Bacon, eggs and coffee are a delicious part of Breakfast Slots
by Eric March on August 7, 2009 at 10:45 am
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(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)
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App Name: | Breakfast Slots |
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| Developer: | Candywriter |
Version: | 1.0 | |
| Publisher: | Candywriter |
Size: | 8.9 MB |
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| Category: | Casino Games |
Price: | $1.99 |
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I’ve never been a breakfast person. The only things I want when I get up in the morning are an enormous coffee and my teenage metabolism back. Candywriter seems to want to remind me about that meal which is allegedly the most important one of the day though vis a vis their light-hearted and whimsical take on those Vegas money munchers with the introduction of Breakfast Slots — and I’m a man who can’t say no to bacon.
Breakfast Slots looks like your average 5-reel slot machine on the surface, excepting of course that the reels are plastered with images of coffee, milk, OJ, bacon, eggs, yogurt, fruit, and other morning comestibles. Also like a variety of slot machines, you can play more than one coin at a time to add more paylines to the game and increase your chances of winning. Unlike most slot machines however, those paylines are numerous (there are 20 of them at a quarter a pop, or $5 to play max), they don’t all follow straight lines, and winning lines can consist of more than one combination of items, which is shown on the payout chart that is accessed by swiping down on the screen.
Not that the combinations really matter as it’s all just blind luck anyway; there are no special bonuses like gaining the ability to freeze or nudge reels, so you don’t have to memorize or repeatedly consult the payout chart to line up the best combos. (That may change in future versions, but as of this version those features are not present.) The one combination that you’ll want to be on the lookout for though is three or more cups of coffee. Get those, and we step into the one area where Breakfast Slots tears away from the pack: Bonus rounds.
There are three bonus rounds, and they each take the form of a little mini-game, and the outcome of the mini game will score you more money depending either on how well you perform in the mini-game, or on simple luck. For example, in one mini-game you’re given the task of choosing from one of three oranges, and then dropping that orange into a juicer to make a tall glass of OJ. There doesn’t seem to be any timing or skill involved here, and the money youy get seems simply to depend on which orange you picked.
In another bonus round, you are tasked with picking one of three soft-boiled eggs, and then tapping around the top of your chosen egg to crack it open, presumably because somewhere off-screen you’ve got a row of buttered soldiers to dip. (I’m sure they could have made that into a mini-game) I can’t tell though if it’s your egg-cracking skills that score you cash or if it’s just the luck of the egg you chose.
The third and final bonus round is about timing though. Here you’re tasked with making the perfect pancake. Batter is poured into the pan, and you have to flip it over before the one side burns, and then serve it before the other side burns. A perfect golden pancake scores you the most points, so of course progressively darker flapjacks earn you less.
After each bonus round you get whatever cash you scored plus whatever payout lines contain winning combinations, and you move on. Generally speaking slot machines are fairly boring affairs, with the only user interaction typically involving inserting coins and pulling the lever — or often just pressing a “play max” button, which is what I end up doing. It’s all about dumb luck for the most part, and while you get a cheap thrill out of making a big win, there’s just not a lot to do. Breakfast Slots adds some actual gameplay, even if it’s simplistic stuff, and gives you a particular combination to look forward to scoring for more than just the money.
In fact, I’d really like to see Candywriter expand on the mini-game concept and add a few more of them for extra variety and fun, and maybe add the ability to earn nudges or freezes. The game already has some great graphics and the sound effects are good (though they don’t utilize application volume control, instead using the default which becomes ringer volume on the iPhone — a pet peeve of mine that regular readers may remember), plus there are some decent settings including the ability to customize the win ratio, but that’s kind of cheating.
All in all though I quite enjoyed Breakfast Slots. It steps outside the usual one-armed bandit box to offer some variety and added interaction with the game, which is exactly what this genre needs to become interesting again. There’s only so much you can do with fancy themes to dress up the same old thing, so I can appreciate a nice plate of fresh thinking. And bacon. Mmmmmmmm, bacon.
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