5 Reel Circus

Now here is a blast from the past if there ever was one!

In simpler times, circuses seemed to have a simpler line-up. You had animals performing funny tricks for the crowd, death-defying stunt performers who shot themselves out of canons and walked tightropes to the gasps and shrieks of the crowd, the occasional contortionist and magical act, and, to top it all off, a clown that would take the stage and make people roar with laughter. Usually, people have to pay to see such an impressive show, but this slot lets you enjoy it from the comforts of your home while giving you a chance of walking away with some awesome wins!

Rival Gaming’s 5 Reel Circus, as the name implies, is set in one of those old-timey circus shows which used to be really popular when we were younger. The game was released all the way back in 2006, making it positively ancient by today’s standards! Sadly, it did not age gracefully, as one look at the reels will show you what a massive leap we have gone through in these thirteen years.

Symbols are quite simplistic and downright blurry, any animations except the reels spinning are rudimentary at best, and the user interface is clearly designed to be similar to a physical machine, because it actually was one, rather than doing it for the style. We also feel we should recommend turning off sound. What is supposed to be happy cheering and laughing sounds forced and sinister, and the title’s music choice does not help one bit to dissuade us from that! We were unable to find any official information on the slot’s volatility.

There’s actually a reason we wanted to review this particular slot. We’re here now discussing the simplisticness of it. A lot of people like that! They yearn for the slots of yesterday! On the off chance that you’re not one of those people and you’d like to play some more “modern” or animated slots, take a look at BigSpin Casino! They’ll have you covered with all of the 3-d animations and flashy colors you desire!

Blast Away!

5 Reel Circus is played on a 5×3 playing field with 15 flexible paylines. That means you can turn off some or all paylines to lower your minimum bet, at the price of decreasing your winning chances, as a result. The RTP for this game is 95.56%, which is slightly below the current industry standard. By adjusting the number of coins on each payline, the number of active paylines and the coin value itself, players can set their wagers between $0.01 up to $75 per spin.

Rival Gaming’s releases, even as far back as 2006, had Autoplay available for gamblers to use, sparing them the trouble of constantly tapping away at the spin button themselves. You will only be able to use it if you are playing for real money, so if you decided to try a demo version first, you will have to spam click the spin button yourself.

Pays are granted when you collect three or more identical symbols on adjacent positions, from left to right, following one of the active paylines. Scatters are exempt from this rule, and can grant their pays from any position. The most valuable symbol is the tiger Wild, followed by the human cannonball, the magician, then the clown, then the bearded lady, carriage and contortionist, followed by the lion, then the bear on a scooter, and finally, an elephant and seal performing tricks are the lowest paying icons. Two clowns greeting you in front of the circus is the Scatter, which is mostly used to grant free spins, with minor cash prizes.

Simpler Times, Simple Bonuses

Collect three, four or five Scatters to win ten free spins. It is possible to re-trigger this special feature and win ten more extra turns by collecting three or more Scatters while the bonus is already active. During free spins, all wins are multiplied by 3x. Finally, four or five Scatters grant a cash prize, adding even more value to triggering free spins.