Skullapalooza Slot by Playtech

Three coloured gems do the heavy lifting here, and each one feeds its own pile. Pink gems build toward Expanding Reels, which stretches the grid and bolts on extra winlines. Purple gems fill the Pots meter that governs the jackpots. Blue gems stack toward Sliding Wilds. Land a triggered gem of any colour and its boost switches on for that one spin, so the base game keeps flipping between wider grids, live pots and drifting wilds depending on which pile fires.

Above the reels sit three ornate sugar skulls, pink, purple and blue with heart-shaped eyes, and they act as collectors. Coin symbols drop carrying cash values, and the skulls gather them, the Cash Collect side of the game. Push enough into the pots and you reach one of five jackpot tiers: Mini, Minor, Major, Mighty, and a Grand worth up to 500x the total bet.

The free games work differently from most. There are three separate versions, each a run of 10 spins tied to one of the boosts, Expanding Reels, active Pots, or Sliding Wilds, and none needs a scatter to start. They fire organically off the gem and skull piles during normal play. All three can run at the same time. If an idle pile fills while you're already deep in a bonus, it hands you another 10 spins on top. There's no buy option, so building the piles is the only way in.

The Wild lands on every reel and covers everything except the coin and jackpot symbols. It all sits on a warm Day of the Dead stage strung with papel-picado bunting, ribbons and orange marigolds, a mariachi guitar and a blue candle bowl guarding a little ghost rounding out the higher pays, with glossy multicoloured royals underneath. A loud, saturated Dia de los Muertos party.