, then you’ll need to make sure that you’ve staked the highest possible amount.
Gameplay & RTP
The Return To Player amount is a bit disappointing at 92%, so you might want to think twice before jumping on board the game. That’s definitely on the low end of the scale, though not the lowest RTP we’ve seen by any stretch of the imagination. Other games tend to average out at about 94%, but there are some that can get as high as 98% if how much money you’re going to get back is one of the things that matters to you the most. Instead of getting hooked up on the RTP, it’s usually far more useful to consider whether or not you actually like the gameplay involved. After all, the leap from a 92% game like Life of Leisure to a 94% alternative isn’t great, but the difference in fun you can have paying certain games can make all the difference.
On that front, Life of Leisure is likely to win a few admirers. One of the first places to start is with the game’s theme and whether or not it’s consistent throughout your playing time. The entire game is full of vibrant colours that are suggestive of an exciting and joyful lifestyle. The reels sit in front of two cartoon characters that seem to be living the life of Riley, including a woman driving an expensive looking cartoon car out of a big house and a man looking as though he’s just come back from a restful holiday. Even buttons such as ‘Spin’ have a colourful sparkle to them that add to the game’s joy de vivre. Symbols made up of things like a man painting a house, someone jumping into a pool or popping a bottle of champagne complete the look of the game.
Of course how something looks is rarely, if ever, a deciding factor for most players. It can given you an indication of whether the game’s theme has been carried through from concept to completion, but it’s the gameplay that will tell you whether you want to keep coming back for more. In that sense Life of Leisure continues to please, thanks to reels that spin quickly and smoothly and special features that are suggestive of an easy life. From the Path of Plenty, where you simply roll a dice and hopefully collect some cash prizes, through to the Wheel of Wealth, the side games are easy to play but interesting enough. That stretches to the mini games you may encounter on the Path of Plenty too, with the Life of Leisure constantly feeling like it’s a game full of promise.