From the pink striped rock sticks framing the five reels on a gingham tablecloth scattered with lollies and cachous, to the juicy-looking 3D candies whirring past on the reels, the Candy Swap slot makes its theme abundantly apparent. It’s a sweet-toothed mobile casino fan’s dream, with no storyline except the array of mouth-watering confectionery on display, and some stately music in amusing contrast to the sweet-shop motif.

Although also available at online casino, the Candy Swap slot is designed primarily for play on mobile devices, and it can be accessed on tablets or smartphones using both Android and iOS platforms. As such, the controls are optimised for touchscreens, located as click-through multi-function buttons on either side of the reels, where thumbs can operate them easily. Players can choose any number from 1 to 9 paylines, and bets can be varied at five levels from 0.01 to 1.00 per line.

Rich 3D Pick and Mix Candies

All of the 10 payline symbols used in the Candy Swap slot are linked to the theme, designed as bright 3D candies of the kind found in the pick-and-mix boxes at a specialist confectionery store. Even the usually simple Poker-deck symbols, 10, J, Q, K and A, are formed by character-shaped jellybeans in a vibrant blue, purple, yellow, green and red, respectively. At different levels, different Poker symbols share identical prizes. For example, five A or K matches each win 150X the line bet.

All the Poker icons, as well as the green teddy jelly baby, require at least three matching symbols in sequence from Reel 1 on the same payline to win prizes. The teddy’s top win, for five of a kind, is 300X. The cola-bottle chewy sweet, the red candy cane, the sugar-and-marzipan fried egg and the Candy Swap slot’s pink logo can all make a prize-winning match with just two identical icons. For a full payline of five, they win respective prizes of 500X, 750X, 1,000X and 2,500X the line bet.

Strawberry Wild Looks Scrumptious

Unable to win any prizes for its own matches, as it only appears on Reels 2, 3, 4 or 5, the Candy Swap slot’s Wild can still be useful when completing winning combos by replacing other payline symbols. It is designed as another intricately crafted sugary treat: a brilliant glazed marzipan strawberry encased in a transparent glass bubble.

Scatter Looks Odd, Triggers Good Bonuses

The one icon in which the Candy Swap slot’s design team hasn’t quite achieved perfection in terms of the artwork is the title’s bonus Scatter. This is supposed to look like a delicious chocolate arrow, curved in a spin and bearing the word Spin among its icing and jellybean decorations. Close-up, it really does look like a heavenly dessert treat: tooth-decay on a plate. From a little further off, however, especially while the reels are spinning, the brown coil studded with tiny flecks of colour gives a much less appetising impression.

That aesthetic niggle aside, though, players will be glad to see the Scatter appear. Three in any position set off a round of at least 10 free spins, played on the same reels at the same settings. The Scatter seems to come up more often during the free spins rounds, raising the potential for another three Scatters to settle and re-trigger the bonus round at the same number of spins.