Peek-a-Boo

In the online slots world, Microgaming is known for doing something that most other game developers tend to avoid: making new, updated versions of older games. They've done this with high definition versions of games before, and with the Peek-a-Boo video slot, they've done it by converting an older classic slot into a newer five-reel game. This is a great approach that has led to what seems to be a title that all kinds of slots fans will enjoy.

Basic Format

The general format for this game starts with five reels and four rows. This isn't the typical layout with three rows that we typically see in Microgaming slots, but it's also not unheard of by them. The base game uses 40 paylines, and players can choose a single coin size that will be used on each of those lines.

There is no option to bet multiple coins on each line, but you can choose coins as low as $0.01 apiece, so there's no need to worry about the minimum bet size being out of your range. If you're comfortable with $0.40 per spin, which should be well within any player's bankroll management guidelines, then you should be in good shape with this new game.

Aside from the typical gameplay, there's also an auto play option that's worth pointing out. This is great for hands-up play, and it has a lot of options that allows you to customize when the auto play feature stops for certain wins, certain numbers of spins, etc.

Symbol Set

There are two basic sets of symbols in this game. The high-paying symbols are all ghosts, and even though they're in different poses, they all look more or less the same. To help make it easier to distinguish between the different ghosts, they are all saying BOO! in different colors. These ghosts are a key part of the gameplay as you'll see below.

Something Microgaming is extremely good about is making sure that their games avoid all of the generic slot cliches that they can. Along these lines, they have avoided using the A, K, Q, J, 10, etc. symbols in this particular title. Instead, they've kept with the Halloween angle and made the lower set of symbols different types of candy. You'll see chocolate coins, candy hearts (and headstones), hard candy and gummies on the reels.

Special Symbols

There are two special symbols that guide most of the gameplay. The first is the wild Peek-a-Boo symbol that shows up stacked on all reels. Note that during the free spins, these wilds are given "super stacks" on the last two reels to make it easier to fill them up completely with wilds, and this adds to the value of the game quite a bit.

The second special symbol is the kid dressed up in his ghost-hunting outfit that includes a special ray gun. This kid will give you payouts, but when he shows up on the center reel, he'll also shoot his ray gun at a random number of the ghost symbols that show up on the reels to capture them. These captured ghosts are moved to the free spins meter on the right-hand edge of the screen. When you pick up ten or more ghosts, you're given a set of at least ten free spins as a reward.

The Free Spins Bonus Feature

Once you're in the free spins, the value really starts ramping up. There are multiple additions made in this feature that give you chances to maximize your payouts. The first is the fact that it changes from being a 40-payline game to using the 1,024-ways format. This is a huge shift that dramatically changes the amount of value you get from these free spins compared to the spins in the regular game.

On top of that, and as we mentioned above, you'll get super stacked wilds on the fourth and fifth reels. Along with that, you'll get re-spins with the Spooky Reels feature. When you get a win with three or four symbols, the last two reels or last reel, respectively, will re-spin to give you a chance at a bigger payout. Combined with the super stacked wilds, your chances of winning big with this feature go up tremendously.