Black Bart's Royal Fortune Slot Machine

Yarrrr me hearties and shiver me timbers, it’s time to try your best at avoiding sinking to the briny depths of Davy Jones’ locker, and win a small fortune in the process, with this cutlas-waving online slot machine from PariPlay.

How are these pirate references working out for you? Bit much, no worries, let’s throw them overboard and cut to the chase. Black Bart’s Royal Fortune is, as the name suggests, a casino gambler loosely based on the theme of Black Bart, a pirate who, whilst not as well know as, say, Black Beard, was for some time the scourge of well-meaning sailors, and probably did manage to nick some regal coin at one point in his career.

Overall first impressions once the game loads are pretty good, it’s a standard cartoon design game and one of the nicer in terms of art work that we’ve come across in some time. Having said that, there’s nothing here to blow the competition out of the water, although perhaps that’s for the best- leaving more of your mind to stay focussed on plundering the riches of this bet-friendly sea of chances to win.

Cast Away

OK, so this is a 10-reel slot. That means you have ten reels on the screen, each with a variety of ‘cards’ – the card have pictures, numbers and writing on them- these correspond to different values of prizes. The idea being to match up like threes on a single reel; do that and you’ll win, potentially big time.

In terms of the actual variety on offer, things are comparatively limited up against some games we’ve played. In keeping with the theme, though, pretty much everything relates to sailing across the open oceans- gold coins, skull and crossbones, anchor, octopus, parrot, gem stones... the only ‘classic’ gambler motifs you’ll see here are the number 7, and BAR, which everyone will remember from their childhood days in pubs (or indeed last Friday night, depending on the pubs you drink in now).

Land Ho’!

One you’ve familiarised yourself with what you’re trying to match, it’s best to take a look at how much money you’re willing to put down. You can do this by adjusting the Bet size in the bottom left of the reels. Hit - or + to lower or raise the amount of money you want to put into the pot. The more you put in, naturally, the more you stand to get out again if and when you win.

Here’s where Black Bart’s Royal Fortune differs from the vast majority of other real money slots you will have seen, though. Rather than adding paylines – the lines on which you match symbols and pictures – on this game you add or take away whole reels. The reels are made up of three barrels, on which the symbols and such like appear. You can have up to ten reels in play at a time, but be careful, the more you elect to spin the more its going to cost, so if you have a high individual bet size and ten reels in play, you could burn through your money in no time.

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum

So, now you know the ins and outs of Black Bart’s Royal Fortune, it’s probably time to start playing. Hit ‘Spin’ in the bottom of the screen and watch the reels spring into life. The animation, although basic, is pretty effective, and adds to the fun of playing.

With many online slots you will get bonus additions to the paytable – maybe even a bonus round. Black Bart clearly doesn’t suffer fools, or indeed distractions, because he’s not standing for any of that. As such don’t expect anything to be happening in this game other than the spinning of those 1-10 reels, and, fingers crossed, the amassing of wealth in your pot.

Different Class

Black Bart’s Royal Fortune is, admittedly, pretty unorthodox, and the very nature of the 10 reels – all pretty small on the screen, lots of different images at once – does lend this game to a lighter-hearted player, perhaps at the younger end of the demographic.

Nevertheless, we are neither of those things, and still loved it because it’s relatively different. Having so many reels at once psychologically makes you feel there is more likelihood of winning, even if that isn’t actually the case. Regardless, we did alright, and would thoroughly recommend this one to all our shipmates, wherever they may be on the high seas right now.