Esmeralda Slots
Get ready to lose your heart – but not your money – chasing after Esmeralda. The exotic Latin lovely is a popular girl, boasting enough suitors to populate a small South American country. Two paramours in particular have their eye on the smouldering seductress, and both are dancers. This heralds exactly what you think it heralds – an almighty dance-off. Along the way, you’ll get to mash a bunch of buttons and hopefully win a bunch of money.
Casino Technology’s five-reel slot is a feisty little offering, one that will tease and test you as you chase the elusive Esmeralda and the jackpot she’s guarding. Love and money intertwine as your quest intensifies and the action heats up. The online version of the 25-line game has been converted by Playtech, and it’s a brash, bling-filled romp, complete with gaudy jewellery and hirsute men who’ll stop at nothing in their quest for love.
With a progressive jackpot to aim for, Esmeralda is the sort of five-reeler you can invest some serious time on. The symbol to aim for – the one that will secure you love, lucre and flashing lights – is the rose. It serves as scatter and can show up anywhere. Eight roses in view will get you 15 free spins, while 15 will secure a prize of 30x your original stake, plus 70 free spins. Roses it is, then.
Lucky in Love
The other symbol of note is that of Esmeralda, the enchantress without whom this whole testosterone and cheap bling-fuelled romp wouldn’t be possible. Esmeralda serves as the wild symbol and can substitute for any other icon save for scatter.
After notching up a win in the base game, the gambling can begin in earnest. All those buttons you were pushing up until now were merely the foreplay; now it’s time for that thing that follows foreplay. It’s at this point you’ll be offered the chance to take your winning combo and gamble with it. Choose to Double Half or Double your win by guessing whether the next card will be higher or lower. It goes without saying that unless you have the luck of the gods, you’ll want to go easy on the high-low gambling, else you’ll swiftly find yourself back at square one. If you’ve already won a tidy sum on the reels, you would be advised to consider sticking with your stack rather than going for broke and ending up, well, broke. This doesn’t mean you have to play conservatively, though; there are plenty of other ways to reel in the readies with Esmeralda.
In regular gameplay, the symbols are based around suits of cards, as you’d expect, with unique game symbols comprising tambourines, earrings, necklaces and guitars, plus the two suitors (let’s call them Jose and Miguel) and Esmeralda herself. Plus and minus buttons will allow you to activate up to 25 pay-lines, with the bet ranging from 0.1 to 1. There’s also an autoplay feature, as well as bet max and turbo mode options.
The jackpot, which requires five Esmeralda symbols on the payline, is as elusive as the lady herself, but well worth chasing. Expect a handsome reward for your persistence and the sort of ear-to-ear grin that only a bumper payday or a beautiful woman can elicit.
While the gameplay itself is perfectly enjoyable, the real reason why you’ll want to invest your time in Esmeralda is the potential return to be made. With a reported pay-out of almost 92%, this is a far more generous offering that you’d expect to find from an online slot. It doesn’t take an expert at fixed odds betting to deduce that Esmeralda offers more bang for your buck than most online slots. The secret to getting lucky – be it with love or money – is timing. Play Esmeralda at the right time, and in the right manner, and your reward will be great.
A Match Made in Heaven?
As video slots go, Casino Technology’s Esmeralda isn’t going to win any awards for innovation or outstanding graphics. Indeed, there’s a case for stating that it’s a cheesy, maudlin affair, there are other romance themed slots out there like Microgamings well received Immortal Romance, which may offer you more fun. In truth, none of that really matters though; you’re here to win, and in that respect Esmeralda surpasses all expectations, providing all the thrill of the chase followed by the sort of rewards that most Josés and Miguels can only dream of. Resistance is futile: give in to Esmeralda’s wiles and play her until your fingers hurt.
