Goal Goal Goal: Pachin-Goal Slot by Playtech

The slot part is almost a formality. Three reels, one payline, cartoon footballers chasing a ball across a green pitch, and none of it is really why you load this up. The reels exist to do one thing: land three goal Scatters at the same time. Each Scatter carries a value, 3, 5, 7, 10, 20, 50 or 100, and the three of them added together set how many balls you get to drop. Trigger it with three 100s and you're releasing 300 balls; catch three 3s and it's a short round.

Once it starts, the reels vanish and a Pachinko board takes their place, 36 peg positions scattered across the pitch with up to nine boxes waiting along the bottom. Each box holds either a cash multiplier, anywhere from x0.3 up to x25 of your bet, or a Wheel activation. You release the balls one after another and they clatter down through the pegs, and wherever a ball settles in a multiplier box, that value pays against your stake. Land plenty in the fat middle boxes and the small hits stack up fast.

The Wheel is where a round can turn into something. If three or more balls drop into the Wheel box, it spins once after the last ball lands. It either hands you more balls, 8, 12, 16 or 20 of them, or one of four jackpots: the Mini at 20x, Minor at 50x, Major at 200x, or the Champ at 1000x the bet, the top prize in the game. When the spin awards balls instead of a jackpot, the Wheel box converts into a plain x1 multiplier and those extra balls drop through as normal. Only once every ball has come to rest, the added ones included, does the feature total up and pay. There's no buy option, so those three Scatters are the only way in.

The mood is pure tournament night. A packed stadium sits under a dusky sky, terraces waving USA, Mexico, Canada and Italy flags with confetti drifting through the floodlights, a row of gold stars and a golden ball dispenser mounted above the reels. The footballers wear red, blue and green national kits, and a golden trophy stamped "1" stands in as the prize symbol. It's a World Cup matchday wrapped around a plinko machine, and one of the odder things Playtech's Rare Stone Games studio has put its name to.