Horsing About Slot Machine
From all the great Western films, it looks like it could be pretty cool to be a cowboy. If you’re the good guy you get to rescue the village, get the girl and have everyone singing your praises and buying you drinks. Even if you’re the bad guy you get to play by your own rules, have your own followers and have everyone be scared of you. You probably get the best outfit too.
With Horsing About, it’s clear they’re going for the more fun side of things. Does this Eyecon game capture that light-hearted spirit and make you want to hang about in the countryside more than the Wild, Wild, West?
Not so Wild About the Design
It’s all rather unspectacular visually, and going for the horse pun, rather tame. The name uses two horseshoes as letters to fit in the name which just doesn’t work, especially as the mix of colours doesn’t match. The shades of green just look too basic as though they were hurriedly coloured in. The horses in the background neither have the detail or warmth to make you want to play with them.
The icons themselves are uninspiring too. There are three different horses, a cowboy hat, a horseshoe, cowboy boots, a saddle and rope. There’s also a whip, which not fit into the overall playful aspect of the game. The Ace, King, Queen and Jack letters are all in different colours but won’t really capture your attention either.
The black and brown horses are worth the maximum of 950 for 5. Not all the horses are equal. Even the saddle is worth more than the grey horse and cowboots together which are worth 250 free spins. As with the rope and whip (worth up to 100 for 5) and Queen and Jack (worth up to the same maximum) it is presumably any mixture that is OK. Rather confusingly, despite being lower on the board than the rope and whip, a combination of four Queen/Jacks is worth 20 spins, rather than the 15 the rope/whip offers.
Time to Saddle Up
While the visuals aren’t exactly in a field of their own, the game itself does get it right. It is easy to play and the bonuses are easy to understand. You can play for as low as 1 credit per line. You just press the Bet Up to increase your bet (or Bet Down to decrease) or even just press the Max Button if you want to go all out. It’s always clear at the top of the screen what your bet is, what your credit is and what you’ve won.
Changing the number of lines works with a similar process. You can play for as low as one line, or go up to any individual line up to 25. The Max Button will immediately take you to 25 if you want to play on total horse-power. There’s also an Autoplay button if you want to take it easy.
The lettering may be small but you can zoom in and zoom out. Also within the Options button are Last Win and Paytables, where you will find the ranking of each character, rules of the game and details about bonuses spread out over three pages. You’ll also find a very small example of each of the 25 winning lines available, though you’ll definitely have to zoom in a few times.
Playtime Bonus
15 free games are awarded when 3 or more scattered golden horseshoes during which all games are tripled. Usefully enough this feature can be triggered, with free games played at the lines and bet of the original trigger game. Scatter wins are added to line wins.
The cowboy hat substitutes for everything except the scatters of the golden horseshoes. You also get double the prizes when the cowboy hat is substituted. If you get 5 hats that’s worth a cool 9,500 free spins, with four being worth 2,000 games. Getting three is also neat as it will give you 200. The scatters aren’t so useful spins wise unless you get 5, in which case you’d get 450.
Neigh Bother
If you’re not into the crazy adventures on offer in the wild west and just want a more leisurely game, this has plenty to offer. It’s not quite in a field of its own, but it’s still fun to play, easy to understand and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Sometimes it’s nice just to horse about.
