Get a taste of la dolce vita in an online slot from software provider Pragmatic Play titled Via Del Corso. For a bit of background, Via Del Corso is the name of a street that runs through the heart of Rome, which has links running back to the year 220 BC. At one end is the Piazza Venezia near the impressive Altare della Patria, while the other way leads to Piazza del Popolo, one of the most stunning urban spaces in Europe. If you can't make it to the Eternal City for a traipse down this historical street, well, maybe Via Del Corso, the online slot will go some way in filling the desire.
An exclusive release, Via Del Corso is played on a 5-reel, 3-row gaming panel, set beneath a striped canopy, like a roadside stall, while bits of Rome peep out from around the sides. If you've got itchy feet, then the glimpses you get of columned structures, charming buildings, and timeless skies might have you scanning the internet for cheap flights. It's all pleasantly arranged, hinting at la dolce vita while setting the scene for the action to come like a dainty hors d'oeuvre.
Getting the Italian escapade rolling means first selecting a bet from 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin and deciding whether or not to switch on the Ante Bet. Doing so increases the stake by 40%, thereby doubling the chance of triggering the free spins bonus round. Playable on any device, this highly volatile online slot comes with a default return to player value of 96.56%. Via Del Corso clearly displays both volatility rating and RTP figures on its paytable, so players are never left wondering what's going on behind the scenes.
Across the game's five reels, 25 fixed paylines have been wedged in to evaluate line wins. All of Via Del Corso's 11 regular pay symbols trigger a reward for three, four, or five-of-a-kinds. Hitting a five-symbol winning way made up of the 10-A low pays awards 1 to 2 times your stake, whereas doing so with five of the traffic lights, bags, piles of luggage, taxis, postage stamps, or tourist premium symbols is worth 4 to 30 times the bet.
Wild symbols are one of Via Del Corso's most critical components. For starters, wild symbols are present on all reels and substitute for any regular pay symbol. As well as helping complete line wins, wilds land with a random multiplier of x2, x3, or x5. Wild multipliers apply to any win they are part of. When more than 1 wild is part of a payline, the values of all relevant wilds are added up before being used. In addition, a winning line of five wilds is worth 40x the bet.
Getting to Via Del Corso's main course occurs when 3 scatter symbols hit on reels 1, 3, and 5. Next, 9 firework baskets go off, each basket awarding 1 to 3 free spins, for a total of 9 to 27, before the round begins. One of the main benefits of playing in free spin mode is that wild symbols, when they hit, remain on the board until the feature comes to an end. They do not stick in the position they landed in, however, but roam around between free spins. Hopefully, they do something special in the allotted number of free spins because the bonus round cannot be retriggered.
On a final note, free spins may be purchased by making use of the bonus buy button. Laying out 100 times the bet buys entrance to the bonus round.
There was something instantly familiar about Via Del Corso from the moment we crossed paths with it – and not just because Italy is one of the world's most popular travel destinations. The other reason is because the roaming multiplier wilds, the free spins triggering procedure, and pretty much everything besides the theme and the bonus buy option have come from a previous Pragmatic Play slot by the name of Hot Fiesta. The prior game might have had aspersions of heat, yet it wasn't one that really stood out at the time as anything particularly special. While statistically and mechanically sound, it nevertheless failed to ignite much passion despite its fiery fiesta theme.
Nevertheless, there presumably was some sort of demand for more because Hot Fiesta is back in the form of Via Del Corso, and entertainment is here to be enjoyed by the right gambler. Wild multipliers brighten the base game, and giving them roaming powers in free spins may help sweeten the deal. They might not multiply each other when more than one wild is included in a win, but adding them together instead could work out alright, and Via Del Corso has the same winning potential as before, coming in at 5,000 times the bet.
Also, like before, Via Del Corso was generally okay overall but didn't do anything particularly amazing. Like chowing down on a so-so slice from a busy Roman pizzeria, Via Del Corso and its roaming wild multipliers have the ability to hit a certain spot, though it isn't the sort of place we would necessarily be rushing back to on a future visit.
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