Although Pocket Games Soft, or PG SOFT, has only been going since 2015, this rapidly-growing games developer already employs over 200 people at its offices in Malta, Europe and North America and looks set for huge expansion in the near future. Their declared vision is to ‘’revolutionise mobile app gamification by leveraging on our wide spectrum of bespoke gaming solutions.’’ It’s business-speak for producing exciting mobile optimised slots that are a little different from those already available and on the strength of their current range, we think they’re delivering on their promise.
PG SOFT was founded by Ken Zhang, who has assembled a team of industry veterans to lead the company. They have aimed to recruit only the most talented artists, designers and software specialists, while working with Oxford and Cambridge university graduates to deal with the maths behind the gameplay. It’s a formidable team, faced with quite a challenge to come up with something truly unique in an increasingly crowded market. The PG SOFT head office is in Valletta, Malta. All of their games are licensed by the local betting authority, as well as the Gibraltar Gambling Commission. The independent BMM and GA testing labs have been utilised to determine that fairness of the games, so punters have a belt and braces guarantee and can play across the range, knowing that fair results and high returns come as standard.
PG SOFT has found a niche as a mobile games developer and is focused on delivering slots, plus a couple of card games. Unlike some games studios, they haven’t branched out into providing software platforms for others, or white label casinos, allowing them to concentrate on what they do best. A number of strategic partnerships have been forged with other developers, including Leander Games, Relax Gaming and Nektan, which is helping to bring their range to a wider audience. Some of the slots listed as the most popular on the PG SOFT website are Medusa II, Tree of Fortune and Plushy Frenzy, so we’ll take a closer look at these games and see if they live up to the bold claims.
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Medusa, The Quest of Perseus, has graphics that take it to another level. It looks like a console game, or even an animated movie and comes with an orchestral soundtrack that heightens the tension as players enter the deadly lair of Medusa. This snake-haired demon from Greek mythology turns up in some highly stylish sequences, helping or hindering the path to free spins bonus rounds. The heroic Perseus is a wild symbol in this five-reel, 30-line game, while various weapons and the playing card icons create standard winning combinations.
Stone reels can appear in any spin, helping to fill meters with either Soul Stones or Potion. Three Soul Stones launch 10 free spins, but Medusa can destroy them at will, unless Perseus attacks her and saves the day. During the free games, Medusa can turn reels fully wild for 3 consecutive spins, and extra games can be added on if Perseus defeats her before the feature ends.
Tree of Fortune is based on a Chinese legend and has traditional red envelopes, bells and lanterns appearing on the five reels and 30 paylines. A golden tree is the wild symbol, while a unique ‘Shake’ symbol causes the large tree behind the reels to shake, revealing coin wins or extra picks of the 8 golden plackets that are hanging from the branches.
Any red envelope symbols will fly into the Fortune Tree, and once 5 have been collected, a free spins round is triggered. It’s possible to have an envelope land on the tree in the same place as another envelope, in which case the symbols will combine and grow in size, awarding players with greater prize-winning opportunities. This Asian themed slot machine is certain to be popular with players who enjoy games based on such a popular genre.
Inspired by the claw grab machines that are so popular in arcades, Plushy Frenzy is a vividly coloured game that has cute toys appearing on the 5 reels, while above them, an animated claw waits to be called into action in a series of bonus features. In any non-winning spin, a toy can be selected at random to fill the middle reel. It will stay locked in place as the other reels respin for free and these carry on until no more examples of the chosen toy appear. Once the respins are over, any new winning lines are calculated, while 30% of the triggering bet is paid out for each toy that’s landed throughout the feature. If the Unicorn is selected, the middle reel becomes wild and 2 extra wilds are added to other reels at the same time.
It's an online slot with a free spins feature, triggered by any 3 or more bonus symbols. Players collect extra prizes, any toys seen during these games will be replaced by wild symbols. Plushy Frenzy an attractive game and while it’s a little more cartoon-ish than some others from PG SOFT, it still has impressive graphics, great sound effects and smooth animations.
All of the range has been designed to be compatible with desktop PC’s, Windows, Blackberry, Android and Apple-powered devices such as iPhones and iPads. When you play PG SOFT slots on a laptop or desktop computer the portrait orientation of the reels means that they are not a perfect fit on the landscape screens, so clearly, these are first and foremost mobile games.
Control buttons are placed where fingers and thumbs naturally lie and on the small screens of mobile smartphones or tablet computers, the incredible attention to detail gives each slot a fantastic appearance and heightened realism. 3D effects bring each game to life and with high-quality CGI animations, particularly with slots such as Medusa II, the PG SOFT collection is one that’s sure to attract more and more attention as people discover their range.
The PG SOFT website gives each game a background story, with a little detail about what inspired them to produce each title. Plushy Frenzy for example, came about because a claw machine proved to be very popular at the ICE Totally Gaming exhibition in London.
Although the company is just a few years old, and it took them a while before they released their very first titles, we’re confident that PG SOFT is heading for a rosy future. While many games developers boast about innovation and unique features, each game in the PG SOFT portfolio has something truly different for players to experience.
We hope that they obtain UK Gambling Commission approval soon, as at present British residents can’t play these games for real cash, although freeplay versions can still be found if anyone simply wants to savour the graphics and see how they all work. In the meantime try popular games such as the free Intervision Gaming slots, or Digitalwin slots available across VegasSlotsOnline.