Our critique of the slot game «Fantasy Night»: intriguing mix of pachoslot and Puissance 4

CRITIQUE - Published 30 September 2022 «Fantasy Night» by Golden Hero combines features of pachoslot and Puissance 4: you are going to land at least 2 Fireworks symbols over 3x3 board and then, during the Respin Feature, try the program to fill in the empty cells with the same Fireworks symbols to unlock a BONUS SPIN. Intriguing.

Targeted towards the Japanese audience mostly, Golden Hero provider issued «Fantasy Night», yet another pichinkoesque slot game that might be hard to decipher by a European player without having a deeper encounter with this fabulous mechanical game that still inspires many slot producers. The idea of bringing together a pachinko cabinet and a slot machine is evident in Fantasy Night: a 3 reels and 3 lines game looks slot-like but it does not play that way...

The Fantasy Night's playing field is a 3x3 grid that has only 3 active playlines: a winning combination is made of 3 identical symbols laid horizontally on the reels. This 96.66% RTP game has 7 common symbols that resemble engravings on pachinko balls or Vikings' Runas, if you like. Apparently, the symbols are not made to the level of graphical precision an experienced player may expect, so, despite the fact paylines are straight horizontal, you may need some patience to trace whether or not you have the same symbols across the reels as they are quite small too.

By contrast to many other slot games' pay tables where the yield of combination of symbols is indicated in cash, in «Fantasy Night» the symbols' payout are only shown in times your bet, i.e. for example, x3, etc.

RESPIN FEATURE

Apart from forming a line of 3 symbols, Fantasy Night main attraction is to land 2 IRON SYMBOLS anywhere on the field that will trigger a RESPIN FEATURE. The latter is a usual respin like for example RE-SPIN OF EVIL in «Count Jokula» by PlaynGo that will last so soon that you are a winning combination: here you must land another IRON SYMBOL for the repspin to last. Plus, ins Fantasy Night IRON SYMBOLS they do not act as WILDS nor form any part of the payline. Effectively, IRON SYMBOLS initiate respins that pay up to 5x your bet or work as a gateway to Bonus Spins.

Fantasy Night Slot RESPIN FEATURE

IRON SYMBOLS are in fact a single distinct neon-colored Fireworks symbol that may come in several ornamental rims. Fireworks symbols that either land alone or land in pair but are not connected with their pairing one have a Metal rim. If you have two of them in a row horizontally or vertically (1x2 or 2x1), they come together and have a Copper rim: this makes the lowest paying COPPER COMBINATION PATTERN of 1x your bet when respins finish. Obviously, you might be looking for a higher paying COPPER COMBINATION PATTERN of 1x3 or 3x1 that will give 5x your bet amount when respins finish.

There is also a GOLD COMBINATION PATTERN: if you are lucky to land several Fireworks symbol on adjacent reels as follows: 2x2, 2x3, 3x2 and 3x3 (the whole screen), you will have the fireworks come together to form a single big one adjourned in a Golden rim. Most importantly, all GOLD COMBINATION PATTERNS above trigger the BONUS SPINS.

BONUS SPINS

During the BONUS SPINS you see an extra playing field or - speaking the language of the old mechanical pachinkos - the Exchanger: the usual sets of symbols no longer in place here, whereas the reels are filled with 4 kinds of STARS and MULTIPLIER SYMBOLS. The highest paying Golden star is worth x10 your bet, there are also stars yielding x5, x3 and x1 your bet. In addition to stars there are 4 classic MULTIPLIER symbols of x10, x5, x3 and x2 value.

The GOLD COMBINATION PATTERN rim becomes a new playing field: there will land star(s) and Multiplier(s). If you enter a BONUS SPINS with both GOLD and COPPER COMBINATION PATTERN, new symbols will appear in their respective fields. Should you land several Multipliers, their values are added. The final prize is a total of values of stars multiplied by the total multiplier.

Fantasy Night slot BONUS SPINS

FEVER MODE

Yet another extra playing field comes in when you hit the FEVER MODE. This feature promises 5 Free Spins, Increased chances of landing Iron Symbols and also it can be retriggered unlimitedly. The FEVER MODE becomes active if you land an OWL symbol during your BONUS SPINS.

AMBIENCE

«Fantasy Night» slot game is quite unusual in that you may sometimes feel like you are playing several games in one: obviously, it pachoslot (a mix of a slot machine and pachinko) as well as Puissance 4. The latter is a French strategy game where 2 players taking turns put chips in columns at the game's grid with an aim make a line of 4 chips vertically, horizontally or by a diagonal before the adversary.

«Fantasy Night» slots game's design may seem outlandish to many. The lower paying symbols may rather look like patterns on old tulle that can still be found in the French homes, that symbols of a new slot game. Despite symbols muted colours, the game board backdrop is constantive active with Fireworks spontaneously bringing in flash lights.

By the way, the Fireworks IRON SYMBOL symbol is just the same on Fireworks screen's backdrop: it is especially during the RESPIN FEATURE that the «Fantasy Night»'s Fireworks will create a Kaleidoscope effect.

Also, there is a special way about the IRON SYMBOLS land on the screen's 3rd reel, where they are about to create a full winning combination: just like in a pachinko machine, the digital program will display many animations before the third reel stops spinning, to give the player an added excitement.

This is called a reach (or rīchi) and sometimes longer animations are played called super reaches. Even more so, when the IRON SYMBOL is about to end, you may witness quite an unusual animation: first the ornamental rims come in and try to 'stop' the Fireworks symbols that are scrolling inside.