A classic movie like Dirty Dancing needs no introduction. There’s not a soul who hasn’t seen it at the height of its popularity, and even today, you can catch it on some off hours playing on the TV, reliving the well familiar story of Johnny and Baby. Playtech’s take on the famous movie takes place on a 5x4 playing field with 40 paylines which only score left to right. The big draw for a lot of gamblers will be the two progressive jackpots that keep ticking away and increasing, but to even get to them, you’ll have to trigger one of the game’s special features, and all three of them are activated randomly. The first is a variant of the ever popular free spins – in that you spin a giant wheel beforehand which determines how many extra turns you get, if your multiplier goes up, and if you get a bonus on top of the free spins you already have. The second is a point and click special feature that has you opening boxes containing cash prizes and additional picks to allow you to prolong the bonus. And finally, our romantic pair can break off into a fabulous dance that can add up to 6 Wilds on any position on the reels.
That’s a lot of bonuses, and it wouldn’t surprise us if you don’t see all of them in one sitting. Between the progressive jackpots ticking away in the background, and all three special features being activated randomly, how much you win or lose is purely luck based. Of course, that’s the nature of slots, but Dirty Dancing really emphasizes the lack of control on the player’s part. The chance of getting a solid win outside of the free spins is very small, to the point where you wouldn’t be shocked to find Dirty Dancing was just aimed at eating your coins until you gave up. But then Playtech lines up two free spins back to back and top it off with a Whirling Wilds bonus, which all comes together to being 79x the starting wager, which is nowhere near the high enough score. For progressive jackpots, we’re much more willing to overlook this, and such a solid win is possible is only bonus points in our book.
So, let’s talk progressive jackpots, and how to get to them. To do so, you need to activate a special feature called the Dirty Dancing bonus. It boils down to a point and click game, where you open boxes to reveal symbols from the reels or cash prizes on different levels. You only get three or four picks and to keep going, you need to keep drawing symbols to advance to the next stage, and there are six of them. Once they’re all done, you get to the jackpot level, and at that point, it’s just matching three symbols of the same kind to grab the progressive jackpot. While we had it happen a few times, it usually ended at the third stage for us, so we weren’t lucky enough to walk with our pockets full.
Beyond those two, the slot also has Mambo free spins and Whirling Wilds. Whirling Wilds are easy enough to explain – at random, the pair will start dancing and it has the chance to plant up to six Wilds randomly across the reels. Mambo free spins, in turn, is a lot bigger. First, you have to spin the wheel that determines how many free spins you get. You can score a 2x multiplier and Dancing Wilds, which randomly transforms one of the reels into Wilds each time the reels spin while the bonus is active. The wheel only stops spinning after you hit the Collect icon and then the fun begins.
As such, our final words are quite brief. If you like the movie and you like progressive jackpots, you owe it to yourself to give it a spin or two. With several special features, a wide range of betting options and the chance to dance with Johnny and Baby, it’s hard to pass up the opportunity.