Pimp It Up Slot Machine
Pimp It Up is a 5-reel Merkur gaming slot unashamedly based on the MTV series Pimp My Ride. When we first heard of the slot, we were hoping to see symbols depicting iced-out pimps wearing gold lamé suits and snakeskin shoes, but this is very much a vehicular slot.
Pimp It Up was launched in 2011 and is available to play at several Merkur-powered casinos, where gamers can choose to take part in either free slots mode or as online slots for real money. The game might have a rather simple design, but thanks to the inclusion of an expanding scatter feature, which triggers to a free re-spin, not to mention a wild symbol, there’s some enjoyment to be derived from pimping it up. Let’s break it down.
Merkur Gaming
You might not be familiar with Merkur Gaming, so a quick word on them is necessary. The casino machine specialist is a member of the German-based Gauselmann Group, with more than 8,000 employees. Boasting a huge library of game titles, Merkur supply their clients with a brace of 3 and 5-reel slots.
Rolling on dubs
Pimp It Up has a very simple design, particularly considering the provocative title. The 5x3 reel grid appears in front of a baby-blue background, with the Pimp It Up logo appearing at the top of the grid. And, well, that’s about it. There are large, circular green buttons for Spin and Max Bet, and running tallies at the bottom of the screen recording Wins, Bets and Deposit, but mostly there’s just the reel grid and the symbols etched upon it.
The minimum bet in Pimp It Up is 0.5, while the maximum is 10. The grand jackpot, meanwhile, is 1,000. All wins pay left to right, and an autostart button can automatically start games using the same stake.
There are a dozen symbols in Pimp It Up, including five playing cards: 10, jack, queen, king and ace. The playing cards, as is standard, are the lowest-value icons in the entire game. Indeed, you’ll win just one credit for three matching 10s, Jacks or Queens. It’s five credits for four and just 20 credits for all five. The Ace and King are a little better, paying a credit for three, eight credits for four and 30 for five.
Further symbols include a yellow taxi, a green truck, a resplendent orange Cadillac and a yellow Pimp It Up logo. There’s also a head shot of an African American male, who we can only suppose is supposed to be Xzibit, given the rapper, actor and record producer has hosted the MTV show for six seasons. The final two symbols are a pair of attractive females, one redhead and one blonde. The girls represent the scatter feature and they crop up on the first and fifth reels. When both appear at the same time, the scatter feature is triggered. A random symbol from the reels will be chosen as the new scatter and the girls will be replaced, with both the first and fifth reels flooded entirely with the newly designated scatter symbol. Thereafter, the player will receive a free re-spin.
The scatters can stack up on all of the reels, and after the free re-spin, all scatters will be counted and paid.
The Xzibit icon is wild, and can thus replace all others in the game (except the scatters) to help you form wins. Sadly, there’s no extra prize for utilising the wild in a win, nor is the wild associated with any regular values.
Speaking of the pay-table, it’s worth pointing out that the Pimp It Up logo is the game’s most lucrative. It pays one credit for two matching, ten for three, 100 for four and 1,000 for all five. The green truck is next best, paying one for two, ten for three, 40 for four and 400 for five. Then it’s the orange Caddie, paying one for two, six for three, 20 for four and 200 for five. The yellow taxi is the least valuable of the main symbols (1/6/15/150).
Poor Pimp
Pimp It Up could’ve been one of the great ones, but as it stands, it’s a fairly shoddy video slot. The design is pretty poor overall – the home screen is terribly basic – and the wild should really be associated with its own values. The pay-table is also very stingy. That said, the stacked scatters redeem the game somewhat.
