Fruit Zen Pokie Review
Fruit Zen is a 5-reel 10-payline video slot from Betsoft. It differs dramatically from other creations of the vendor due to its simplicity but the focus on simplicity is deliberate because the pokie is themed around Zen philosophy, which states that life is simple. Reel features include expanding wilds and respins. Calm, soothing and relaxing at most times, the pokie would force you jump over the moon when a $2000 fixed jackpot gets in or three reels become fully wild.
Betsoft designers acted responsibly when working over this pokie because the game really fits the theme, especially the animated background picture behind the symbols. People who pursue the Zen way of life try to be more balanced and relaxed. They try to avoid worries and find happiness in small things. For that, people who walk the Zen way practice meditation and concentration. When loading the reviewed pokie from Betsoft, you will see ocean waves rolling slowly and touching gently a rocky shore. The sky on the background picture is of unusual pink color as if in a fairy tale or a beautiful dream. Looking at this peaceful picture, you forget about troubles and unrest but concentrate only on your potential winnings that the pokie can bring.
This wonderful 5-reel pokie is a perfect tool for practicing the Zen philosophy because it is full of calmness and peace. The 15 fruit symbols are slowly rotating downwards, then they stop in a few seconds and create winning combinations. The symbols utilized in Fruit Zen relate to fruits and include cherries (the max payout is $250), raspberry ($250), plum ($400), watermelon ($500), grapes ($600), lemon ($1200) and orange ($2500). All non-feature symbols pay out for three, four or five of a kind.
Win Both Ways
Fruit Zen is one of the few pokies that have a win-both-ways model integrated into the game engine. Most pokies in online casinos pay out if a certain amount of symbols match from reel 1 rightwards. Win-both-ways pokies, like the reviewed one, provide you a cash prize if symbols create a match from left to right and/or right to left. This implies you get twice as much chances to land a payable combination of symbols.
Bet options
The bet sizes in Fruit Zen are not typical for Betsoft’s pokies. First off, the paylines are not permanent, you can remove any number of them and activate only 1 (though it is not reasonable). Other adjustable bet values are a coin denomination ($0.01 to $1) and the amount of coins per line (1 to 10). That said, the minimum and maximum stakes are $0.10 and $100, accordingly.
Expanding wilds and respins
One of Zen rules teaches you to stop wanting all types of things but be grateful for small favors. Making do with less is not what gamblers expect playing pokies for real money. That is why Betsoft offers a beneficial feature known as expanding wilds. When meditating, trying to clear your mind of those darn thoughts, expanding wilds will help you focus all your attention on the current moment. These special symbols occur on reels 2, 3 and 4, and they cover an entire reels. By doing this, an expanding wild may dramatically increase your winning chances. Moreover, every appearance of an expanding wild leads to a respin. If after the respin you get one more expanding wild, another free respin is awarded. The feature continues until no more expanding wilds are generated after a bonus respin.
How much you can win with expanding wilds?
In fact, potential winnings in Fruit Zen are very high. Imagine getting all the three central reels covered with expanding wilds, and reel 1 filled completely with the Orange symbols. If you look at the paytable area where payline patterns are shown, you will notice all the 10 lines will be involved in that combination. This further means you may scoop up to $25,000 if playing at max. But this is not the end because you will obtain a free respin, which may also result in some healthy cash prizes.
Stacked symbols
On one single spin you may see the same fruit occupying all symbol positions on a reel. This feature, known as “stacks”, opens new prospects for online casino awards.
Bottom line on Fruit Zen
This 5-reel 10-payline slot allows for both-way wins and features expanding wilds and free respins. Thanks to fruit symbols, the game will be well appreciated by those who go in for retro pokies. A total bet ranges between 10 cents and $100 per spin, and the maximum prize runs up to $2500 with the possibility to have way higher feature wins.