The game “Paco and the Popping Peppers” has a Mexican theme to it. The game starts with a movie clip that shows rolling tumbleweeds in a town “south of the border.” The clip shows animate fruit and vegetables dancing around a Mexican man with an acoustic guitar, named Paco.
Paco shows up to the left of the main game screen, and periodically says things in Spanish, takes siestas and does various other things. The buttons on the screen are in the form of drums for the choose coin, bet per line, and select line functions. The “Max Bet Spin” is on a big guitar button in the bottom right.
When you press the spin button, you hear a musical stab and then new icons drop down onto the screen. You also hear stereotypical Mexican music playing throughout. When you get three symbols in a row, you win. These symbols then pop, disappear, and cause new symbols to come from above. This is how you can get combos. If you keep matching symbols over and over this way, eventually you’ll get a 10X multiplayer for more credits.
The highest regular payout is for 5 pineapples. This gives you 1000 credits. Other combinations include 5 tomatoes for 750 credits or 5 coconuts for 500 credits. The wild symbol is a piñata. If you get 5 piñata symbols in a row, you get 2500 credits. The wild symbol can also be substituted for any other symbol such as a pineapple, onion, coconut or tomato.
The bonus round in the game happens if you see 3 or more hut icons at any time in the game screen. In this game you just to need to choose whether each card that’s coming up next will be higher or lower than the card onscreen. If you get three strikes, then the game ends. Otherwise you can keep going up to 10 game rounds.
The game board also keeps track of your multiplier on the right. It slowly goes up to 10X. All of the peppers have human faces, and they will be making various expressions throughout the game. This can get distracting after a while, and it can be a bit disconcerting when they explode. But that’s what makes the game different and entertaining.
The combinations on the screen can happen quickly, so it’s a good idea to pay attention so you don’t lose track of where all the credits are coming from. You will see a line that keeps track of what you just won at the bottom of the game screen, however.
Paco will become excited and dance around whenever you win as well. Overall, the game has a smooth progression to it. The gameplay doesn’t lag at all either since the animations are all minor and there’s only one character on the screen apart from the game board.
The trappings around the gameplay screen are elaborate as well. There are sombrero hats, bottles of tequila and various flags to give more of an authentic feel in general.
