If it ain't broke, don't fix it seems to be the thinking behind Cash Patrol, an online slot from developer Pragmatic Play. What prompted this assessment is that the engine humming away behind the crime-busting scene has appeared in a stack of previous Pragmatic Play slots. This time the team has used a cops 'n robbers theme to spice up the front end, while the features used are prize pot collecting free spins and a Money Collect feature consisting of several special Collect symbols.
We mentioned crime-busting, but if you like, Cash Patrol could be about corrupt cops cruising the streets collecting kickbacks instead of busting bad guys. Text on the game invites players to pretend they are on the side of law enforcement or act as double agents being led to the loot - with a warning that 'crime doesn't pay.' Whatever your preference, the action happens on a game board set in the middle of a windy street scene in a city like Chicago or New York. As is often the case in these cops 'n crime games, Pragmatic Play has presented everything in a humorous way to brighten the mood, accentuated by a bouncy, jazzy, ska track. Like Empty the Bank, Cash Patrol provides a lighter-hearted journey through crime and its prevention.
Cash Patrol is playable on mobile, tablet, or desktop devices and provides players with bet levels of 25 p/c to $/€125 per spin. Like features, the stats should be just as recognisable to anyone who's played these kinds of games. Default RTP is steady at 96.5%, while volatility sits around the middle of the meter, rated by Pragmatic Play as 3 out of 5. It all takes place on a big, bold 5x3 game grid, where users get 25 paylines for hitting wins across.
Wins occur when three or more of a kind hit, and all eight pay symbols are neatly theme-based. This includes doughnut designed J-A royals as the game's low pays, and premium handcuffs, police hats, stacks of cash, and vintage car premiums. As for values, low pays are worth 4x the bet for five on a payline, increasing to 5-32x the bet for five high pays on a line. In addition, landing on all but the first reel, wild symbols assist in creating winning lines by substituting for any normal pay symbol.
Pretty much everything covered in this section has appeared before on more than one occasion in Pragmatic Play's impressive slot portfolio. The two biggies here are the Money Collect feature and a free spins bonus round.
In Cash Patrol, baddie adorned Money symbols land on reels 1 to 4, displaying a cash value, while Collect symbols appear on reel 5 with police officers on them. When at least one Money symbol lands on the same spin as a Collect symbol, one of these scenarios plays out, depending on the Collect symbol type:
This bonus round is triggered when 3 scatters hit, awarding 8 free spins. During free spins, Money symbols and Collect symbols are active as they are in the base game. However, when Money symbols land, their values are also stored in a special bonus pot. At the end of free spins, a giant Money symbol hits on the first four reels, while the fifth reel respins. If a Money Symbol lands on the fifth reel, the value of the bonus pot is added to the free spins total win.
No doubt a lot of players will be familiar with the sort of entertainment on offer in Cash Patrol. Its features, in one form or another, have been used in slots as thematically diverse as John Hunter and the Tomb of the Scarab Queen, Heart of Rio, El Dorado The City of Gold, and others. This mix of gameplay has been something of a success story for Pragmatic Play and is still going strong, capable of entertaining players captivated by Cash Patrol's specific style of gameplay.
It helps that the bonus rounds aren't just a standard batch of free spins or a regular money symbol collection system. Sure, it would be hard to classify either as innovative after the umpteenth repeat performance, but the duo is as fun in Cash Patrol as anywhere else. The variety of Collect symbols adds an extra dynamic that games like Fishin' Frenzy lack and, at times, pop out an okay payout. The concept of police officer Collect symbols chasing Money symbols baddies ties to the slot's cops chasing crooks motif in a playful way, too.
Arguably, the most exciting thing in Cash Patrol is the infamous respin at the end of free spins. It won't come around every day, but having the giant Money symbol in view while the fifth reel respin can be a nail-biting experience if a significant prize pot has been gathered. Naturally, not all pots are going to be massive, but like other slots packing these features, Cash Patrol comes with an eye-opening max win figure of 10,500x the bet. From what we saw, getting to 10k would be a tall order, but hey, the stats are there for players motivated by big numbers.
It's hard to avoid the impression Cash Patrol was a connect the dots exercise for Pragmatic Play. It can't have been a huge strain ripping out the innards of an older slot and jamming them into a new outer casing like a re-stuffed sausage. Still, while there's no ground-breaking tech, Cash Patrol provides an attractive option for players into Money Collect style games.
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