Day of the Dead is basically the one holiday where skeletons get better treatment than most living people. Instead of being shoved into a coffin and forgotten, the dead get flowers, candles, food, booze, and an annual invitation back to the party. Frankly, it is a stronger retirement package than most of us can expect.

Now, Day of the Dead slots are not unique these days. So, the Skull Fiesta slot from NowNow is going to have to do something special to stand out.

Welcome to the afterlife?

The Skull Fiesta slot features 14 paylines spread across five reels. The slot offers betting from $0.10 a spin, and with a 10,000x max multiplier, even spins on that low end can result in a healthy win. If you’re a big spender, betting tops out at $35 a spin.

The slot’s gameplay features medium volatility, which offers a balance between small, consistent wins and the rare big win. Its expected RTP is 96.26%.

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The RIP Fortune Meter is below the main reels and is activated whenever RIP symbols land. Each trigger fills additional positions on the meter, with corresponding symbols converted into cash prizes valued from 1x to 100x your bet. During base game play, the RIP Fortune Meter will be reset after each spin.

After the cash values for each symbol are revealed, the RIP symbol is converted into one of three modifiers.

• Replicate will duplicate all previously revealed coin values and add them to your total.
• Reawaken awards the sum of all current coin values.
• Reinfest will select between one and all revealed coin values and enhance them with a random multiplier between 2x and 5x.

The slot can also reveal a combination of two of the three modifiers.

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Landing three or more RIP symbols on a single spin will award ten free spins. Your round of free spins will begin with the RIP Fortune Meter set to the number of RIP symbols collected to trigger it. Unlike the base game, the meter will continue to build throughout your round. Any additional RIP symbols collected during your round will be added to the meter and will also award extra free spins.

In addition to unlocking a round of free spins with RIP symbols, you can also choose to purchase a round with the Buy Bonus feature.

Does the Skull Fiesta slot bring enough originality to the genre?

The Skull Fiesta slot’s RIP Fortune Meter does a great job of pulling you through from the base game to the bonus round. More importantly, it gives the base game a sense of purpose, which is not something you can say about every slot.

There is, however, a “but” coming. The problem is that Day of the Dead slots are now about as rare as sand on a beach. The Skull Fiesta slot does very little visually to convince you that you haven’t seen this particular collection of colourful skulls and flickering candles a dozen times before.

I give this one a six out of ten. The RIP Fortune Meter really did deserve better.

If you’re looking for a few NowNow games that did wow me, I recommend trying out Through the Fire and Alchemist Wonders.