Costa del Cash Slots
Costa del Cash is a chirpy 5-reel video slot from Novomatic. It’s very yellow and very summery: just looking at it makes you want to book a fortnight in the south of Spain. Scoop the jackpot on this baby and perhaps you will, but first there’s work to be done. Work? Okay, play. Whatever; there’s buttons to be pushed, put it that way, and it urges you to step up and push them like a pro.
The game clearly draws its inspiration from the Costa del Sol, also known as the Costa del Crime thanks to the preponderance of British expats lurking out there with warrants for their arrest. Thankfully there are no criminal elements to be found leering from the reels on this sun-kissed slot: just wholesome surf dudes and blonde beach bunnies.
Throw in some lurid card symbols, the odd cocktail, sunshade and jet ski, and you’ve got all the trappings for the experience of a lifetime...or of the next 30 minutes of your life at least. All told, there are 10 regular symbols to collect plus two special symbols, all of which can be viewed in more detail by pressing Paytable.
Fun In The sun
Forty paylines provide plenty of action across the five reels, but there’s no obligation to use all 40 at a time. Set your stake and then get rolling. Two buttons – Line and Bet/Line – allow you to increase or decrease the total you wish to wager. An autoplay feature is available for those who’d rather sip a margarita while they lounge by the pool.
Autoplay will take care of the basics, though using it will prevent you from accessing the gamble feature after chalking up a win. Just press the stop button at any time to cancel autoplay and regain control of the ship. Regular Novomatic players will be familiar with this feature: after matching a minimum of three symbols in a row, you’ll be afforded the chance to bet the lot. Guess correctly and you’ll double your money. Get it wrong and, yep, you’ll forfeit the lot.
The sun serves as the game’s wild symbol, and can replace any of the regular playing symbols. You’ll know things are beginning to heat up when the thermometer symbols start to appear. These count as the scatter symbol. Three in view, anywhere on the screen, will signal bonus time, whereupon free spins are handed out like complimentary sambucas in a seedy Spanish nightclub.
Free spins operate with a steadily increasing multiplier, known as Hot Beach Bonus. The first will pay 1 x the win generated, the second will pay 2 x the win generated and so on, up to a maximum of 10. In keeping with the game’s summery theme, the Hot Beach Bonus is depicted by a thermometer. With each free spin, the meter will rise, pushing the mercury higher and boosting the multiplier. Should you succeed in maxing out the meter, that multiplier of ten will see you withdraw a tidy sum...or reinvest it, as you see fit.
Beach Booty
Costa del Cash is a simple slot to master. There’s very little to get wrong and there’s nothing that can’t be learned from casually completing a dozen spins. If you’re struggling to recall the value of the various symbols and the potential money to be made, press the Paytable button. It will lead you through to a guide displaying the various hands and their respective values. From here, the More Info button will also delve into the workings of the bonus features and outline the general rules of play. With each of the symbols, it’s possible to score anywhere from three to five in a row, as is the norm on 5-reel slots.
Despite its basic design and standard issue bonus features, Costa del Cash is pretty fun to play. Technically, there’s nothing here that you won’t find on any other 5-reel Novomatic slot. Admittedly, 40 paylines is higher than average, but that’s about as novel as it gets. So why is Costa del Cash so enjoyable to play? Perhaps it’s because sitting in a darkened room pretending you’re on a Spanish beach works wonders for your mood. While it may sound like a perfect fit for Spanish casino players this game can be played at a host of different sites. So max out the thermometer on the Hot Beach Bonus feature and that cheery disposition will be elevated further still. If you can’t make it to the south of Spain this year, Costa del Cash will have to suffice.
