Babushkas
We are off to Russia with the new product from Thunderkick to be released on 24th of August. Babushkas, the famous Russian hand-carved and hand-painted dolls placed one inside another, are used as the theme for this pokie.
The reels are set on a colourful hand-knitted sweater background, so all you need is a bottle of vodka and the Kalinka song in the background to feel as if you are sitting somewhere in Moscow.
It is a well-known fact that Babushka dolls have several dolls inside one another, and Thunderkick used this idea for leveling up the symbols on the reels, so the smaller the symbols get, the bigger the payouts.
Developer
Thunderkick is a rather young company in online casino industry, being founded in 2012 in Stockholm, Sweden, but do not get fooled by their youth, since all of the founders got years of experience in game development. Thunderkick brought a breath of fresh air in the business, offering unique pokies with authentic themes, rewarding special features, top-notch graphics and fun gameplay.
Even though the company form Stockholm does not offer as many pokies, games like Esqueleto Explosivo, Birds on a Wire and Sunny Scoops had made them very recognizable among online gamers.
How To Play It
All symbols are presented by babushka dolls, big and small. The pokie offers 7 different levels of Babushkas, going from 6 to 0, 6 being the lowest one. The smaller the Babushkas get, the bigger the prizes are, so look to pop up as many Babushkas as you can to earn lucrative payouts.
In order to start upgrading your Babushkas, simply land winning combinations and watch the Babushkas dance as you do it. The 2016 release is a five-reel pokie with 17 fixed paylines.
It is believed that the minimum bet will be somewhere around $0.10, while the maximum wager will be $100. We expect that the pokie will pay from left to right, starting from the leftmost reel and that three of a kind will be a minimum combination required for landing payouts.
Wild Egg symbol can appear only on reel 3 and once you land it, it will open and reveal one of three Bears symbols crucial for triggering Bear Mystery features.
Try Babushkas Pokie Completely FREE:
Special Features
As we already mentioned, Babushkas can upgrade from level 6 to level 0 by being a part of winning combinations. Another way to upgrade them is through Bear Mystery features and there are three of them. Once you landed a Wild Egg symbol on reel 3, the Egg will pop open and reveal one of three Bears.
The Scare Bear can frighten the lowest value Babushkas into randomly upgrading from 1 to 3 levels instantly. This is where you should not expect to see the cute dance of those charming dolls, since they will simply pop open in fear.
The Charm Bear will upgrade all symbols on the reels by 1 level using nothing but his charisma. The Dance Bear will trigger Free Spin feature and award you with 7 freebies, with the Egg Wild appearing in each of them, giving you plenty of opportunities for further upgrades of your Babushkas.
Now, you are probably asking yourselves why the hell do you need to upgrade your symbols so much, and the answer is quite simple – once you manage to fill up the entire screen with Level 0 dolls, you will be awarded with a Wipe Win which supposedly awards gamers with up to 100 times the triggering bet.
Maximum Payouts
Talking about maximum payouts, the word is that gamers can expect up to 390 times the total bet to be the highest possible win they can land.
We still do not know how this is achieved, but we think it has something to do with Level 0 Babushkas and the Wipe Win, or it could have something to do with the Free Spin feature. To be on the safe side, try and upgrade your dolls to the highest possible level and expect rewarding payouts for your trouble.
Summary
It seems that Babushkas will be a very entertaining video pokie. Despite the fact that we only had a glimpse at it, judging from the available information, we can expect a colourful pokie with cute little dolls dancing around while you land winning combinations.
It is believed that this Playtech product will be affordable for a wide audience due to its betting range. When it comes to special features, we will have more than enough action with the Bear Mystery features, Free Spins and Wipe Wins.
Even though the 2016 release will be rolled out at the end of August, it can get rather cold in Russia, so do prepare a wool sweater and a bottle of vodka to keep yourself warm, and if you level up your Babushkas to the max, you might end up dancing the Kalinka.
