Viva Las Vegas Free Play in Demo Mode by Red Rake Gaming

Viva Las Vegas review

Theme and Storyline

What is the quintessential Vegas experience? Perhaps casino floors with their deafening rattle of chips and cards, perhaps it was seeing Frank and Dean performing live, or cruising the strip with its myriad of buildings, each of which is a monument to excess and luxury.

If you are the design team at Red Rake Gaming, it is apparently show girls. There is a stylised version of the Bellagio fountains, card suits and the famous Welcome to Las Vegas sign, but the main symbols are all show girls, the background is a stage and the backing sound track is a theatre crowd applauding.

Graphics, Sounds and Animations

Given the off-kilter theme and titling of the slot, the actual graphics are largely fine. The symbols don’t all have a clear silhouette and so are easily lost in the funhouse.

But the combination of those symbols with the animations and the sound effects is pretty good. When you spin the wheels, a music hall track kicks in with some real rhythm to it and the reels give off their win and spin sounds with much aplomb.

Overall, the visuals are somewhat kitsch but it is top quality kitsch of the kind Vegas itself is famous for.

Gameplay

Viva Las Vegas is played on five reels with four rows and fifty win lines.

A cascade system is in play, meaning that when a player hits a winning combination, the winning symbols are removed, allowing new symbols to fall down from above. Winning combinations are then recalculated and any additional cascades triggered.

There is also a free spin bonus to spice things up, which is triggered by hitting four or more consecutive cascades (see below for details).

Wilds, Bonuses and Free Spins

The Wild symbol substitutes for all other symbols.

If the cascade is triggered four or more times in a row on one single spin, then the player is awarded a Free Spin bonus with ten free spins. Any additional cascades over four will add a multiplier to any winnings during the free spins: x2 for the fifth cascade, x3 for six, and x10 if you get seven cascades in a row.

During the free spins the Vegas Sign symbol is Wild.

Bet Sizes, RTP and Variance

The return to player of this game is 95.20%, well below our yardstick for average of roughly 96%.

The range of bets on the site we tested ran from a minimum bet per spin of $/£/€0.20 up to a maximum of $/£/€50.00 per spin.

The volatility of this game is medium, which makes it a poor match for our preferred slot machine strategies. Combining this with the low RTP results in us being unable to recommend this slot.

Conclusion

Viva Las Vegas has very little to offer. The theme and artwork are pretty dull, the slot lacks style, and the vig is extortionate.

The low RTP is the strongest argument against a recommendation for this slot, but the relatively low volatility doesn’t do it any favours either.

Give this one a miss.