Pachinko Linko 5 Slot Review
Feed a Japanese pachinko machine and steel balls fall out, never money, because the law won't allow a cash payout. The counter trades those balls for a trinket, most often a gold 🪙 sliver sealed in plastic.
Out the door you go, around the corner, to a window belonging to a company with no connection whatsoever to the parlor, or so the paperwork says. You sell the trinket there for cash 💰, and the trinket goes right back onto the parlor's prize shelf.
Everybody knows how the loop works, police 👮 included. The legal defense of a multi-billion-dollar business is a 40-foot walk between two doors.
That same gap between what a thing gets called and what it does runs through Pachinko Linko 5 slot from Quickfire. It’s called pachinko, but it’s a slot… with a twist, as you’re about to find out.
Gameplay
I've been to Japan, and I can confirm that it's a nation that really loves cutesy, cartoony stuff. That whole vibe is everywhere, so why wouldn't we have it in a slot game?
A gold pot of Diamonds fills up beside the lucky cat above the reels while you play, even though that animation is decoration that changes nothing.
So here’s how this game works: a cell either takes a coin or it stays dark. There's no matching and no combinations. A line pays once all 5 of its cells hold a win symbol, and the lines run sideways, up and down, and corner to corner.
The 5x5 grid carries 12 fixed paylines, the RTPRTP stands for “Return to Player.” The RTP describes the total bet amount that a game returns to players over millions of spins, and that figure is represented by a percentage. Table games, such as Roulette, typically have higher RTPs than many slots.
RTP needs to be considered in conjunction with a game’s volatility rate. is 96.04%, and volatility is medium.
The max multiplier is 6,242.6x for a max win of $249,704. Bets run $0.20 to $40, and the game is fiat only, no Japanese yen, which is a strange thing for a game set inside a pachinko parlor.
Top of the paytable is the 5x coin symbol, with 2x, 1.5x and 1x underneath it. Below those you're into small change, at 0.8x, 0.5x, 0.2x and 0.1x.
Four jackpots sit to the left of the grid: Mini (10x), Minor (25x), Major (500x) and Mega (2,500x). Mini and Minor land as coins right on the grid. Major and Mega only come off the Linko Wheel (I’ll explain this in a bit).
The Wild symbol pays nothing on its own and only helps finish lines, and the centre cell holds a sticky one on every single spin, so you're never starting a line from scratch.
The Wild Diamond symbol works the lines too, and it's the key to both Free Spins and the Linko Wheel. Every cell except the centre can also turn up a Mystery Box symbol.
Base game boxes only ever hide the good stuff, meaning 1.5x, 2x, 5x, or one of the Mini and Minor jackpots. A box cracks open once it's part of a finished line.
Get one inside a wheel feature and the rules change, because now a box can hide a normal Wild or any coin value in the game.
Features
POWERUP!:
At the start of a spin, the centre Wild can turn into a Wild PowerUp! symbol out of nowhere, inflating the value of some coins sitting on the grid. Only coins already sitting in paylines qualify for that boost.
Every Free Spin comes with PowerUp! attached, and so does every wheel outcome apart from the Major and Mega jackpots.
EXTRA SPIN!:
At the end of a base game spin, Extra Spin! can show up unannounced. The centre Wild becomes the Wild Extra Spin! symbol, and every empty cell on the grid gets re-spun.
One Extra Spin! is all you get, because the feature won't fire inside itself. Free Spins stay locked out until the re-spin finishes.
FREE SPINS:
Free Spins trigger on 3 or more Wild Diamond symbols in view, and 3, 4 or 5 Diamonds award 10, 15 or 20 Free Spins, respectively.
Re-triggers are on the table, and the spins you get back match however many Wild Diamonds fired the re-trigger. PowerUp! is along for every one of them, and the Linko Wheel can show up mid-round.
LINKO WHEEL:
The Linko Wheel fires at random on any spin where Wild Diamond symbols get collected, and the wheel lands on one of five outcomes: the Major or Mega jackpot, Multi, Wild Rain or Collect.
Both jackpots are only handed out here, and neither one is for sale. Want the Mega? You wait on the wheel to hand it over.
Multi:
Should the grid come up with no finished payline, normal Wilds keep dropping in until one exists. Then a second wheel spins up 2x, 3x, 5x or 10x, and that number lands on every coin sitting in a finished payline.
