Napoleon vs Rabbits

Napoleon vs Rabbits: Slot Overview

Software provider Blue Guru Games is, in its own words, 'driven by a passion for great stories', and the team has a good one to share in its online slot Napoleon vs Rabbits. This one they didn't invent, but it tells the story of Napoleon being attacked or at least charged down by a pack of feisty rabbits in a hunt gone wrong. It's a story that's worth looking up if you're the sort of person interested in history. For players interested in historical-looking games, Napoleon vs Rabbits might be worth investigating as well.

The reason being is the studio went all 8-bit when designing Napoleon vs Rabbits. This is by no means a uniquely singular thing to do in the slot realm. The approach has been put to excellent use in games like Hellcatraz, Santa's Stack, and NFT Megaways. With those three games, the studios which made them skated a fine line between looking retro while retaining a modern edge. Napoleon vs Rabbits, on the other hand, is jolly but feels more dated than hip. Maybe some will fall for the appearance; others, well, they might just be thanking their lucky stars that graphics and sound effects have progressed so much since the days of yore.

Napoleon vs Rabbits is a cluster paying grid slot, played on a panel made up of 7-reels and 7-rows. Each spin sees 49 symbols fall into the active area, creating a win when at least 5 identical pay symbols land adjacent to each other in vertical or horizontal directions. Running beneath the pixelated surface is a highly volatile math model (5 out of 5), producing a max return to player value of 95.45% when betting regularly or when buying free spins. Stakes vary from 10 p/c to $/€100 per paid drop, and any device can host the bunnies and Napoleon experience on.

Winning clusters explode off the board by the cascade feature; symbols then fall down from above into the spaces. The cascades repeatedly trigger like this until no new win appears. Making up the regular pays are a green, orange, red, and purple carrot as the lower lot, then a sword, medal, and hat as the high pays. For a five-of-a-kind cluster, awards range from 0.1-0.4x the bet for the lows, 0.5-1x for the highs, while the largest clusters of 40-49 of a kind pay 100-400x the bet for the carrots, 500-1,000x the bet for the premiums. Badge 'W's are one of the wild types, substituting for all normal pay symbols. The second wild is the Napoleon Wild symbol, which also substitutes for regular pay symbols. A Napoleon Wild symbol is always on the screen, and it is not removed when used in winning clusters, nor does it cascade.

Napoleon vs Rabbits: Slot Features

For Napoleon vs Rabbits' features, why don't we start with the Rabbit Run feature? When winning clusters include the Napoleon Wild symbol, a rabbit appears on the side of the grid. When the cascade sequence ends, all of the spawned rabbits run towards the Napoleon Wild symbol, transforming symbols in their path into Mystery symbols. Rabbits that overlap the Mystery Rabbit Box symbols unlock them. Mystery symbols transform into the same symbol type.

Mystery Rabbit Box Symbol

Mystery Rabbit Box symbols do not cascade and are unlocked when a winning cluster hits next to them. When a cascade sequence ends, Mystery Rabbit Box symbols release extra Mystery symbols.

Free Spins

Unlocking 3 Mystery Rabbit Box symbols in one spin sequence awards 7 free spins. Each unlocked box after the first 3 awards +3 additional free spins and increases the win multiplier by +1. During the free spins round, each unlocked box awards +3 extra free spins and increases the win multiplier by +1. Lastly, if activated on your casino, free spins can be bought for the cost of 50 times the bet. The RTP when buying the bonus is 95.45%.

Napoleon vs Rabbits: Slot Verdict

As mentioned, the 8-bit angle isn't exactly unique in slots, but Blue Guru Games has pushed the approach just about as far as it is possible to go. Perhaps too far because a fresh appreciation for audio-visual progression in all walks of gaming arose by the time the review was done. Blue Guru Games hasn't so much as nailed the retro-ness, as much as over-nailed it. The tinny, albeit cheerful, sounding music gradually lost its charm, and the graphics would've looked average even back in the day when this sort of heavy pixelated look was the norm. Napoleon vs Rabbits delivers a powerful nostalgic hit. However, at the same time, it kind of removed some of the tint from the rose-tinted glasses in the process, as in, maybe the good old days weren't quite so good?

Then again, maybe we're being paranoid, so let's not sully the memory of past classic games. Either way, you can get what Napoleon vs Rabbits was going for, but it ended up being just a little too much miss than hit. Everything had a slow-paced, moving-through treacle effect, which okay is probably much of the point, yet it wasn't hugely enjoyable, and after understanding why rabbits run to Napoleon, the comedic value eventually dipped as well. Mix in so-so potential, and by the end, ideas of running amok in some virtual world, sampling all of the delights modern gaming has to offer, arose.

To sum up, let's acknowledge the creative thinking that went into making Napoleon vs Rabbits, using an interesting slice of the past as a basis for the game as a whole and then incorporating chase bits into some of the features. It could work for players absolutely head over heels with the clunky, slow-paced old-school execution. Otherwise, Napoleon vs Rabbits may well come across as being a little too clunky, slow-paced, and old-school for a more modern palate.