Chicken Drop

Pragmatic Play are setting up for a summer of grid-based releases, including the anticipated Fruit Party 2, and to break up our wait for the fruity release, we now have a second grid to look forward to taking a crack at (pun intended), in the form of Chicken Drop. Visually, Pragmatic are taking us to a quiet farm, on a bright summers day. A red farmhouse sits to the right of the grid, with a large tree to the left. Green landscapes and bright blue skies help to add to the friendly mood this slot provides, with bright butterflies floating past. The grid, along with any important information sits upon wooden posts, and the chicken, our main focus, sits in his nest in front of the farm house. Banjo styled music rings throughout, along with standard farmhouse sounds, including roosters and cows crying out in the background. Volatility levels are high, and RTP is a decent 96.50%, although lower options are available, in this upcoming release where wins of 5,000x bet are buried beneath the surface.

Chicken Drop Base Game

Chicken Drop Base Features

Taking place across a 7×7 grid space, Chicken Drop works similarly to previous Pragmatic grid releases, wherein wins are formed by matching clusters of at least 5+ symbols connected horizontally or vertically. Helping to form wins are a host of symbols you would expect to find in a farm area, along with some you would less expect, including the lower paying hearts and spades, rewarding players with wins of 50x bet for clusters of 37-49 symbols. Moving into the premium end, mushrooms and acorns pay out 100x bet, again for 37-49 symbols, and landing the same amount of ears of corn pay out 250x bet. The highest two paying symbols, displayed as fruit rather than country style vegetables, are blueberries and strawberries. Landing clusters of 37-49 of either pay 500x bet, and 1,000x bet, respectively.

Although win values are high, it is worth noting that cluster sizes necessary for these wins are more than 3 times the size of the maximum cluster available on previous grid adaption, Fruit Party. However, this is due in part to the features available within Chicken Drop, including a Progressive Egg feature. Two special symbols and a Scatter, represented by a wooden chest, are the final symbols in play to facilitate these features, which we’ll get to in a moment.

Tumbles Feature

First up, is the Tumble Feature. Each symbol involved in a winning combination is removed from the grid, visible above, and all other symbols drop to the bottom-most available space. New symbols then drop into the available spaces on the grid, allowing new winning combinations to form. Tumbles continue until no more wins are possible.

The second available feature within Chicken Drop is the Progressive Feature, in which an egg can appear on the grid to reveal the same mystery symbol. Two special symbols can appear on the reels, which each help to contribute towards this feature:

• Gold Watering Can: Size upgrade symbol. When this symbol lands, it upgrades the size of the next egg drop to 2×2, 3×3, 4×4, 5×5 and 6×6, progressively.
• Green Clover: Multiplier upgrade symbol. When this symbol lands, it increases the multiplier for the next egg drop, from x2 to x11, progressively. This multiplier is applied to the win of the clusters resulted from the egg drop only.

If either of these symbols land on the reels, a golden egg drops onto the screen after all tumbles for the respective spin have finished. The egg will be the size denoted by the board in front of the chicken, and will have any relevant multiplier attached. The egg will reveal a cluster of the same random symbol, replacing what is currently on the screen. The egg can reveal any symbol except Scatter symbol.

If more upgrade symbols land after the first egg drop, another egg will drop after all tumbles generated by the first egg have finished. This continues until no more upgrade symbols land, and at this point upgrade values are reset.

Progressive Egg Feature

Chicken Drop Bonus

Land 4, 5 or 6 Scatters to trigger 10, 15 or 20 free spins, respectively, with trigger values:

• 4 Scatters: 3x bet
• 5 Scatters: 5x bet
• 6 Scatters: 20x bet
• 7 Scatters: 100x bet

Chicken Drop Free Spins

During free spins, which take an early-morning Autumnal turn, upgrade values attached to egg sizes or multipliers are not reset between spins, and after all tumbles have finished an egg drop is guaranteed on every spin. Landing 4+ bonus symbols during free spins retriggers the feature and awards +5 free spins, with no limit to the amount of retriggers possible. If the maximum win of 5,000x bet is reached, free spins will end.

Players in appropriate regions can skip the base game and go straight to free spins for a cost of 100x bet. Activate the feature buy and at least 4+ Scatters will land on the next tumble. RTP remains the same 96.50% during the feature buy.

Progressive Multiplier

First Impression

Although Chicken Drop bears a lot of similarities to Fruit Party, and by extension Fruit Party 2, it still has an enjoyable element. Pragmatic haven’t necessarily introduced an entirely new mechanic in this release, but tweaks have been made to keep things exciting, with the addition of the Progressive Egg feature, which for some players will bear more excitement than the random multipliers available in Fruit Party, myself included. The egg feature keeps things moving at a good pace, particularly during the base game where players can see exactly what is necessary to get the ball rolling into a sequence of eggs and wins that could reach huge heights.

Free Spins take what is already exciting within the base game, and build upon it, elevating the action to levels that we can really get excited about, wherein we know wins of up to 5,000x bet are possible. For this reason, Chicken Drop will inevitably be added to the list of releases in which players choose to opt straight for the feature buy, but we warned: it’s not all sunshine and clear skies on this farm – there are highly volatile labels attached to this release, rated 5/5 by Pragmatic themselves.

Audiovisuals keep things fun, and from a statistical point of view this release is solid – we know high volatility is the direction most studios are going in lately, and with an RTP of 96.50%, and a range of stakes between 0.20 and 100, there isn’t much to complain about. Chicken Drop is a well made edition to Pragmatic’s huge catalogue, and dare I say? I might prefer it on a personal level to the fan favourite, Fruit Party.

• Win over x1000 (regular rounds) frequency: 1 in 61,177
• Win over x5000 (regular rounds) frequency: 1 in 4,166,667

*The screenshots taken of games reviewed on this site are taken from Demo Play, as reviews are often written before games are released for real play.