Sugar Skulls, which Booming Games released in October 2018, is a video slot game adaptation of “Day of the Dead”—this event commemorates dead people and is held around early November. This Mexican holiday regionally called “Dia de Muertos”, Mexican culture, and partying are among the themes. Booming Games has several suchlike slot games, including Mexico Wins (March 2018) and Oh Catrina! (May 2016). Some of the rival games of Sugar Skulls include Pumpkin Smash (October 2017) from Yggdrasil Gaming, Dia de Los Muertos (October 2018) from Endorphina, and Tres Huevos (August 2018) by Genesis Gaming.

“Sugar Skulls” refers to calaveras, which are stenciled skull-like objects created from sugar and icing. This game requires three, four, or five matching symbols.

Sugar Skulls Game Characteristics
Sugar Skulls has a 5X3 grid, free spins, stacked high-paying symbols, three win multipliers, and 20 fixed pay lines. This game has eleven symbols. The three special symbols are: a multicolored square “Wild”, colorful Mexican star piñata, and a golden-and-cream gear wheel-inspired “free spins”.

Four of the eight ordinary symbols are high-paying, while the rest are low-paying. The high-paying symbols are: a predominantly purple sugar skull featuring small gear wheels; a flowery red sugar skull; a blue sugar skull fitted with safety glasses; a green sugar skull. The low-paying symbols are: a golden-and-pink Ace of Spades; a golden-and-blue King of Hearts; a golden-and-yellow Q; and a golden-and-purple J.

The Sugar Skulls coin values are: $0.01, $0.02, $0.03, $0.05, $0.10, $0.20, $0.30, $0.50, $1.00, $2.00, $3.00, $5.00, $10.00, and $20.00. These are the Sugar Skulls total bets: $0.20 (the minimum bet), $0.40, $0.60, $1.00, $2.00, $4.00, $6.00, $10.00, $20.00, $40.00, $60.00, $100.00, $200.00, and $400.00 (the maximum bet).

Based on the $400.00 maximum bet, these are the Sugar Skulls payouts for three, four, and five winning combinations, respectively. The Wild pays $1000.00, $4000.00, and $20000.00. The purple sugar skull pays $500.00, $1600.00, and $8000.00. The red sugar skull pays $400.00, $1200.00, and $6000.00. The blue sugar skull pays $300.00, $1000.00, and $4000.00. The green sugar skull pays $300.00, $800.00, and $3000.00. The A pays $140.00, $500.00, and $1600.00. The K pays $120.00, $400.00, and $1200.00. The Q pays $100.00, $300.00, and $1000.00. The J pays $80.00, $240.00, and $800.00.

More than three “Free Spins” gear wheels offer the ten free games, wherein only the Wild and the four stacked high-paying symbols are featured. The Mexican star piñata offers the three win multipliers, which are X10, X25, and X100; these payouts are called Random Fiesta Awards, and are offered in the regular game only. The non-progressive jackpot of Sugar Skulls X1000 of the $400.00 maximum bet, which is $400000.00.

The Sugar Skulls software is good. The Mexican mariachi instrumentals are interesting; various sound effects, including rumba shakers and jingling coins, are heard during wins. The animated 3D graphics not only factually portray a typical Day of the Dead celebration (including the usage of candles, flowers, stenciled skulls, a skeleton wearing a sombrero, and table linen), but also shed light on the identity and likely profession of the dead person.

For instance, there are two strategically placed framed photographs of the deceased male; in the upper photo, there is an aircraft in the background and, considering the shirt epaulettes in the bottom photo, the man possibly used to work in the aviation industry as a pilot or was an air force officer. A piping system surrounds the grid and the control panel buttons are set on sprockets.

Luck in Sugar Skulls
The RTP rate of Sugar Skulls, a game of chance, is 96.55% and the house edge is 3.45%.