Macabra LinX Slot by Playtech

The reels climb like a staircase, two symbols tall on the far left and rising to five on the right. That lopsided shape feeds the game's collect. Land at least one trigger symbol on every one of the five reels at the same time - a Circle, a plain X, or a golden Gold X - and the Wild LinX sweeps up every prize sitting on those symbols and pays them out together. Plenty of the X symbols show up stamped with a cash value rather than acting as a straight wild, so a full board of triggers can tally a stack of small amounts into one hit.

Some of those trigger symbols carry a jackpot tier instead of cash. That's the four-rung Mini, Minor, Major and progressive Grand ladder, and the collect is the only door to it. The two wilds work around each other on the board. The plain X stands in for everything except the Gold X, the Gold X returns the favour, and both step aside only for the Circle and the scatter.

An optional side bet raises how often the collect fires, but the more useful thing it buys is a safety net. Land triggers on four reels and miss the fifth, and that one empty reel respins once for another shot at completing the set. Leave the side bet switched off and a four-reel near-miss just dies on the spot. The base game also runs in a day version and a night version, each paying on its own set of winning lines.

Three scatters open the free games, and you choose the shape. One path gives six spins with a mega symbol that swells to cover three full reels, nine positions welded to a single icon; a scatter landing on that block adds three more spins. The other path runs five spins with the Wild LinX chance cranked up, and three fresh scatters there hand back five spins.

The whole thing plays out on a Day of the Dead street. A sugar-skull Catrina with a marigold tucked in her dark hair watches over the reels, spirit animals fill the top of the paytable - a blue cat, a red xolo dog, a green lizard - and the pastel plaza behind shifts between warm afternoon light and a purple, firework-lit night.