Samba de Frutas Slot Machine
In 2014 the Samba de Frutas video slot machine was released by International Game Technology (IGT), one of the leading slot designers in the world.
The game can be found both in brick and mortar casinos and over the internet, under the IGT Interactive umbrella, via more than 100 online casino platforms. Among the major online casino brands affiliated with IGT Interactive are Bet365, BetVictor, Paddy Power, Party Casino, and William Hill.
As the title suggests, Samba de Frutas slots are based on a distinctive theme: the eclectic Brazilian musical style known as samba. When you see clips of the famous Carnival festival, held in Brazilian cities and towns every February, the upbeat sounds emanating from the street side parties are invariably those of samba music.
Typically played with the cavaquinho, a small four string guitar like instrument favored in Brazil, and various percussion instruments, samba music has been favored by fans of up tempo beats since the dawn of the 20th century allowed for recordings to be easily spread. By the 1950s, samba music was flourishing in nightclubs and dance halls throughout the United States and Europe.
The term samba is also associated with the sensual, rhythmic style of dance favored by fans of the famous musical genre. Samba dancers were once a staple of the casino show scene, with long legged women donning revealing costumes and moving along with the festive melodies of Brazil's national music. One of the more recognizable samba dancer costumes donned during Carnival features the fruit theme, with women adorning their dresses with grapes and oranges in strategic areas to conceal themselves. And no samba costume is complete without a towering headdress comprised of apples, bananas, pineapples, and other fruit assembled into wearable headgear.
Famous samba musicians include Zeca Pagodinho, Chico Buarque, Gilberto Gil, and Beth Carvalho.
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Visual Elements
In designing the visual elements for Samba de Frutas, which translates to samba of the fruits in English, IGT went all out in committing to the unmistakable samba style. The game's title screen features a smiling Brazilian woman clad in the characteristic samba dancer garb, down to the purple dress and earrings fashioned to resemble green grapes and a necklace made of strawberries. On her head, the title screen dancer wears all variety of tropical fruits, and her hands are heading skyward in anticipation of the next move.
The game's background screen shows pineapples concealed beneath the reel area, while the samba dancer is featured in a side screen designed to evoke a 1950s era film poster. The billing reads "IGT Presents: Samba de Frutas", while assorted fruits fill out the foreground of the poster.
Moving on to the reel symbols, Samba de Frutas starts with the traditional card rank symbols used in many IGT slots, and most slots for that matter. So you'll be spinning the usual 9, 10, J, Q, K, and A symbols, each of which is shown in bright, colorful Carnival like colors.
The assortment of themed symbols serves as the perfect supplement to the Samba de Frutas theme. You'll find the pair of blue parrots, the pair of black toucans, the samba man with maracas, the samba dancing woman, the fruit hat, and the pair of maracas Bonus symbol.
The fruit hat symbol is crucial in Samba de Frutas, as it serves as a Stacked Wild which can fill up multiple symbol spaces on a single reel. The fruit hat symbol can be double sized, occupying two symbol spaces at a time, or stretch out to cover three, four, or even all of the spaces on a given reel. As you might suspect, the inclusion of Stacked Wild symbols gives Samba de Frutas an added element of flair, because many spins will include a wide range of wild fruit hat symbols to work with while you try to land winning combinations.
A slot game based on samba music must include a lively soundtrack to enhance the ambience, and Samba de Frutas succeeds in that regard. While you play, the game will serenade you with upbeat samba tunes straight from the genre's glory days, and soon enough you'll find yourself tapping your feet to the rhythm while you play.
This combination of visual design and audio enhancement combines to make Samba de Fruta an entertaining game, one fitting of its co opting of Brazilian culture. You can't help but enjoy yourself with the tunes in the background and colorful fruit all over the screen.
Gameplay Features and Mechanics
Technically speaking, IGT classifies Samba de Frutas as an eight reel, 100 pay line design, but from the player's perspective, the game is really of the five reel variety.
The distinction here is superficial of course, but from your perspective, you won't be watching eight reels spin. Instead, the game displays five spinning reels, but each reel is stretched out to become double the size of a standard reel array.
Each of these five lengthened reels holds eight symbol spaces, putting 40 reel symbols in play on every spin.
From a certain perspective, then, you might say the game combines two sets of five reel, each with 20 symbol spaces, one on top of the other. But even so, each of the five reels you'll see on screen spin as one, so in effect Samba de Frutas becomes a five reel game.
In terms of pay lines, you can toggle between 1, 8, 25, 50, 75, and the full 100 pay lines, but experienced slot players know that activating all possible pay lines is the best way to enjoy a game's full range of features and payouts.
The coin denominations available in this game begin at the penny slot level, before moving up to $0.02, $0.03, $0.05, $0.10, $0.20, $0.25, $0.30, $0.50, $1, $2, $3, $5, and $10.
Assuming you play all 100 pay lines, the minimum cost to cover would then be $1, while the maximum bet rises to a monstrous $1,000 per spin. For the most part though, recreational players stick to stakes between a penny and a nickel, making for $1 and $5 minimums per spin.
For fans of the IGT slot design template, Samba de Frutas will be right up their alley, as it is built around the familiar offering of wild symbols, and a bonus symbol that can trigger multipliers and the free spins bonus round. Unfortunately, the game doesn't connect with any progressive jackpot networks, so you'll have to be content with the base game's rewards.
Check below for a primer on important game specifications for Samba de Frutas:
- Wilds: Yes
- Free Spins: Yes
- Multiplier: Yes, for 2x
- Bonus Game: Yes
- Progressive: No
- Return to Player: 93.37%
With no progressives in play, the biggest payout you can earn in Samba de Frutas occurs when you land five of the fruit hat wild symbols across the reels. For this feat, you'll bring back a full 1,000 credits. Landing four of the fruit hat wild symbols is good for a payout of 250 credits, and you'll receive a reward of 50 credits for landing three.
Both the samba man with maracas symbol and the samba dancing woman symbol offer 500, 100, and 25 credits for landing five, four, or three, respectively. As for the pair of black toucans and the pair of blue parrots symbols, each returns the same pay scheme of 250 / 75 / 25.
As for the card rank symbols, you'll get 150 credits for landing five of the As or Ks, and 100 credits whenever five Qs, Js, 10s, or 9s flash across the reels.
This standardized pay table, combined with a low minimum cost to cover, makes Samba de Frutas the classic low volatility game. Players can usually enjoy extended sessions sustained by small wins, while disastrous fruitless runs are quite rare.
This has been mentioned already, but a refresher is always in order when it comes to wild symbols. The fruit hat symbol in this game serves as a wild symbol - appearing as a Stacked Wild more often than not - and it can replace every symbol in the game, except for the Bonus symbol, to help you create winning combinations.
As for that Bonus symbol, it will only show up on the second, third, and fourth reels, so these middle reels become key to your overall progress. Whenever you see just one or two of the Bonus symbols on screen, you'll be disappointed because they don't trigger any winners or payouts. But should three of them hit the board, occupying all three of the middle reels, you'll enjoy a 2x multiplier which doubles any payouts generated on that screen.
But that's not all, as seeing three of the Bonus symbols onscreen provides the entry point for Samba de Frutas' free spins bonus round.