Online slot Mochimon was the first game to hit the review desk in the year 2023, and it is none other than a clone from software provider Pragmatic Play. The amount of clones, reskins, and remakes, not to mention the studio's sheer production numbers, gave Mochimon a sort of poetic inevitability. Let's just say it wasn't a huge surprise. What adds a dash of intrigue is finding out what game Mochimon was built from. Let's answer that question up front and reveal the original was the gummy bear-filled candy slot Sugar Rush, a game that dropped about half a year before this one. Will Mochimon be better, will it be worse, or just more or less the same?
Visually, the answer to that question will be whether you prefer cartoons or sweets. When creating Mochimon, the studio has turned to one of its favourite slot themes, Asian culture, and more specifically, the anime subsection of the broader genre. Mochimon is played on a 7x7 game grid which is bolted to the side of a van, like a roadside food outlet, covered in cute faces as its symbols, while an anime-style character bobs away next to it. The first memories weren't just of Sugar Rush but of a prior game called Wild Beach Party. Like Mochimon, Wild Beach Party was, in turn, basically a reskin of Fruit Party 2, with an anime twist. This time, however, instead of hanging around in a skimpy bikini, she slipped into what appears to be a French Maid outfit. Classy or trashy? You be the judge.
Hit the spin button, and 49 symbols drop onto the screen, forming a win when at least five matching symbols land adjacent to one another. Wins trigger a tumble mechanic, removing the winning symbols and filling the vacated spaces with symbols dropping down from above. Consecutive tumble wins will keep racking up payouts on the same spin until no new cluster win hits. This all takes place with the help of a highly volatile math model, possessing a top return to player value of 96.5% - whether buying free spins or wagering 20 p/c to $/€100 per paid spin.
It's hard to know what to call the symbols, being sprite-like characters of various descriptions. The game has seven of them, paying 0.2 to 1 times the bet for a five-symbol cluster or 20 to 150 times the bet for a 15+ symbol win. As mentioned, the tumble feature triggers after a win, plus there is no wild symbol to be found in Mochimon.
Working hand in hand with the tumble mechanic is the Multiplier Spots feature. This is available in the base game and in free spins. When a winning symbol explodes, it marks its position on the game grid. After the second time, a symbol explodes on the same spot, and a multiplier is added to the specific position. The multiplier starts at x2 and doubles every time symbols explode on that position, up to a maximum of x128. The multiplier applies to all winning combinations which land on top of it. If more than one multiplier is used in a win, the values are added together. In the base game, the multipliers persist until no more tumbles occur, then they are cleared for the next new spin.
The treasure chest is Mochimon's scatter, and landing 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 of them awards 10, 12, 15, 20, or 30 free spins, respectively. What changes in free spins is that marked spots and multipliers remain on the grid until free spins come to an end. Players win an additional 10, 12, 15, 20, or 30 free spins when 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 scatter symbols land during the feature, respectively. Also, where available, players can buy instant access to the bonus round for 100 times the stake. Buying free spins randomly lands 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7, triggering scatter symbols.
If you were wondering if the word Mochimon means something, 'Mochimon' is apparently a baby-level Digimon (Digital Monster) which we unearthed after doing some online digging. Digimon is a Japanese franchise which started in the late nineties and revolved around virtual pets before branching into a variety of entertainment forms, such as video games, TV, and movies. Not sure if Mochimon the slot has consciously tried to link itself to the popular franchise or not, but a tenuous association exists via the game's title. Will Bandai, Akiyoshi Hongo, or Toei Animation react? Let's wait and see.
Even if any of Digimon's owners did step in to silence Mochimon, interested players do have a fall-back option in the form of Sugar Rush. Putting the sights and sounds aside, the gameplay and stats are identical. Not a terrible thing, really, since Sugar Rush and, by extension, Mochimon are capable of cobbling together some pretty compelling sequences of events. Marked multiplier spaces in the base game provide opportunities for some nifty action, which can be elevated to the next level by their persistent quality in free spins. So much so that hitting Sugar Rush's win cap of 5,000x the bet has been captured on film, meaning it's likely to be achievable in Mochimon, too, when the critters and multipliers are playing ball.
It's not hard to see why Pragmatic Play made the executive decision to clone Sugar Rush. On the one hand, it sometimes feels like the studio is on a mission to recycle every game in its back catalogue, like some sort of hardcore slot eco-warrior. On the other hand, Sugar Rush came with some excellently replayable gaming, all of which is back, kicking as hard as ever, though the thrill of the new is naturally less in this anime makeover.
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