Carnaval Forever slot review

Carnaval Forever puts us in the middle of a carnival parade, enjoying the music and taking in the sights. There’s no party like a Brazilian party!

Carnaval Forever lets us experience the most famous celebration in the world from the comfort of our own home, as we’re treated to the expected mix of extravagant costumes and a cheery soundtrack.

Developed by Betsoft and released in 2019, this is one of the newest carnival-themed games and it shows. The images are not only at the level of quality I expect from a modern game but the colours almost jump off the screen. The entire game with its 5 rows and 10-paylines is filled with extravagant symbols. Add to that the bright background of golden flowerpots and a dark blue sky and I felt absolutely dazzled.

Unfortunately, that dazzle faded a bit when I realized most of the slot is static. There is very little movement apart from the reels spinning, with only the winning symbols giving a quick shine. That’s normally not something I’d make a comment on but when compared to a game like Thunderkick’s Carnival Queen it’s like day and night. Where Carnival Queen has animated characters and an interactive background, Carnaval Forever has none of that.

What makes up for that a lot is the authentic carnival music that played while I was spinning and I won’t feel the need to ever visit the real thing again. When it comes to musical immersion, Carnaval Forever really did an excellent job. I was bobbing my head with the music as I kept the spins going.

Symbols

Carnaval Forever is completely set in the style of carnival and that includes the symbols. From highest to lowest those are:

• Carnaval Queen (Free Spins): Get 3 or more Carnaval Queens on screen at the same time to trigger the Free Spins phase.
• Wild: Max. 100x your bet when you get five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• King Carnaval: Max. 75x your bet when you get five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Purple Dancer: Max. 50x your bet when you get five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Red Dancer: Max. 50x your bet when you get five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Green Dancer: Max. 25x your bet when you get five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Blue Dancer: Max. 25x your bet when you get five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Ace: Max. 15x your bet when you get five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• King: Max. 15x your bet when you get five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Queen: Max. 7.5x your bet when you get five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Jack: Max. 7.5x your bet when you get five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• 10: Max. 5x your bet when you get five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Bonus Coin: Reduces the cost of the Buy Feature.

The symbols pop up and shine when they’re on a winning payline but don’t get their own animation. If you get a Bonus Coin, it’ll jump off the reel and reduces the price of the Buy Feature which I’ll get into a little later.

Features

While playing Carnaval Forever I was quite surprised by the number of features it has, although some of them have to be activated by the player.

The features are:

• Wilds: During both the base game and the Free Spins phase Wild symbols can appear on the screen. These substitute all other symbols in the game except the Free Spins symbol and Bonus Coin.
• Free Spins: When you get 3 or more Free Spins symbols on screen at the same time, this will trigger the Free Spins phase. You can get up to 9 free spins to start with, but additional Free Spins symbols can appear during the Free Spins phase!
• Buy Feature: If you don’t want to wait for the Free Spins phase to trigger you can use the Buy Feature to activate it immediately. This costs 100x your bet and you’ll get 10 Free Spins.
• Bonus Coin: While playing the base game, Bonus Coins appear on the screen. These reduce the cost of activating the Buy Feature by a few coins each.
• Double Up: After you make any win in the base game, you can choose to Double Up your win. Simply choose Heads or Tails to immediately double it if you choose correctly. But be careful: a wrong choice and you lose your win!

As you can probably tell, the game puts a heavy emphasis on the Free Spins phase. I think it’s almost uniquely a Betsoft feature to be able to simply buy your way into this part of the game. The reason Carnaval Forever offers this option seems obvious: it’s easily the best way to increase your balance.

Triggering the Free Spins phase organically by playing the base game did not happen very often for me. I would regularly get two Free Spins symbols but fail to get a third. Even though the game has Medium Volatility it did feel like I was slowly bleeding coins as I got fewer normal wins.

When I did get into the Free Spins phase it would generally be lucrative. The game does not change at all from the base game but any wins you make using Free Spins are obviously all profit. Add to that the fact that any new Free Spins symbols add more Free Spins to the pool and I would regularly end up playing with double the amount of Free Spins I started with.

So why not use the Buy Feature constantly and only play the Free Spins phase? That’s simple. You do have to pay an upfront cost to activate it, which means you have to make that cost back with the Free Spins phase before you start actually winning anything. When I tried the Buy Feature I would usually come up short.

Another way to do it is to play for such a long time that the Bonus Coins that show up occasionally reduce the Buy Feature cost to a more acceptable level. The problem with that is that the Bonus Coins don’t show up regularly enough, nor do they reduce the cost by more than a few coins each. It would require you to play for such a long time you might as well have used the Buy Feature immediately.

In Conclusion

Carnaval Forever is a classic slot that gives players who prefer a simple but modern and colourful slot exactly what they want. There are different features to play around with if you’d like but you’re never forced to.

I think the slot really captures the mood of the real Brazilian carnival but it was also pretty barebones for a 2019 slot in terms of technical accomplishments. There were no real animations, no intro or even moving backgrounds. The soundtrack did help in getting me in the right vibe!

With the ability to change your bet between £0.10 and £10 the Buy Feature becomes more or less interesting, but I felt like buying the Free Spins actually cost me money instead of winning me any. It’s up to everyone individually to decide if they want to use it. The slot having medium volatility should mean a paced out but steady supply of wins, with a maximum win of 1000x your bet but it didn’t really feel that way to me.

As someone who prefers slots that are a little more clever in how they’re presented, I think Carnaval Forever skipped a few steps it shouldn’t have. The base slot experience is solid though and I enjoyed playing it even if it didn’t really do anything new.