Jumping Beans Slot Machine

Produced by Realtime Gaming, Jumping Beans is a 3 reel, 5 pay line slot machine that’s found in US friendly online casinos.

Jumping Beans is based on stereotypical aspects of Mexico, including cactuses, hot peppers, tacos, and maracas.

Based on this description of a 3 reel slot centering on Mexican stereotypes, Jumping Beans doesn’t sound very interesting.

But as soon as you see this game’s busy screen, which includes an empty bean counter and two jackpots, you’ll be intrigued by what Jumping Beans is about.

Let’s discuss what you can expect from Jumping Beans by looking at its atmosphere, music, pay table, graphics, and bonuses. We’ll also offer comparisons between this game and a couple of otheronline slots based in Mexico.

Again, Jumping Beans features a busy background that includes plenty of frills that you won’t see in other slot machines.

Both sides of the screen feature empty bean counters, which, as we’ll cover later, are for determining your multipliers.

You’ll also see several boxes above the reels that show jackpots, your balance, bet size, and wins.

The background looks more like a scene from a dinosaur game than one based on Mexico. Your view is looking out of a cave, onto a desert that features an oversized cactus and plant.

The background doesn’t feature great graphics or fit the theme very well. But we’ll give it points for at least adding personality to the game.

One thing that we like is the reels, which feature a rustic look that reminds us of a worn Mexican building.

Jumping Beans doesn’t offer any music during the main game, but a tune plays when you spin the reels. The music sounds like something from a game show slot, rather than authentic Mexican music.

The most frequent sound effect comes when you get the jumping bean wild in a payout. Mr. Bean (wild) jumps in the air repeatedly and yells while a short Mexican jingle plays.

In moderation, this is a cool sound effect that adds to the game. But Mr. Bean appears in so many winning pay lines that you get sick of hearing him yell.

Other sound effects consist of the generic variety that are heard in many other Realtime online slots.

On the bright side, you’ll hear a pleasant Mexican tune that plays throughout your free games. The bonus music saves this game’s sound from being bad, but we think that Realtime could’ve donebetter.

Jumping Beans isn’t loaded with animations, but this game does have a few interesting clips during winning payouts.

Animations include: the bean wild symbol jumping in the air while its hat flies off, Mrs. Bean scatter dancing back and forth, and the bandito drawing his gun and firing.

Jumping Beans’ symbols and payouts are as follows:

• Mr. Bean

  Mr. Bean substitutes for all other symbols to form winning payouts. He also pays 1,000 credits for 3 symbols, 20 for 2, and 2 for 1. Mr. Bean also doubles any payout for other symbols when heappears in wins.

• Mrs. Bean

  Mrs. Bean triggers the free spins bonus if she lands 3 or more times anywhere on the reels.

• Bandito

  This cigar toting, gun wielding hot pepper pays 100 credits for 3 symbols, and 3 for 2 symbols. With Mr. Bean, the bandit pays 200 credits for 3 symbols, and 6 for 2.

• House

  Sporting Mexican flag colors, the house pays 50 credits for 3 symbols, and 2 for 2. With Mr. Bean, the house offers 100 credits for 3 symbols, and 4 for 2.

• Sun

  The sun pays 25 credits for 3 symbols, and 2 for 2. With Mr. Bean, the sun pays 60 credits for 3 symbols, and 4 for 2.

• 3 Tacos

  The 3 taco symbol pays 15 credits for 3 symbols, and 30 credits for 3 symbols with Mr. Bean.

• 2 Tacos

  The 2 taco symbol offers 10 credits for 3 symbols, and 20 for 3 with Mr. Bean.

• Taco

  The single taco pays 7 credits for 3 symbols, and 14 for 3 with Mr. Bean.

• Maracas, Guitar

  These two symbols pay the same, offering 5 credits for 3 symbols, and 10 for 3 with Mr. Bean.

• Rose, Cactus

  The rose and cactus both pay 3 credits for 3 symbols, and 6 for 3 symbols with Mr. Bean.

One odd thing about Jumping Beans is how drastically some of its symbols look in comparison to each other.

Here are some examples: the taco looks almost life like, the maracas also have a realistic look, the sun is a colorful animation, and the rest of the symbols are very cartoonlike.

This discrepancy in how the symbols look isn’t a bad thing. In fact, we think that it keeps things more entertaining than the average online slot, where all the symbols feature the same style.

With free spins, a unique multiplier system, nudging reels, and jackpots, Jumping Beans offers far more special features than the average 3 reel slot machine. Below you can see how each of thesefeatures works.

If Mr. or Mrs. Bean appear at the top or bottom of a reel off screen, they’ll nudge a reel one spot so that they appear on the reels.

This is big because Mr. Bean helps form more winning payouts when he nudges, while Mrs. Bean will trigger the bonus round if two other scatters are on the reels.

As alluded to above, 3 or more Mrs. Bean scatters anywhere on the reels trigger 10 free spins.

