There’s lots to enjoy about Twinkle, from the smooth gameplay through to the well thought-out theme. To understand why we like it so much have a ready of our in-depth review.
Special Features
There are a number of special features that come into play during Twinkle, so it’s always a good idea to have a read of how they work so that you’re not surprised when you play the game itself. Here we’ll talk you through each of them, letting you know what you need to do when they happen:
Twinkle
Wilds
Twinkle is essentially Tinker Bell by a name that doesn’t cause the makers of the game problems with copyright. If you see her land on your reels then they’re going to be useful for one of two things and we’ll explain the second one in a moment. The first one is that she’ll be acting as a Wild, substituting in for any symbol on the reels apart from the Jar. The good news is that any prize you win featuring a Twinkle Wild will pay double.
Free Spins
As we mentioned when talking about the Wilds, Twinkle symbols have more than one purpose. As well as being said Wilds they can also trigger some Free Spins for you, depending on how many you land. One or two and they’ll merely be Wilds, but get three or more on your active pay lines and they’ll start of a selection of Free Spins, with the number dictated by how many of the symbols you’ve got.
If you have three Twinkle symbols then you’ll be on the receiving end of fifteen Free Spins, whilst four Twinkles means twenty Free Spins. The most Twinkles you can get on an active pay line is five, which will see you get twenty-five Free Spins in return. The Spins will involve the same number of active lines and the same stake as the one that triggered them, plus you can get more Free Spins during the Free Spin game. You can re-trigger Free Spins up to fifteen times, which is nice because prizes are tripled when won during a Free Spin.
Jar Scatter Free Pick Feature
If you land three or more Jar Scatters anywhere on your active pay lines then you’re in luck – you’ll have triggered the Free Pick feature. For every Jar symbol on your lines you’ll get a Free Pick of a Jar from the pirate ship. Each Jar will contain a prize of up to one-hundred times your stake amount, meaning that there’s the possibility during the Jar Scatter Free Pick Feature of winning up to five-hundred times your stake. Worth bearing in mind when you come to think about how much money to play with!
Gamble Bonus
You might well have encountered the Gamble Bonus on a different slot game, given that it’s becoming more and more popular. It is triggered randomly and involves you being presented with the opportunity to double the winnings from your last spin – or take away nothing. You’ll be given two options of things that might be revealed and if you guess which one it is you double your money. You’ll keep being asked until you’ve guessed correctly five times, you’ve pressed the ‘Take Win’ button, your next win would see your prize money go over £32,000 or you’ve guessed incorrectly.
Gameplay & RTP
There’s plenty to really like about Twinkle, starting with the game’s visuals. It looks absolutely fantastic, set on the deck of a pirate ship in the middle of a gorgeous looking ocean. The colour scheme is all about purples, golds and oranges, lending it the appearance of a game taking place at twilight in some fairy tale land. The reels are located inside an embossed golden rectangle, whilst the foreground of the game sees the ropes and handrails of the boat and the background features brightly shining stars. The symbols that may come up on the reels are the sort of things you’d expect to see if you know much about pirate stories, such as a Barrel, an Anchor, a Map and a Compass. The theme is also present in the ‘Win’ and ‘Bet’ boxes at the top of the screen thanks to the stars that surround them and the look of papyrus beneath the golden ‘wire’ that surrounds it. The soundscape of the game is a little bit boring, given that not much happens. The sound of something a little bit magical wouldn’t have gone amiss for those of us that like to play with our speakers turned up.
As is often the case with slot games, its the gameplay itself that will dictate whether or not you feel like coming back for more. On that front we don’t think you’ll be disappointed, given that the game is new enough for the ‘under-the-hood’ system to cope with the graphics. As the reels spin there is a slight blurring of them, but this is intentional rather than because the game is too old to cope. It really is only slight, too, meaning that you’ll be able to make out the symbols as they spin around if you really want to. The mini-games within the main Twinkle experience are all good fun, with the Jar Scatter Free Pick Feature being particularly interesting. If you land a Jar on an early reel then there’ll be a degree of tension as you’re waiting to see if one lands on the next reel. If it doesn’t there’ll be a disappointing thump, but if it does then the tension will go up a gear. The game itself is decent, taking you off to the inside of the pirate ship and presenting you with numerous Jars with fairies inside. You click the ones you want to select and Twinkle will blow some fairy dust on them, revealing the Multiplier amount of your prize.
The Free Spins Feature is also decent, especially as you can win differing amounts of Free Spins depending on how many of the Twinkle Scatters you get on your reels. The fact that they also act as Wilds if they don’t trigger the Free Spins means that any disappointment you might feel at not getting to play some free games is tempered somewhat. Having said all of that, the Return To Player average is what will dictate whether or not many of you even give this game the time of day. Because a decent chunk of Virtue Fusion powered games have an RTP average of around 94%, it’s entirely fair to say that Twinkle fairs better than all of them on that front. 95.289% might seem like a random figure, but the most important points is that it’s higher than 94% and closer to the dream of 98% that you’ll find with the best games out there. If you’re the sort of player that allows an RTP average to sway you into playing one slot over the other then hopefully Twinkle’s will be high enough for you to give it a go – you’ll be missing out if you don’t.