WinterBerries

As long as slots have been around, fruit symbols have always been an iconic part of the culture. Everyone recognises the bright and juicy cherries, lemons, melons, pineapples and plums that were splashed across some of the earliest slot machines in the business – so much so that today the classic slot machine you can find in arcades and pubs everywhere is known as a 'fruit machine' (or 'fruitie' if you're feeling like a bit of a jaunty Jack-the-lad).

While the citrus symbols originally came from an attempt by early inventors to dodge gambling laws (yes, really – at this time, slot machines would pay out chewing gum rather than money, so spinning three cherries would score you some cherry-flavoured gum, while lining up the plums would win you a pack of delicious plum gum), the fruit has become less about practicality, and more about having become familiar slot symbols that we all know and love. As a result, when we heard that hotshot new developers Yggdrasil Gaming were bringing out a slot that promised to revamp our favourite concept of fruity fun, we were peachy keen (sorry) to take a look.


BIG BAD BERRIES
As we had hoped, Yggdrasil Gaming have certainly given the whole fruity theme an impressive makeover with Winterberries. Instead of the somewhat dated lemons and cherries of yore, the reels here are bursting with ripened, curvaceous berries in jewel-bright colours. As well as this, the mouthwatering graphics are set prettily against a backdrop of the Northern Lights and snowy trees, giving the whole game a glowing, ethereal effect. The game also has a definite selling point in its punchy background music. This is a unique track based on a Finnish polka that recently caused an internet sensation when it was picked up by the Japanese Manga community, and will soon have you humming along.

The gameplay is simple yet intuitive, but the real cherry on top of Winterberries' sundae is its 'Freeze' feature. All you need to do is get at least three of the same symbol on a payline, and this will trigger an animation to beautifully crystallise the winning symbols in ice. This will then trigger a re-spin which will continue until you don't hit any of the same symbol anywhere on the paylines, or there are no more spaces on the reels – whichever comes first! Another feature that we particularly like is the win multiplier. This kicks in during 'Freeze' mode, meaning that if you manage to get all frozen symbols in a consecutive reel column from left to right, your winnings will be boosted. The more frozen reels you accumulate, the higher your multiplier; it's that simple. Manage to fill the screen with cloudberries, however, and you will unlock the jackpot, giving you a mighty x2,500 multiplier and sending you laughing all the way to the bank..

One thing worth noting is that this game does have a low hit frequency. But make no mistake, patient players will be thoroughly rewarded – although wins may come less often, when they do they are more likely to be MUCH bigger. If you like the sound of that but don't fancy waiting around, you can even increase the game to a faster speed in order to customise it to your playing style. How do you like them apples? Pretty well, we bet.

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