This is where the bean counters on both sides of the reels come into play. If Mr., Mrs., or the bandito appear anywhere on the reels, you’ll fill one space in the bean counter.

The goal is to fill three spaces in each box so that you earn that respective multiplier and move up to the next level. You’ll see 6 boxes in all, with a 5x, 10x, 15x, 25x, 50x, and 100xmultiplier all possibilities.

At the end of the free spins, the multiplier that you earn will be applied to your triggering bet. Also note that you can retrigger free games once, which gives you 5 more spins and keeps yourcurrent bean count in place.

Based on our experiences with the free spins, it’s not hard to get a 15x for 9 beans or 25x multiplier for 12 beans on your triggering bet. But we were never able to get a 50x or 100x multiplier.

This slot offers two random jackpots, including a Major Jackpot and Minor Jackpot. The Major prize is worth $2,355 at the time of this writing, while the Minor Jackpot is worth $314.

It doesn’t matter how much you bet or even if your spin wins because either of these jackpots can be awarded at any time.

The 5 pay lines are fixed, but you can adjust your bet size from $0.01 to $0.25 per spin. This makes the minimum bet worth $0.05, and the max worth $1.25 per spin.

As the min and max bets indicate, this is a low roller game, which is surprising considering that some of Jumping Bean’s features are meant for more advanced players.

The other two player options in this game are the ability to auto play the reels and turn sound on / off.

Auto play is an in depth feature because you can choose when to stop the reels based on the number of spins, when a jackpot is won, if a win exceeds a certain amount, any time you win, if thebonus is triggered, or when your balance increases or decreases by a certain amount.

The win frequency in this game is above average, and we won on about 40% of our spins.

Betting $0.25 per spin, most of our wins were in the $0.10 to $1.25 range. We got enough of these small wins to sustain our bankroll and end the session with a small loss.

The nudge feature really makes a difference because you’ll get a lot of extra wilds when Mr. Bean nudges onto the reels. But we also experienced some cold streaks where, even with nudging, welost several spins in a row.

While we have more than enough slot machines based on the American wilderness, few slots travel further down south to Mexico.

But there are a few other Mexican themed online slots, including Betsoft’s Paco and the Popping Peppers and Realtime’s Lucha Libre. Here’s a look at how Jumping Beans compares to these games.

Famously depicted in the 2006 film Nacho Libre, the Mexican wrestling scene has a very distinct culture. And Lucha Libre does an excellent job of capturing the look and feeling of Mexicanwrestling.

This 5 reel, 25 pay line slot machine features a worn wrestling ring in the background, ring music, and a variety of symbols that relate to both the wrestlers and fans.

Symbols include an announcer, two wrestlers, beer, chips, a match poster, match flyers, a trophy, jalapeño, chips and salsa, and liquor.

The features in this game also relate to the theme, with one allowing you to choose a move to defeat your opponent. If you nail the move, you’re going to get more free spins and a highermultiplier.

Lucha Libre also includes a Fiery Mask of Doom feature that sees reels filled with wrestling masks and multipliers.

Overall, Lucha Libre does a better job of creating atmosphere than Jumping Beans. But both slots are equally good in other areas like the features, symbols, and theme.

This 5 reel, 30 pay line slot opens with a nice introduction video that shows Paco walking into a dusty, forgotten town. He starts playing music, bringing vegetables to life, and creating a partyatmosphere.

The video sets you up for a lighthearted slots adventure that includes festive music and antics from Paco, who plays his guitar to celebrate your wins.

Paco and the Popping Peppers features cascading reels, which see symbols from winning combinations disappear, and symbols fall from above to take their place. Every consecutive win that you formthis way boosts your multiplier, which is displayed on the side.

Another feature is the Fiesta bonus, which takes you to a beachside cabana to choose whether playing cards will be higher or lower than what’s displayed.

Like Jumping Beans and Lucha Libre, Paco and the Popping Peppers is another slot that does a good job of providing atmosphere and features that match Mexico.

If you’re new to slot machines, chances are that you’ll take one look at Jumping Beans and click away because of how busy and complicated the screen looks. But if you’re looking for more than anaverage game, this 3 reel online slot has what you want.

The screen is filled with activity, from nudging reels to the bean counter multipliers.

As for the bean counter, this is a nice aspect of the free spins because it gives you something beyond just spinning for traditional payouts. The nudge feature also adds excitement because it canturn any losing spin into a winner, or even free spins.

Negative aspects of this game include the sound effects and background graphics, which don’t do a good job of matching the game.

Sound effects range from Mr. Bean repeatedly letting out an annoying yell, to generic sounds that are overused in other Realtime slots. The background doesn’t reflect Mexico, but rather some typeof prehistoric game.

These are minor drawbacks, though, in what’s otherwise a very unique 3 reel online slot. Based on the interesting features and theme, we recommend that you try Jumping Beans because it has thepotential to entertain you for hours.