Three cherries in a row were always the dream I had in mind when feeding coins into various pub fruit machines as a young, more careless player. Therefore, when I found a new slot called 3 Cherry Frenzy, I expected some sort of simplicity and possibly a retro touch, along with being completely forgettable after 10-15 minutes. My expectations were mostly correct. 

This 3 Cherry Frenzy slot review will provide you with everything you would need to know before spending your hard-earned money on Pear Fiction Studios’ colorful, flashy, and relatively simple fruit slot, including how the top-grader Z reel works, how the three lock & win bonuses really work, if the bonus buy is worth it, and how it compares to the almost identical slot; 3 Lucky Hippos. I will give you my honest opinion on areas that shine and areas where I believe that Pear Fiction Studios is merely using autopilot.

About Pear Fiction Studios

Pear Fiction Studios is a Canadian company based out of Montreal, Canada, that started producing slots back in 2014. It is also one of the companies that produces slots through Games Global. Although Pear Fiction Studios has a smaller library of slots compared to other well-known companies such as Pragmatic Play, Pear Fiction Studios has developed a reputation for developing quirky and character-driven slots. Many users may remember their most popular slot titled “Granny vs Zombies” due to its unique theme of a grandma fighting zombies while having a progressive jackpot that seemed attainable.

While there are many positives regarding Pear Fiction Studios, one negative trait is that once a particular mechanic is identified by the company, they tend to continue using it repeatedly. In fact, the majority of Pear Fiction Studios’ slots use the lock & win (Hold and win/lock ‘n win/link’n win) mechanic. For example, if you’ve played 3 Lucky Hippos, Cerberus Gold, or Squealin Riches, you’ll quickly recognize the foundation of this slot as soon as you start playing. Using a single mechanic repeatedly is not necessarily a bad Thing. Just like how many of us prefer to visit our favorite restaurant again and again ordering the same meal. However, it does create certain expectations regarding this slot that we’ll explore later.

Screenshots

Disco Inferno fruit machine: the visuals & audio

Pear Fiction calls this one a “disco inferno,” and visually it lives up to that name. The base game takes place in a dark purple haze with blinking lights and flickering Flames surrounding the reels. The entire screen will flip to a bright yellow color when a substantial win occurs or when a bonus is triggered. The visuals are quite impressive, and I did get excited the first time it occurred during my demo play. The graphics consist of classic and modern. The low paying symbols are made of Card royals (Ace through 10). The premium symbols include juicy fruits such as blueberries, oranges, watermelons, raspberries, and grapes. Oddly enough for a game named “3 Cherry Frenzy”, the cherries seem to serve as decorations rather than the focus of the game.

As for audio, the expectation would be a four-on-the-floor type of disco music. However, what you receive is a somewhat aggressive rock music track. It’s energetic, and helps keep the pace moving throughout gameplay. Unfortunately, it doesn’t fit the disco-ball aesthetic. Also, Pearl Fiction didn’t provide any personality to this slot similar to their best work. There is no granny fighting zombies, no smiling hippos dancing to music, and no mascot to become attached to. This slot is polished, bright and functional. However, it lacks personality.

Practically speaking, the game utilizes HTML5 technology, weighs approximately 32mb and ran flawlessly on mobile devices, tablets and pc’s. I tested it on an older Android device and it performed adequately with all animations active.

How 3 Cherry Frenzy works: the Basics

Before exploring the exciting features available in this slot, let me outline the Basics of how this game operates.

Gameplay features:

• Reels: you begin with a traditional 5 x 3 grid design which offers 243 possible ways to win. As opposed to having fixed lines that determine winning combinations, any consecutive matching symbols on adjacent reels result in a payout provided that the initial symbol began on the leftmost reel. Three consecutive symbols is the least number needed to generate a prize
•  Grid size: before too long, however, the size of the grid grows thanks to TopGraderZ significantly. We will discuss TopGraderZ in greater detail shortly.

