El Torero

With bullfighting becoming evermore condemned even in Spanish-speaking countries it is perhaps best that the subject has moved into the realm of online gaming. El Torero by Merkur Gaming takes the subject as a theme and adds in coin prizes as possible wins instead of fame and bull meat. True to its style but with some improvements the slot offers classic gameplay perhaps a bit more suited for land-based casinos than online audiences.

Theme

The game opens up with a surprisingly well-done animation, though this quickly changes into a background of arena flanked by trees, with the center occupied by the reels offering a classic setup of five reels with three rows. The symbols offer bulls, senoritas, matadors, assorted imagery, and of course the not so unusual card ranks. Sound and music are rather bland.

Betting Options and Functions

With the classic setup of reels comes a rather classic way of handling betting. There are ten paylines stretching across the reels from left to right. The bet is selected as per payline, with the minimum being 0.01 and maximum of one full coin. The overall bet level is therefore rather low, and the amount you bet doesn’t affect the gameplay in any way. Amount of paylines can be selected in ascending order.

The matador and senorita pay for even two symbols, though then you are looking at two or ten times your line bet. The matador functions as a wild with up to 1000 coins won if five show up at the same time. Five senoritas, on the other hand, pay up to 500 times the line bet. The rest of the symbols pay from 5 to 250 times the bet, depending on how many you manage to connect.

Features

The main feature launches when you get three bulls on the screen, as this symbol works as the scatter. The free games cannot be retriggered, but on the plus side, the matador wild symbol stays on the screen for the entire duration of the spins. Better pray for as many as possible, as that is how you land the maximum win in this slot.

Our Take

True to their tradition Merkur Gaming keeps porting land-based slots for the internet audience to enjoy. This might have been a good strategy a few years back, but with more and more modern slots being published all the time, it is clearly time for a change. Even so, the animations are quite well done, even if they only trigger once in a lifetime. As for the gameplay values, the game offers plenty of big wins as long as you manage to land the Matadors in sufficient numbers. The RTP is quite nice as well and doesn’t pale in comparison to most other games. Unfortunately, times are a-changing and this slot won't change with them. Maybe good for a spin or two, but eventually a properly done Torero-themed slot will come along and claim the position with ease.