The Glorious 50s Slot
The furious 1950s are still alive in the common memory as a time of opulence, fun and development right after the horrors of the war. Nostalgia for such a time is still alive and well nowadays, and slot game players will be pleased to know that the 888 developers have taken the initiative to get a little inspiration from the 1950s aesthetics in a new video slot game.
With The Glorious 50s, you will be getting the full slot game experienced: bonus round, free spins, a fast gameplay and all on a small 3x3 reel set. With medium variant and a 95.31% RTP, The Glorious 50s could prove a little challenging at times - but certainly worth a closer look. Let’s get down to it in our full review of the game.
100% Nostalgia
The Glorious 50s has an entire decade to take its inspiration from, so the references to the 1950s abound on the game screen. Apart from a classic grid and command bar underneath, the background is filled with black-and-white star photos, vinyls and musical instruments. If you look closely, you will notice that the reels are actually shaped like a giant jukebox.
Add a typical 50s tune in the background and there you have The Glorious 50s. The 888 developers went for the obvious references, but the result works perfectly and we loved that the game was cashing in on some of the nostalgia that many players feel for old-school slots nowadays.
Simple and Clean
In terms of basic rules, The Glorious 50s is pretty straightforward. The central grid is made up of 3 reels and 5 fixed paylines, giving players a betting range that goes from 0.05 to 100 credits per turn, maximum. Use the plus and minus buttons to adjust your wager freely or click on the autoplay shortcuts to allow the game to run on its own for a while, with the same wager.
As you will notice, The Glorious 50s might be a medium-variance slot game but the relatively low RTP can make it tougher to score wins than usual - not to mention the small reel set itself. The paytable contains card icons, musical instruments, a glamorous movie star and an Elvis lookalike, with a top prize set at 80 times your current line bet only. You will definitely have to dig deeper in order to win big in The Glorious 50s.
Where the Extra Prizes Lie
The wild vinyls are the wilds of The Glorious 50s, able to replace the basic icons at will. Not only will they help you score more regular wins, but they will also combine to unlock extra cash prizes of up to 100 times your line bet value. The gramophones, however, play the role of the scatters can pay in any position but cannot be replaced by wilds. 3 of them on the reels trigger the free spin bonus, where you can choose one of the 3 options available, with up to 15 free games available, and a win multiplier as well.
You can also try to fill up the entire grid with either wilds or bonus symbols in order to unlock the pick bonus feature. Pick some vinyls on the screen to reveal multipliers, which will add up to a maximum of x22. The final tally is applied to your total bet, which is one more good reason to try and bet as many credits as possible in The Glorious 50s.
Glorious? Really?
The Glorious 50s is visually interesting and very easy to play, but we also felt that the game was challenging and sometimes a little frustrating given its small reel set. The bonus features are interesting, but it would have been even more exciting to be able to play with the exact same rules on a larger grid.
Slots like Fortune 88 from Mobilots are based on a similar gameplay, especially concerning the bonus features, but do allow players to bet on 5 reels - and even 30 paylines at once. Overall, we still feel that The Glorious 50s is an original slot game but that it could also have been a little more generous in terms of cash prizes.