Add up the coins in your paylines, multiply by whatever the second wheel gave you, and that total is the prize.
A thin grid carrying a 10x still pays less than a loaded grid at 2x, so the multiplier on its own isn't the thing to root for.
Wild Rain:
Boxes crack open first, then PowerUp! inflates random coins, and normal Wilds flood whatever cells are still sitting empty. What you walk away with is the total value across all 12 paylines.
Collect:
Same opening act, with the boxes cracking and PowerUp! swelling coin values. The difference is that Collect sweeps up every coin on screen, payline or no payline, and the prize is the whole sweep.
BUY BONUS:
The Buy Bonus works in the base game only. Free Spins run 50x, 70x or 80x for 10, 15 or 20 spins, respectively.
Each wheel outcome carries its own price tag. Collect goes for 60x, Wild Rain for 80x, and the Linko Wheel itself sits between the pair at 70x.
The Multi is priced by the multiplier you're after, running 50x, 70x, 100x and 180x for the 2x, 3x, 5x and 10x versions, respectively.
Buying 10, 15 or 20 Free Spins returns 96.04%, 96.09% and 96.07%, respectively. Paying for the Linko Wheel gets you 96.04%.
Collect comes in at 96.03% and Wild Rain at 96.05%. The four Multi purchases return 96.05%, 96.04%, 96.09% and 96.07%, going up the 2x, 3x, 5x and 10x ladder.
Performance
I gave the slot a long session and it never once tripped over itself. Nothing stalled, nothing reloaded, and every win landed in the balance where it belonged.
Maximum Win
The max multiplier is 6,242.6x, which against the top bet of $40 makes the max win $249,704. The smallest bet you can place is $0.20.
Conclusion
The Linko Wheel is where the game's money lives, and Collect and Wild Rain are the two outcomes worth chasing. Collect banks every coin on screen, while Wild Rain plugs the gaps and pays all 12 paylines in one go.
Reaching the max multiplier requires the biggest Multi landing on a grid already loaded with top coins and jackpot coins. That's a long shot, but it's a real road, which is more than many other max multipliers can say.
Longer sessions are what the RTPRTP stands for “Return to Player.” The RTP describes the total bet amount that a game returns to players over millions of spins, and that figure is represented by a percentage. Table games, such as Roulette, typically have higher RTPs than many slots.
RTP needs to be considered in conjunction with a game’s volatility rate. supports here, so there's no need to burn a bankroll down in a hurry.
Sitting a 6,242.6x max multiplier on medium volatility is a deal that favors you, since a medium game normally pays a fraction of that for the same swings.
Eight of the ten purchase options undercut what a bonus buy normally runs you, which is cheaper than most studios ask. One buy on the Linko Wheel can come back as Collect, Wild Rain or the Multi, so that's where your money goes.
Leave the top-priced Multi alone. Close to double the going rate buys a multiplier the wheel purchase hands over on its own, and paying twice for one outcome has never made anybody money.
Mid-bet players who settle in for a long sitting are who the game suits. Fast, violent swings aren't on the menu at medium volatility, so that crowd should look elsewhere.
Slot Details
Game Provider: Quickfire
Game Type: Video Slots
PaylinesPaylines are preset lines that run across the reels, and when you land matching symbols on them, that will result in a payout. The more paylines, the more ways you can win, but also the higher your bet per spin.: 12
RTPRTP stands for “Return to Player.” The RTP describes the total bet amount that a game returns to players over millions of spins, and that figure is represented by a percentage. Table games, such as Roulette, typically have higher RTPs than many slots.
RTP needs to be considered in conjunction with a game’s volatility rate.: 96.04%
Volatility RateSlot games can have low, medium, high, or extremely high volatility rates (or a combination thereof).
The less volatile the game, the more often it should pay out, but the lower the amount, the less the payout, as this is in keeping with the risk you’re taking. Volatility rate should be considered in conjunction with a game’s RTP.: Medium
Bonus Round: Yes
Progressive: No
Free Rounds: Free Spins, Re-spins
Max Multiplier: 6,242.6x
Max Win: $249,704
Published by
BitStarz, award-winning Bitcoin Casino