Bet options and Settings:

Your Bets can vary from 20 cents up to $50 per spin. That provides plenty of flexibility for casual players and average-stakes players. High rollers who regularly spend large amounts of money may find the upper limit too restrictive. Autoplay mode is also present, providing you with additional options. Turbo mode allows you to speed up gameplay. You also have options to adjust the volume levels for the background sounds/music.

TopGraderZ: the reel above your main grid

Above your primary grid is another horizontal reel that Pear Fiction refers to as TopGraderZ. Each time you play a spin, TopGraderZ spins horizontally and drops two types of symbols onto the reels below. The first type is split symbols. When One lands above a reel, it increases the height of that reel by One (One), two (two), or three (three) rows depending upon what landed above it. Thus, a single reel could reach six rows in height. With all reels at six rows in height, your main grid now becomes a 5 x 6 grid with 7,776 ways to win.

Therefore, an otherwise unremarkable spin can rapidly transition into an extremely rewarding spin filled with numerous combinations. The second type of symbol is Bonus Stars. They accumulate per reel across multiple spins, creating a form of a checklist. Once all five reels have accumulated a bonus star, landing all five reels simultaneously activates what I consider to be your “super-bonus“: all three lock & win features combined. Watching the stars accumulate creates a great deal of anticipation as you count down to collecting all five stars and waiting for sometimes extended periods of time until all five are collected.

Cash symbols & red pot multiplier

In addition to accumulating Bonus Stars in the base game cash symbols will appear on reels 1 through 4 with values ranging from .02x your bet to 100x your bet. By themselves, they do nothing. However, when a Collect symbol lands on reel #5 it collects all cash symbols visible in view and immediately pays out those cash symbols. In addition, each red pot that lands multiplies your subsequent collection by one (1x), increasing your multiplier to a maximum of 10x.

This multiplier remains in place until it is reset back to 1x at the conclusion of either a multiply lock & win or a multiply + Supreme Lock & Win. Below is a tip that most reviewers overlook: since the multiplier is tied directly to your current bet level changing your bet level eliminates any previously acquired multiplier. Think twice prior to adjusting your bet level if you’ve collected a significant amount of cash symbol winnings.

Bonus Explained

Here’s how these three bonuses operate:

Lock & win (blue pot):

All non-cash symbols disappear once triggered, allowing you unlimited free respins until either all cash symbols are collected or your remaining respins run out. At that point, all cash symbols currently visible on the board are paid out simultaneously. All three versions function identically to each other; however they differ slightly in terms of what variation occurs once activated.

Multiply lock & win (red pot):

There are random chances that activate this bonus. In addition to being able to collect all visible cash symbols and subsequently earning yourself free respins as mentioned earlier, your existing multiplier from previous gameplay also transfers into the bonus round; therefore, any multiplier you’ve created during base gameplay will affect your payouts at the end of this round. Activating this bonus at 1x can simply add an additional respin feature with no additional reward. Activating this bonus with a high multiplier can dramatically increase potential earnings.

Supreme Lock & Win (pink pot):

Upon activation, this bonus introduces two additional types of higher-paying cash symbols in addition to Red Cash symbols. These orange cash symbols collect all values associated with Red Cash symbols on display while purple cash symbols collect both Red and Orange cash symbols values simultaneously, thus making one late purple symbol capable of converting an assortment of individualized scattered cash symbols into one giant paying combination. Of all three variations, I personally enjoy this one the most due to it providing potentially unpredictable yet entertaining experiences.

Combining bonuses:

Activating more than one pot simultaneously (via separate Pots or via collecting Bonus Stars) results in combining bonus rules, thus allowing you to create additional scenarios regarding combining features; for example, activating both multiply and supreme rounds creates an environment where purple cash symbols can scoop up all visible Red Cash symbol values and then apply any existing multipliers applied during this round to their respective totals. Winning all three bonus rounds collectively represents your greatest opportunity to earn larger sums of money in this slot.