Torre Jeppe Slot Machine
If you’re tired of playing slots that are thinly-disguised derivatives of existing slots, it’s time you sought out Torre Jeppe.
Forget Egyptian hieroglyphs, pirate treasure and Caesar’s palace: Torre Jeppe is a 5-reel slot from Portomaso Gaming that’s original, inventive and full of deft touches.
You don’t have to acquaint yourself with the tale of Torre Jeppe to play it, but doing so will grant you a heightened appreciation for the game’s quirks and characters as they gradually become manifest.
Once upon a Time…
Based on an old Swedish fairy tale, Torre Jeppe is the name of a ghost who lived in a church. A trio of tailors promised a girl that they would make her a dress if she was brave enough to bring them the ghost. When the girl accepted the challenge, bringing the ghost to the tailors’ house, the threesome reneged on the deal.
Why the tailors wanted the ghost in the first place is unclear, and why they then broke their promise when they could have quickly knocked out a dress is similarly perplexing. What happened next is pretty dark, as is often the case with old fairy tales.
As the girl was carrying the ghost on her shoulders to the church, it refused to let go and began choking her. The girl pleaded with the ghost to let her go, whereupon a remorseful Torre Jeppe told her to go to the river at midnight and ask for the chokey spectre to be forgiven. If she returned to the church before sunrise, she would be rewarded, the ghost told her. The girl went and did as she was told and in the morning arrived at the church to find Torre Jeppe gone and a pot of silver and two dresses in his place. So there you have it: the curious and strangely charming tale of Torre Jeppe.
Ghosts and Stuff
Once you know the story, the symbols that surface in Torre Jeppe the video slot start to make sense. We have a church organ, the ghost himself who doubles as the bonus symbol, a pair of tailors (who substitute for the three referenced in the original story), the female protagonist, who appears as the scatter symbol, and finally a pot of silver.
The tale might have sinister undertones, but Torre Jeppe isn’t the sort of game that’s going to leave you sleeping with the lights on. Its characters are far too cheerful of that. Even the tailors, who are the undisputed baddies of the piece, look harmless.
The game’s 5 reels comprise 25 paylines, with the number of coins per line ranging from 1 to 10. The coin size can be adjusted from 0.01 to 0.2. There’s no autoplay option, but in a world where everything moves at a dizzying pace, it’s nice to regain control and take charge. The game’s lowliest symbols, 10, K, Q, A and a prayer book, are worth between 5 and 35; small change, but change that can stack up once the wild symbol comes into play.
Say Yes to the Dress
The wild symbol, which is the dress at the centre of the scam, can substitute for any of the symbols except for jackpot, scatter and bonus. 3 dress symbols are worth 75, 4 are worth 100 and 5 command 250.
There’s bigger money to be won in the bonus game, where the maximum win for having scored 5 ghosts on active paylines is 615. Finally, the girl who plays scatter will supply free spins at a rate of 15 for 3 symbols and 10 spins for 4 symbols, but accompanied by a 2x multiplier in this instance. 5 symbols secures 5 free spins with a multiplier of 3.
In a scene that’s crowded with unimaginative slots, Torre Jeppe is a breath of fresh air. The sad thing is that most players will rattle its reels without the slightest idea or care as to what’s going on.
What does it matter whether the prize symbols are a dress or a ghost? Well at least you know, and now you’re informed – both in the slot’s backstory and its workings – you’ve got every chance of scooping mad cash before retiring to nurse a newfound appreciation for the magical world of Swedish fairy tales.
Who knows what other gems there are in Scandinavian folklore, just waiting to be retold and reinvented as video slots? That unfortunate strangling incident aside, Torre Jeppe might just be the kindest ghost that never lived.
