In their slot machine Lucky Fridays, developers Red Tiger pay tribute to the working week. The typical workplace is a great setting for gaming. Then, for a short time, the Party Time function is triggered, giving players access to a number of bonuses and higher symbol values.
The game begins with a scene that many gamers will recognize. The scene in the backdrop depicts a desk piled high with the usual assortment of office supplies: staplers, pencils, document holders, tape, and, most importantly, a cup of coffee. The 5 reel, 30 payline grid is located in the middle of the screen. Some gamers could be scared off by the prospect of spending additional time gazing at this scenery.
There are two game modes available on Lucky Friday: the standard weekday spins and the Party Time. A digital clock that can be spun around to advance the hour. You may check the time and see how much longer it will be until the next big celebration by looking at the clock that lies below the reels. The typical rotation begins on a Monday at 08:00 and ends on a Friday at 18:00. At this point, the game enters Party Mode, when all of the unlockables can be used.
You may play Lucky Fridays on any device, and wagers range from 10 cents to $20 every spin. When you make a wager change, the clock rolls back to Monday at 08:00. Of course, you may resume your progress in the original wager if you return to it.
Red Tiger’s 95.77% RTP is just below the norm, and its volatility is in the high-to-medium range. Lucky Fridays has a low ceiling and, as a result, its output is typical of that of a Red Tiger game.
Here, you’ll only find unique symbols, such as cheap inanimate items and expensive human beings. Examples of low pay are a perfume bottle, a wallet with keys, a pair of dress shoes, a pair of sunglasses, and a high-end wristwatch. In this set, a five of a kind returns between one and two and a half times the initial wager. Two male and two female partygoers represent the high-status icons. The payout for a winning full line is 4x to 10x the initial wager.
The wild symbol, representing one of the least commuting-friendly vehicles available, concludes this section. The red Lamborghini-like symbol can stand in for any other symbol to help complete winning paylines. It is also the most lucrative, paying out 20 times the wager for five in a row in both game modes.
The Lucky Fridays Show: Specials
Players are always on their way out the door and ready to have fun as soon as the clock strikes 18:00 on a Friday. When the Party Time option is activated, the game’s backdrop picture is transformed into something more festive than a PC on a messy desk.
The high-paying symbols now also dress for the party, complete with party hats, cigars, leis, and wine. Moreover, the value of the highest paying symbols grows as well. A line of six premiums is worth 11–15 times the stake during Party Time.
Players also have the opportunity to activate three additional modifiers during Party Time. On any given spin of Party Time, one or more of these bonuses might appear at random.
For the opportunity for a larger premium win, Party Reels eliminates all low paying symbols.
Wild Party can unleash reel-wide, 3×3 wilds at any time.
The Multiplier Party rolls one or two dice to determine a multiplier for the subsequent win, up to a maximum of x12.
Like Cinderella’s night at the ball, Party Time comes to an end at midnight. Then Monday rolls along, and it’s back to the water cooler and nursing hangovers.
Friday the 13th: The Verdict
Lucky Fridays is a lot like the average work week: you spend Monday through Friday in the office, counting down the hours until the weekend, and then you spend the weekend trying to cram as much pleasure as possible into those two days. That’s certainly the case with Lucky Fridays, where nothing much occurs over the course of 55 spins without any special features. It’s a race against the time to get to the exciting parts.
Those few turns of Party Time will have to make up the difference then. On sometimes, they might even turn out OK, with enough extra features to spew out a respectable payout. There were other instances of Party Time where only a few wilds emerged at random during a single spin. Then you wake up on Monday at 8:00 AM and realize you still have five days to make it until Friday night. It’s eerily similar to actual events. You want more of a break from reality after spending some time with Lucky Fridays.
One might also argue that Lucky Fridays is more of a social commentary than a slot machine. Is this a damning indictment of the five-day workweek and two-day weekend that so many people throughout the world had to endure for so long? During Party Spins, the value of people symbols increases since they depict happy individuals. The game seems to be arguing that we shouldn’t evaluate people based on how big a gear they are in the capitalist wheel.
However, we are dealing with a slot, and slots are not exactly the most exciting thing ever. It would have been good if Red Tiger could have crammed a few extra features into the basic mode so that players could have some fun throughout the work week. The Party Time spins are overrepresented in comparison to the other spins played during the week. After a disappointing Party Time on Friday night, it might be tempting to quit your job rather than return to the office on Monday morning.