October Bier Frenzy

The Barrel acts as the game's Scatter Symbol, with three, four or five Barrels triggering 10, 15 or 20 Free Games respectively.

That's a meaningful difference between trigger combinations. Starting with 20 spins provides considerably more opportunity to collect the 40 Beer symbols needed for the first progression level than entering with the minimum 10.

The Barrels don't do anything particularly clever themselves. Their job is essentially to open the doors to the beer tent.

The main Beer Frenzy feature is the game's version of Free Spins.

This is where October Bier Frenzy really begins. Beer symbols gain cash values, the Beerman becomes active as a Collector and every Beer contributes towards the progression meter above the reels.

That's important because the feature has two objectives operating simultaneously. You're looking for valuable Beer symbols and the Beerman needed to collect them, but you're also trying to accumulate enough Beer symbols overall to reach the next level.

A small Beer value might not look particularly exciting on its own, but it still moves the Collection Bar.

At Oktoberfest, apparently no beer is completely wasted.

During Free Games, the Beerman acts as both a Wild and Cash Collector.

When he appears alongside Beer symbols, he collects all of their displayed cash values.

It's the game's central mechanic and creates the familiar tension associated with Collector slots. Landing a screen containing several valuable Beer symbols is only half the job. You still need the Beerman to turn up and drink them.

Original? No.

Effective? Absolutely.

There's a reason this mechanic has appeared in so many slots. Displaying prizes before revealing whether the Collector will actually arrive creates very obvious anticipation.

During Beer Frenzy, Beer Symbols become Cash Symbols carrying individual values that can be collected by the Beerman.

The Beer symbols also have a second purpose because every one appearing contributes towards the Collection Bar.

That's a good piece of design. They're not simply prizes waiting for the Collector. Even when the Beerman fails to appear, the Beers can still contribute towards unlocking a stronger version of the feature.

You may not have collected the round. At least you've contributed towards the bar tab.

If the Beerman appears during Free Games but there are no Beer symbols available to collect, he activates Prost!, which is essentially a Symbol Transformation feature.

Ordinary symbols are transformed into Beer symbols carrying values, which the Beerman then immediately collects.

This is a small mechanic, but it's one of my favourite parts of the game.

Collector symbols arriving on an empty grid can be incredibly frustrating. Apparat has effectively removed that dead result by giving Beerman a backup plan.

No beer?

He'll make some.

Every Beer symbol appearing during Free Games contributes towards the Beer Collection Bar.

Collect 40 Beers and the game awards another 10 Free Games, which are played after the current set finishes. More importantly, the next set carries a stronger multiplier for collected Beer values.

This is what gives October Bier Frenzy its real depth.

Without the Collection Bar, we'd largely have another Cash Collector slot with an Oktoberfest reskin. The meter creates a visible objective and gives the bonus somewhere to progress.

As it begins filling, you're no longer simply judging each spin according to the immediate cash values on screen.

Successfully completing the Beer Collection Bar upgrades the Beer Multiplier, which I'd classify as a Progressive Multiplier.

The first 40 collected Beers unlock another 10 Free Games with a stronger multiplier. Further completions continue increasing it, with Apparat confirming that the process can retrigger three times and eventually reach 10x.

Independent descriptions detail the progression as 2x, 3x and finally 10x.

This works particularly well because the reward for progression isn't merely more spins. You're receiving more opportunities and making future successful collections potentially more valuable.

By the time you've reached 10x, Beerman has clearly had quite an afternoon.

Completing the 40 Beer requirement awards 10 Additional Free Games, with the process available up to three times.

I'd classify this separately as a Retrigger, although it's directly connected to the Collection Meter.

Potentially reaching another 30 Free Games gives the bonus a satisfying sense of escalation, especially because later sets operate with stronger Beer multipliers.

Where permitted, Buy Feature provides direct access to Beer Frenzy. Apparat currently lists purchase configurations ranging between 77x and 585x the stake.

As with our other reviews, this doesn't improve the game's rating. It's another method of accessing the feature rather than an additional piece of gameplay.