Royal Apollo has announced the newest slot game to their impressive array of slots, islots and progressives. This one is Candy Cottage and brings you into a Hansel and Gretel theme where you attempt to fatten up Hansel for the witch. (I found that part amusing.) The game starts with a brief animated scene of the Hansel, Gretel and the witch, then launches you into the slot game itself. This is a five reel, twenty pay line slot with bets from a penny up to a quarter and a maximum bet of ten coins per line. So at the penny minimum setting, you total bet is 2 dollars if you play 20 lines for ten coins.
The graphics here are bright and colorful, like something out of a children’s book. They suit the theme very well. The background is a gingerbread cottage and you’ll be spinning chocolate squares, gum drops, licorice candies, a basket of bread, the witch and of course Hansel and Gretel themselves. If you line up Hansel or Gretel, they’ll even dance across the screen. And the witch’s oven (which looks more like a pot bellied stove) is the expanding wild. However it only appears on reel three, so you lose the advantage that a wild icon brings you on a first reel.
But what you’re look for here is the Gingerbread House or the Cage, both of which offer bonuses. Three or more Gingerbread House icons will give you 10 free spins with a 10X multiplier. Three cages will open the bonus round where you feed Hansel falling candy to fatten him up for the witch (I wasn’t kidding up above). The trick with Hansel is that you can’t catch all the falling candy because he closes his mouth to chew every time he catches a piece. But I found myself tempted to keep playing just for that bonus round.
Now my “up or down” finish evaluation — down. The game is fun to play and yes, I liked the bonus round which kept me playing, but it’s difficult to trigger the bonus round or free spins often enough to make up for the losses on the reels. And that expanding wild on reel three doesn’t help that much. This one will amuse you for a while, but you’ll need to reload or play something else to make up the funds.