Germany’s famed Oktoberfest is a yearly event where thousands of people gathered into the streets to celebrate the country’s long history of brewing some of the best beers in the world.
With 2020’s Oktoberfest cancelled and no word on whether 2021’s celebration will push through, antsy fans would do well to check out Kalamba Games’ release of Beers on Reels, which tries to nail down everything that makes Oktoberfest so beloved around the world.
Leaning in heavily into Oktoberfest’s very German vibe, Beers on Reels populates its 5x3 reel structure with classic event imagery. Picture Oktoberfest in your mind, and you will see many of the reel symbols Kalamba Games uses in this game: grilled bratwursts, pretzels, accordions, and of course, mugs and kegs of beer. The reels also contain the standard playing card symbols (9 to A) to round out the selection.
If you love simple, engaging slots with a festive German beer hall atmosphere, there are few games out there that do it as well as Beers on Reels.
While the graphics are nothing to write home about, we feel that they perfectly fit the chill, homey vibe that Oktoberfest is most known for.
The action here is basic yet effective. Match three symbols from left to right to score a minor win. Garnering five matching symbols in one spin yields you a greater prize. Even newer players will have no trouble catching the action from the first spin.
Beers on Reels is an easy game to learn and play. Much like Oktoberfest, where almost the entire city of Munich becomes an open-air pub, Beers on Reels is unintimidating even for newbies.
There are 40 active paylines for this game. Premium symbols to watch out for are pretzels and accordions. You can also watch for the game’s beer keg symbols, which functions as a wild symbol. This means you can use it to swap into other symbols to form winning combos.
Beers on Reels’ volatility rate is stated as medium to high. In our experience, the game trends more toward the medium volatility scale than the high. We had a surprising amount of hits playing this game, but the wins were always minor.
The RTP of this game is given as 96.18%, though it can go as high as 97.26% in some reports. This is slightly better than the average RTP rates of modern slots, which means you will be able to hit on this game more than average.
Beers on Reels contain a fair amount of bonus features to keep the slots action pumping. While the number of bonus features here does not compare to the ones carried by many of its competitors, Beers on Reels’ features synchronize with each other to maximize fun and profits for players.
The most important bonus feature of the game is its wild symbols. Beers on Reels offers a Wild Column bonus, which can be found in both the base game as well as the bonus game. Beer kegs and a gold coin serve as the two primarily wild symbols here.
When a coin Wild hits reels 1, 3, or 5, they contribute toward a meter that, when filled, transforms the reel into a Wild Column. These Wild Columns stay in place for your next three spins, until the coins run out.
The waitress symbol serves as the scatter symbol, and shows up on reels 2, 3, and 4. Hitting this symbol launches the free spin game that hands out a cash prize of 3x your bet. You get 10 free spins in the bonus game. Hit silver coins during this round to obtain one more free spin.
The most exciting feature of Beers on Reels is undoubtedly the missions. These missions function as “goals”, providing specific targets to hit and rewards for every time you clear your missions.
The biggest mission you can achieve can pay out as much as 1,000x your initial bet.
There is not a lot to say about this game’s auto play feature, other than it works well. Some players simply refuse to use this feature, but we find it to be an extremely convenient way to multi-task.
Simply click on the options bar to set up your auto play session. If and when you want to take the reins, you can simply cancel or amend the session to step right back into the action yourself.
The largest win you can conceivably score here is a whopping 10,000x your initial stake. Of course, this payout is possible only by hitting tons of wilds, so your typical players’ experience will likely not include such massive wins.
Beers on Reels’ max bet size is just 60 coins, which clearly hampers its ability to pay out big enough for high-rollers to notice.
We feel that this game is catered more toward more casual players who probably would stay far away from 60 coin bets.
Kalamba Games is a newer name to us. As a relatively new entrant into the online casino world, we were pleasantly surprised with how polished their game Beers on Reels was. Many new developers feel the need to make a splash with dazzling graphics but don’t put in enough time designing a good slots game underneath all the flash.
Beers on Reels takes the opposite approach. The graphics here are fine enough, but hardly industry-leading. But it works perfectly given the Oktoberfest theme of the game. We definitely look forward to seeing where Kalamba Games goes from here.
Beers on Reels is a great slot for players who enjoy a tightly programmed slot with a homey German beer hall vibe. The game might not be the most exciting out there, but there are few games that nail down the qualities that make the Oktoberfest festival so appealing to people. Beers on Reels offers an uncomplicated fun time, with no hangovers to worry about the next morning.