iFiesta Cubana Slot: A Little Skill Can Unlock This Bonus-Rich Game

The beautiful country of Cuba is now open to visitors once again. The thawing of the relations between this still fiercely communist country and the West has opened up its incredible cultural style to an increasing number of people. Cuba has taken its many different influences from the ages to create its own diverse range of culture, from Rumba and jazz, to the famous cigars produced there. You’d have to be ‘Havana’ bad day not to smile when you see how this is all interpreted in the iFiesta Cubana slot.

From the moment the slot loads up and you hear that Flamenco guitar and the salsa beat take hold, you know that this is a slot that will celebrate all things Cuban. And my word, how it does that. NextGen has produced an outstanding looking and sounding slot that is as bright and colorful as they come. But does it have the quality of game lurking on the reels that such a beautifully presented slot deserves? Let’s take a closer look and find out.

Overview: iFiesta Cubana

I don’t know why they named this iFiesta Cubana, rather than simply Fiesta Cubana. It sounds somewhat like an Apple initiative rather than a slot game. Regardless of how it’s named, this is a 5×3 reel slot featuring 243 ways to win rather than paylines. That means you only need to land symbols across the reels consecutively to trigger a win.

Better still, you can play the game for as little as $0.50 per spin. You can ramp that up to as much as $100 per spin if you prefer. That puts this more in the realm of the medium to lower stakes players. The game will also tempt higher rollers who prefer a higher bet range. With the backdrop of a gloriously sunny Cuban town and a number of exciting bonus features, this slot is certainly one to get your foot tapping in time with the beat.

Who will the iFiesta Cubana slot appeal to?

This is perhaps a more difficult question to answer on the iFiesta Cubana slot than on others. This game is a celebration of Cuban culture. If you like things bright, breezy, cheerful and energetic, then this is certainly a slot you’ll enjoy. Add to this the beautiful sunny skies and outstanding soundtrack and, if you like your slots to evoke happy feelings as you play then you won’t go wrong here.

The slot also has some interesting bonus features. These include the almost obligatory free spins game, but also a Fiesta Cubana Respins Bonus. This will certainly attract free spins players to the game to see how the bonus works. The fact that this is a ways-to-win slot, rather than paylines, will also attract players who feel these slots offer a better opportunity for more regular wins.

Gameplay: iFiesta Cubana

The first thing to do is select the size of your bet. You can wager from $0.50 per spin up to $100 per spin. Once you’ve set the amount you want to bet, simply click the green Spin button. This will get the reels in motion. You can also use the Auto Spin feature with a user-defined number of spins at the current bet level.

The reels include a variety of high and low value symbols. It’s important to distinguish between the two, as it is only the high value symbols that trigger the Fiesta Cubana Respins feature. The five lower value symbols are all artifacts from Cuban culture: maracas, bongo drums, a cocktail and a cigar. Five of any of these on a payline offers 50 coins as the maximum win.

There are five higher value symbols on the reels too, and these are all represented by people. There are two sets of dancers, male and female, plus two female dancers on their own, as well as a cigar-smoking musician. These symbols offer higher value wins of up to 100 coins on a payline.

Additional features

To help you land wins there is the iFiesta Cubana Wild symbol. This substitutes for all high and low value symbols to create winning paylines. It only appears on the third reel and when it’s used alongside a higher value symbol to complete a win, it will trigger the Fiesta Cubana Respins bonus.

When this occurs, the symbols creating the win stay while all other positions on the reels will be re-spun. If you can add further symbols to your current selection, the value of your win increases. You’ll also receive another respin. Keep adding symbols to your selection and you can rack up some massive wins using this feature.

You can also access the Free Spins bonus by landing the three car scatter symbols on the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th reels. This will trigger 8 free spins. During this bonus round, a Wild symbol holds in place in the middle of reel three for the entire duration of free spins. You can also trigger the Fiesta Cubana Respins feature during free spins. Furthermore, if you land three more scatters, you can win an additional 8 free spins each time you trigger it.

Finally, any cash win in the game can be gambled using the Gamble feature. This offers you the chance to predict the color or suit of the next card from the pack. Guess the color correctly and you double your money. Guess the suit correctly and you quadruple your win. You can gamble your winnings up to five times on this feature.

