Recall the year 1862 and the Battle of Puebla in Mexico, when General Ignacio Zaragoza led a small, ill armed force to victory over a much larger, better-equipped French army. A festival named Cinco de Mayo (the Fifth of May) continues to honor this morale-boosting win to this day. Surprisingly, a stronger French force beat the Mexican army and allowed the invaders to capture Mexico City in the second Battle of Puebla. Play’n GO, a software company, has created an online slot game based on the event called Puebla Parade, but it seems that nobody cares about the rematch.
It’s easy to see why slot machine makers have gravitated toward Mexican culture. It’s an opportunity for developers to jazz things up with bolder hues, livelier music, and symbols depicting seasonal cheer. All of this is presented on an enlargable game grid in Puebla Parade, with festively themed background graphics. Although Puebla Parade is not a slot that delves deeply into its topic, it is visually appealing and encourages players to get the party started by clicking the spin button.
Puebla Parade is played on a 5-reel, 4-row game panel, but the grid may stretch up to 7 rows high, resulting in 421 paylines. Pay lines run from left to right across the grid, and winning combinations consist of three to five identical symbols. Playable on all devices with coin sizes ranging from 5 p/c to £/€100, Puebla Parade has a high volatility (7. The machine’s RTP may be viewed by clicking the ‘info’ button in the lower left corner. Its maximum RTP is 96.2%, although this can be reduced to as low as 84.2% for certain markets.
The paytable, designed by Play’n GO, is a riot of color and features 11 standard pay symbols, a wild, and no scatters. The lowest paying royal flush is a flush with aces, which returns 0.6 times the wager for a full house. A winning line of five premium symbols is worth between 0.8 and 4 times the stake. These symbols include chips and dip, tacos, guitars, skulls, and piatas.
Puebla Parade Slot Game Mechanics
Since Puebla Parade lacks both scatter and bonus symbols, the excitement must come from the wild symbols. Actually, there are not one but two wilds: a Seorita Wild and a Seor Wild. Wilds can initially be used in place of any other pay symbol to help finish off winning lines. They can appear on any reel and contribute to their own winning lines, which are valued the same as the game’s top premium symbol.
Respins
Two re-spins are awarded when a Seorita Wild and a Seor Wild appear. During re-spins and free-spins, sticky Wilds can move across the screen. If another wild appears during a respin, the count will go back to 2. During respins, if the Seorita Wild and Seor Wild join forces, they are known as a Pareja Wild. The height of the reels is increased by one position when a Pareja Wild is formed, up to a maximum of seven rows.
Bonus Turns
The maximum number of Pareja Wilds that can appear during a respin is 3. When you make three Pareja Wilds, you get eight bonus spins. During the bonus round, the Pareja Wilds are enhanced to x3 multipliers, and they can appear anywhere on the reels.
Slot Verdict at the Puebla Carnival
Some people are concerned that Cinco de Mayo is being appropriated by non-Mexicans because of its growing popularity outside of Mexico. If you are in this group and worry that the Puebla Parade may become commercialized, you may choose to skip it. If you’re not into Mexican culture, don’t worry; Puebla Parade has just as much going on as any other slot machine with a similar theme. The game has a lively atmosphere and features several symbols that are common in slot machine representations of Mexico. Relax and let loose with some Jarabe Tapatio thanks to Puebla Parade.
There is nothing overly complex about the game that may get in the way. To win free games, all you have to do is line up three Pareja Wilds, which happen when the two wild characters fall next to one other and start dancing. Puebla Parade may appeal to players who enjoyed games like The Invisible Man, Bison Battle, or even Wild Toro due to their use of a similar “clash of symbols” mechanic. It’s really straightforward, maybe too basic, but the multipliers make up for it. Even more so when the Pareja Wild dancers that triggered the free spins remain in play throughout the bonus round and their multipliers are boosted from x2 to x3. While Play’n GO slots aren’t exactly jam-packed with potential, Puebla Parade nevertheless packs a decent 5,000x the stake at maximum wagers.
The good points about Puebla Parade much outweigh the few bad ones. Not the greatest bash ever, but fans of Mexico and the Caribbean should have no problem finding anything of interest at Puebla Parade.