Xploding Pumpkinsby Gamomat

It’s that time of the year when the ghouls and ghosts come out to play and carved pumpkins flash their toothy smiles at children who are going out trick-or-treating.

Yes, Halloween will be soon upon us (or depending on when you’re reading this it could have already passed) and that means all the software companies are racing to put out their own Halloween-themed game.

Here’s an effort coming from the team at Gamomat and it’s all about one of the most important aspects of any Halloween celebration – carved pumpkins.

Theme

It’s really long overdue to get a celebration of the humble pumpkin. Other Halloween mainstays like vampires and werewolves have all gotten the slot treatment by various game studios.

Yet the carved pumpkin, without which it just doesn’t feel like Halloween, has been left in the corner.

No more, as this game finally puts it front and center. It’s all about the pumpkin here, all the time.

While there are other symbols in the game, the low paying ones are standard slot fruits, it’s the pumpkin who gets to be the wild and an exploding wild at that.

High paying symbols…

…are a bloody bunch of grapes, a watermelon with a suspicious bone in its center, and a bandaged lucky 7. Somebody really did a number on these symbols, so better beware as there is clearly a monster on the loose.

When it comes to graphics, it’s all bats and graveyards and dark blues and deep purples. Perfect for capturing that spooky vibe that this time of year is all about.

Betting Options and Functions

The monster-filled nightmare is taking place across a 5x3 board with ten active and fixed paylines. The minimum bet is only 10 cents while the max is 6 euros which is a lot less than what we’ve been used to with the newer crop of games coming out these days.

There are not many other options offered aside from the turbo spin which cuts down on animation time between spins. There is an auto-play option but without any additional settings like stop conditions or the number of automatic games to be played. Another thing is that when a win happens on autoplay the punters cannot access the game’s gamble modes.

Special Features

There are many Halloween-themed games out there, so it’s important to offer something unique in order to stand out.

Has Xploding Pumpkins succeeded? Not quite.

The only real special feature is the exploding wild symbol which is the titular pumpkin. Any time it lands on the reels it will explode and turn the surrounding fields into more wilds.

And this is the only feature in the game, aside from the two gamble features (card color guessing and ladder gamble) which present in almost all Gamomat titles.

Our Take

It’s hard to escape the feeling that the developer just didn’t try very hard. With the only special feature and graphics on the generic side, there’s nothing here that stands out. One of the main values of the Halloween celebration is excess and extravagance and there’s none of that here.