When conducting an internet search for how to make money, a lot of results flash up on the screen. Clearly, people are keen to add revenue streams, set up a side hustle for a bit of extra cash, or simply get paid. Imagine, yeah, imagine a magical box that, whenever opened, had bundles of cold hard cash inside. All legal, all for you, any time you wanted. Avoiding the psychological effects of having infinite dough at your disposal, a magic cash box would be pretty swell. Now, onto Cash Box from Pragmatic Play, which isn't a magical money dispensing device as such but a rather unique game. For Cash Box, Pragmatic Play has bent the rules of what usually constitutes an online slot to make something that stands out from the norm. In a good way or a bad way? Let's find out.
For starters, when Cash Box loads, it presents a game grid made up of vault doors (called Cash Boxes); some may be open, some closed. Maybe all are closed in the beginning, but there's no need to rely on bank-cracking skills around here. On each spin, Cash Boxes open at random to reveal various prizes. However, we're getting ahead of ourselves. First, a few words on Cash Box's scenery, which, to be honest, is pretty random. Besides the gaming grid and a trio of jackpots listed above it, what can be made out in the background are waving lights, maybe curtains, a stage perhaps, and a load of sparkling… stuff. It's like Cash Box is the star of some bizarre cabaret or the guest at a swanky movie premiere. Like we said, kinda random.
>Cash Box is played on a 5-reel, 3-row gaming grid, but it does not use traditional paylines or win ways for awarding prizes. Instead, each Cash Box may randomly open to reveal a different value inside. Values can be regular prizes of 0.05x to 50x the total bet, or Cash Boxes may reveal Mini, Major, or Grand symbols. Landing 3 Minis awards 40x the bet, 4 Majors in view award 500x the bet, while 5 Grands on the board award 5,000x the bet. As for the regular monetary values, when at least 3 of any size are in view, their total amount is awarded.
Is it our imagination, or does it seem like the RTP values on Pragmatic Play slots have been nose-diving recently? They used to pleasantly surprise with 96.4%/96.5%+ values; now they seem to be coming in closer to the 96% mark. At 96.02%, Cash Box's return value certainly isn't moan-worthy but just a thought that arose during the review. The other critical stat is volatility, which is high in Cash Box, while players can pick a stake of 20 p/c to $/€100 before getting those boxes an-opening.
>Cash Box's main remaining feature is its free spins bonus round. This is triggered by the scatter symbol. When 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols are revealed on a spin, players are awarded 10, 15, or 20 free spins, plus a payout worth 1x, 5x, or 10x the bet, respectively. During free spins, no changes are made to the rules compared to the base game. Spins are free; that's it. Revealing 3, 4, or 5 free spins symbols from the Cash Boxes during the feature awards an extra 10, 15, or 20 free spins.
If you're in the mood, 100x the bet will buy a triggering spin where 3, 4, or 5 free spins symbols are randomly opened from Cash Boxes. The RTP when buying free spins is slightly higher at 96.05%.
>Might as well come clean and say Cash Box wasn't the most exciting Pragmatic Play slot we've ever reviewed. Kudos to the team for trying something new, but new doesn't always translate to better, or even as good, as what came before. Each part of Cash Box felt strangely off, from the odd cabaret theme, with its stack of Cash Boxes on stage (or whatever it is), to the chilling at a low-key jazz bar soundtrack. It's almost like a jazz game, and a bank slot was squished into one. That or a variety of different bits were swept into one place before being pieced together.
Perhaps the most low-key thing about Cash Box was its actual gameplay. Hit spin and hope Cash Boxes open to spew forth prize values. Whilst this can be a retrigger happy slot, rewards are often small a lot of the time, and getting a bunch of 5c prizes (on a €1 bet) doesn't always add up to a lot of fun. Not saying you can't win big here, but it does seem like players might be in for an uphill battle. Cash Box's other boner killer was its dry-as-white-toast bonus round, if you can call it that. According to the game rules, there is nothing in the bonus round which isn't in the base game, severely detracting from their desirability and demolishing all reasons for buying them.
If you're the sort of person who likes to pop open every flap on an Advent Calendar at once to gorge on the chocolate goodness contained therein, then there might be some sort of visceral satisfaction to be had playing Cash Boxes due to the way it flips to reveal prizes. If not, it's hard to think of many other reasons to recommend Cash Box, where the initially piqued interest level dwindled quickly to baseline again like an inverted Nike logo.
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