Special features: iFiesta Cubana

Gamble feature

Any time you win a cash amount on the iFiesta Cubana slot, you are able to gamble your winnings up to five times on the Gamble feature, which is simply a card prediction game. Guess the correct color to double your winnings. Or you can guess the correct suit of the card drawn to quadruple your win.

Fiesta Cubana Re-Spins

Land a high symbol win with a Wild in play on the middle reel and you launch the Fiesta Cubana Respins bonus. Here you will respin the reels not part of the win to see if you can collect more symbols. Each spin that lands a symbol awards a win and another respin and a chance to collect more symbols and land an even bigger win. Some massive base game wins can be won this way.

Free Spins

Land three of the motorcar scatter symbols on the middle three reels and you receive 8 free spins. During your free spins the Wild symbol is always in place on the middle reel and you can launch the Fiesta Cubana Respins bonus from within free spins. You can also earn additional free spins by landing the scatters again.

What works?

Presentation

The presentation of the iFiesta Cubana slot is absolutely fantastic. The Rumba-infused soundtrack is absolutely spot on for the slot. All the bright cheerful graphics, musical influences, and all the symbols on the reels absolutely capture the essence of what we feel Cuba is about.

Free Spins round

One of the most pleasing aspects of the slot is that when you trigger the free spins round, you can still access the other bonuses. This really does make a difference, especially when that Wild is glued in place on the reels for your 8 free spins. It makes hitting the Fiests Cubana Respins feature much easier. As such, free spins tend to be relatively profitable.

Fiesta Cubana Respins

This feature is without doubt what makes the slot so appealing. Tt can be triggered in the base game and Free Spins and offers players the chance of some huge wins. Not all wins on this feature are massive though and it can be quite volatile. But there is genuine excitement each time you trigger it and you do tend to trigger this bonus relatively frequently, which is a nice touch.

What doesn’t?

No multipliers

Many slots nowadays seem to be shying away from using multipliers. I think that is an unwise move. Even adding a multiplier to Wild wins, such as a 2x multiplier, really adds value to the slot. When they’re not there, you do feel slightly cheated.

Small jackpot

While you can win some very nice cumulative sums on the iFiesta Cubana slot, the actual jackpot size in the base game and free spins is just 300 coins. That isn’t going to attract many players to give the slot a try who simply want to aim for a big jackpot prize.

Few bigger wins

Those bigger wins of say 50x your wager or more are very difficult to come by at times. You do need patience and careful management of your bankroll to trigger them. They are possible. But the fact they are tough to get does give this slot teeth, Players need to be wary that it can, at times, play very tight.

The scores

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Graphics & soundtrack 5/5

The graphics are outstanding on this slot as is the soundtrack. Simple, yet effective and they work with the gameplay superbly well.

Originality & creativity 4/5

The Respins bonus is a real boon for this slot and gives it tones of originality, the base game and free spins round are somewhat generic but the fact that you can access the Respins bonus from either does help give the slot a feeling that it is something you haven’t played before.

Play value 3/5

Although this can be a volatile slot, very volatile at times, there is a nice mix. Some sessions you have will be tough and wins hard to come by, other times the slot seems to throw a few big wins at you in a short space of time. Overall, played over a longer period, the play value on this slot is relatively decent.

Jackpot potential 1/5

This is the one thing that lets the iFiesta Cubana slot down. A jackpot of 300 coins, even if it can be won on multiple paylines, is just not going to get enough players excited to try the game. That’s a shame, as with the 243 ways to win, you can actually win considerably more than that relatively frequently.

Repeat play 5/5

Although the low jackpot is an issue, there is so much to like with this slot. The fact that you cannot help but smile and sway along to the beat as you play will mean that this is a slot that remains high on your play list for some time to come. Those rare big wins also help that too.

Total score: 18/25

iFiesta Cubana is a hugely enjoyable, happy slot that will have you smiling and spinning from the moment it loads up. There’s some excellent bonuses available and some big wins lurking if you have the patience and skill to unlock them. This is a very enjoyable higher variance game.