18+ Only. Play Responsibly.
The rubber duck was the only symbol that had dressed correctly.
Cherries had arrived.
Lemons had arrived.
BARs and brightly coloured 7s were sitting on five reels inside a room tiled like an enormous bath.
Everything was covered in bubbles.
And in the middle of it all sat one yellow duck.
At least somebody had read the invitation.
I had €146 and put 15x Bubble Wild 2 at €1 a spin.
The first few minutes behaved like an old fruit machine that had accidentally been washed.
Three cherries paid.
A pair of BAR combinations followed.
A purple 7 slid past a red one.
Little soap bubbles clung to almost everything.
The Bubble Pop symbols were different.
Blue.
Square.
Very obvious.
They did not need to sit on a payline with anything.
They just needed friends.
Six of them anywhere on the reels would be enough to produce the first instant bubble payment.
That changed what I watched.
A cherry line came in for €4 and disappeared almost unnoticed.
Two Bubble Pops had landed with it.
Next spin brought three.
Then four.
Then five.
Five bubbles occupied a third of the reels.
Nothing happened.
The machine had filled itself with soap and decided the minimum acceptable level of cleanliness was six.
A few spins later it reached the number.
Six Bubble symbols scattered across the reels.
The ordinary fruit underneath them became irrelevant.
Bubble Pop Bonus.
€2.
Six bubbles had organised themselves across five reels to produce enough money for two more attempts at producing six bubbles.
The rubber duck appeared on the following spin.
No Bubble Pops.
He sat there alone among two BARs and a lemon.
The room was still tiled.
The bubbles continued floating in the background.
The duck had arrived for the bath after somebody had removed the bath.
I kept going at €1.
Seven symbols paid €6.
A cherry line returned €3.
Then the bubble count became the entire session.
Four.
Two.
Five.
Three.
Five again.
Whenever five landed, the empty positions suddenly became enormous.
One more blue Bubble Pop anywhere.
That was all.
Instead, a watermelon would appear.
Or a duck.
Or a BAR symbol wrapped in decorative bubbles as though trying to qualify through appearance alone.
It did not.
The actual Bubble symbols were doing the counting.
The balance passed €120.
Then €110.
A Scatter appeared on the first reel.
Another on the third.
The fifth reel supplied cherries.
A few spins later the first and fifth had Scatters.
The middle one offered a lemon.
The Bonus stars kept arriving two at a time, apparently uncomfortable in groups.
At €93, all three finally turned up.
Scatter on reel one.
Scatter on reel three.
Scatter on reel five.
Twelve Free Spins.
The fruit machine changed.
Bubble symbols became much more common.
There were special reels now, and suddenly the two giant dispensers at the sides of the screen looked less decorative.
They were full of little pink and blue bubble pieces.
The first free spin dropped three Bubble symbols.
No instant prize.
The second brought five.
€2.
One of the Bubble Pops stayed.
It did not disappear with the spin.
The next result started with that blue square already sitting there.
Another Bubble Pop landed beside it.
Four others arrived elsewhere.
Six bubbles.
€4.
Then one of the new Bubble Pops stayed too.
Two sticky bubbles.
Ten Free Spins had started as twelve and already the screen was beginning to retain evidence.
Next spin.
The two sticky Pops remained.
Three more arrived.
Five total.
€2.
Another one stuck.
Now there were three permanent blue Bubble Pops occupying the reels.
The machine had finally discovered soap that refused to rinse away.
The next spin started with three.
Only two more came.
Five again.
€2.
Then six.
€4.
The instant prizes were arriving, but the board above the reels was advertising what happened further up the count.
Seven bubbles meant €16.
Eight meant €50.
Nine meant €100.
Ten meant €300.
From there the numbers became ridiculous very quickly.
Fifteen would be the jackpot.
€50,000 sat above the reels.
I had three sticky bubbles.
There were fifteen positions.
For the first time, the tiled room looked less like somewhere to wash fruit and more like a counting problem.
Next spin.
Three permanent bubbles.
A fourth landed.
Then a fifth.
Then a sixth.
Then another.
Seven.
€16.
Best bubble hit of the session.
One of those new Pops stayed.
Four sticky now.
Eight Free Spins remained.
Starting each spin with four bubbles changed the shape of everything.
Four were already guaranteed.
I only needed another four to reach €50.
Six more would be €300.
Eleven new bubbles somehow joining the four sticky ones would fill all fifteen positions and hit the jackpot.
The machine knew exactly where to place the next symbols.
A duck landed.
Purple 7.
Watermelon.
BAR.
Two Bubble Pops.
Six total.
€4.
Both temporary bubbles vanished afterward.
The four sticky ones remained.
Next spin brought three more.
Seven again.
€16.
None stayed.
The screen had reached seven twice.
Eight remained one soap bubble away.
The jackpot remained eight soap bubbles beyond that.
Another spin.
Five.
€2.
Then came the ugliest useful screen of the feature.
Four sticky Bubble Pops were already there.
Three new Bubble symbols landed immediately.
Seven.
One empty position sat directly beside them.
The final reel stopped.
Red 7.
€16.
The red 7 was surrounded by enough soap to clean it for the rest of its natural life.
It had still prevented €50 by existing.
The next free spin started.
Four sticky.
Two fresh bubbles.
Six.
€4.
A Scatter landed on reel one.
Then another on reel three.
The fifth reel slowed.
A Bonus star appeared during the movement.
Passed.
Rubber duck.
No retrigger.
The duck had now personally interrupted both bathing and twelve additional Free Spins.
He looked delighted.
Five spins left.
Another Bubble Pop became sticky.
Five permanent.
That should have made things easier.
The next spin supplied nothing else.
Five.
€2.
A machine with five Bubble Pops permanently attached to it had managed to produce the smallest available free-spin bubble award.
Then two arrived.
Seven.
€16.
One stayed.
Six sticky bubbles.
Three spins remained.
Now the machine could begin every spin already at the €4 level.
Two more bubbles would mean €50.
Three would mean €100.
Four would mean €300.
The next spin brought one.
Seven.
€16.
The following spin also brought one.
Seven again.
€16.
It was becoming very good at precisely seven bubbles.
Final Free Spin.
Six sticky Bubble Pops were already sitting there.
The reels turned around them.
First reel supplied cherries above the sticky symbol.
Second reel: BAR.
Third: a Bubble Wild.
Seven.
Fourth reel: duck.
Fifth: watermelon.
€16.
The feature ended.
It had started with twelve spins, built six permanent bubbles, repeatedly reached seven and never once found eight.
The jackpot display had remained at €50,000 throughout, hanging over a screen that had spent several minutes behaving as though filling itself completely was a realistic future event.
The Free Spins had recovered some of the session.
Not enough.
The ordinary reels returned.
All six sticky Bubble Pops disappeared at once.
The room had been scrubbed clean.
A few €1 spins followed.
Three BARs paid €6.
Two Bubble Pops landed.
Then four.
Then the screen produced five.
One blue Bubble Pop sat on reel one.
Another on reel two.
Bubble Wild in the middle.
Two more Pops on the right.
Five bubbles.
No bonus.
The rubber duck occupied the remaining useful space near the centre.
He sat there inside the tiled room, surrounded by soap.
The machine had spent the entire session teaching me to count bubbles.
The duck had apparently stopped at five.
I hit a win on Wrappin’ Christmas Gold and immediately checked my pulse.