Black Friday Slot Review
With Halloween done & dusted for another year, bargain hunters everywhere can now prepare for one of the most hyped-up days of the year….no, not Christmas, silly, but every shopaholic’s wet dream – it’s Black Friday, people!
Prepare to wrestle strangers for the last 75″ TV and take part in your very own ‘Supermarket Sweep’ as you rush round the aisles, loading tons of reduced electronics into multiple trolleys. Already own several toasters & microwaves? Never mind…treat yourself to another at half the price, and store it away for a rainy day – at these prices, you’d be stupid to leave them on the shelves.
Black Friday, set on the Friday after Thanksgiving, is a widely celebrated event in the United States. However, like baby showers and gender reveals, Black Friday has quickly become a major event in the UK. Originally, it marked the start of the Christmas shopping season, but it has now transpired into an all-out Sport.
Still fairly new to the iGaming industry, Shady Lady is a promising software developer with a knack for creating daring games with bold aesthetics & edgy themes. Shrouded in mystery & operating under the radar, they’ve quickly gained a reputation for their humorous & eye-catching releases, including Brainwashed, Swoll, and Sew.
Get ready to push your way through the doors of Shady Lady’s latest release, Black Friday, and fill your trolley with absolute bargains worth up to 20,000x your bet. Whether you’re stocking up on toilet roll or bullets, there’s a bargain for everybody, but will you get your hands on them in time? Let’s find out…
Base Game & Features
Black Friday is the latest high volatility release from Shady Lady, featuring 5 reels, 4 rows, and 30 fixed pay lines. Paytable symbols trigger winning combinations when 3-5 matching symbols land on adjacent reels, starting from reel 1.
Throughout each game session, up to 8 high & low-paying symbols will appear across the reels. The 4 high-paying symbols represent Shoppers, followed by discounted House Products as the game’s lowest-paying symbols. Once a win is evaluated, a fixed payout between 0.5x and 20x your bet is awarded.
Additionally, Wild symbols can appear on all reel positions, substituting for all symbols as part of a winning combination. Wild symbols award a payout of 2.5x, 5x, and 20x your bet for a 3, 4, or 5-of-a-kind win.
Road Rage Respins
In the base game, the Road Rage Respins feature will trigger when at least 1 Cop, Protester, or Politician symbol appears anywhere on the reels. Once in view, 1 of 3 vehicles will approach the reels, running over its respective character, and transforming the entire reel into a Stacked Wild.
Each vehicle acts as a Wild on the reel, with shorter vehicles complemented by a Blood Trail to form the remaining Wild Reel. Once in view, each vehicle will award the following outcomes:
- Compact: Is the smallest vehicle which covers 2 positions, and appears with no Multiplier
- Pick-Up: Covers 3 reel positions and carries a random Multiplier, which is applied to all winning combinations involving Vehicle Wilds
- Techno Truck: Is the longest vehicle in play, covering all 4 reel positions. It begins with a fixed Multiplier, making it the most rewarding of the 3.
Once a vehicle is displayed on the reels, the Respins feature begins. As the Respins progress, each available Vehicle Wild will nudge down by one position. During this feature, additional Cop, Protester, or Politician symbols may land, which may result in new vehicles entering the reels.
Parking Lot Stampede
In the base game, the Parking Lot Stampede feature may trigger at random. Once this happens, all low-paying symbols are removed from the reels. Please note that this feature & Road Rage Respins can trigger simultaneously in the same spin.
Black Friday Free Spins
Landing 3 Scatters anywhere in the base game guarantees entry into the Free Spins mode. While there are no limitations to the number of Free Spins, the session ends when 1 or more Shopper symbols drop below the bottom-most reel position.
With each spin, additional Shopper symbols may appear at the top of any reel, pushing existing ones further down the reel. Each Shopper symbol reveals a random Coin Prize, which is awarded when a Shopper symbol is eliminated from the reels.
Directly below the matrix is a set of 3 Screens, which are instantly active upon entry into Free Spins. Each screen can appear Blank, which awards nothing, whilst the first two can reveal Special Boosters that may increase the value of Coin Prizes or add Multipliers to weapons.
Screen 3 is the only one that can reveal Weapons – these include:
- Pistol: Removes a Shopper symbol from one of the bottom-most positions
- Machine Gun: Eliminates the bottom-most Shopper symbol from all reel positions
- Laser: Removes all Shopper symbols on a random reel, regardless of their position
- Nuke: Destroys all Shopper symbols from the entire reel set
Before a spin begins, a random Brawl may occur, causing Shoppers to fight until only one remains, absorbing the value of all defeated Shoppers’ values. Lastly, a special Karen Shopper can appear in view, covering two reels & carrying up to 2,000x your bet.
Super Free Spins
Alternatively, players can participate in a Super Free Spins mode by landing 4 Scatters anywhere in the base game. Again, there are no limitations to how many Free Spins can be awarded, following the same guidelines from the standard Free Spins mode.
One key difference here, though, is that each of the 3 Screens can no longer reveal Blanks.
Boosters & Bonus Buy
Players within eligible markets can purchase any of the following Booster & Bonus Buy options:
- Bonus Boost: Increases your chance of triggering Free Spins by 239% for 1.5x your bet per spin (96.5%)
- Big Bonus Boost: Increases your chance of triggering Free Spins by 1203% for 5x your bet per spin (96.4%)
- Road Rage Respins: Guarantees to trigger the Road Rage Respins feature for 25x your bet (96%)
- Bonus: Instant access to the Free Spins mode for 85x your bet (96.6%)
- Super Bonus: Direct entry into the Super Free Spins mode for 299x your bet (96.3%)
- Bronze, Silver, Gold Bonus: Trigger a Free Spins session with a higher tier for 129x, 348x, and 1,596x your bet, respectively (96.1% – 96.6%)
- Highlight Reels: Purchase 3 top-paying results of 100, 300, or 500 spins for 87x, 221x, and 33x your bet, respectively (96.1% – 96.4%)
- Loot Boxes: Purchase Rare, Epic, or Legendary Loot Boxes for 187x, 345x, and 571x your bet, respectively (96% – 96.3%)
The maximum win potential of Black Friday is 20,000x your bet. If a single session reaches this, the current mode ends, and the player returns to the base game with the qualifying amount.
Our Honest Verdict
While Black Friday is a great way to kick-start the Christmas shopping with some sizable bargains, it’s not the most glamorous of days, and it can definitely bring out the worst in people. Shady Lady captures those feral moments between strangers in the most humorous way possible, in light of their new Black Friday slot release.
Wrestling the last Plasma-TV from a stranger’s hands has become somewhat of a blood sport, with people trampling on each other, all so they can save 50% on the same toaster they currently have at home…it’s total madness. Before we continue, can we give a quick shout-out to all the supermarket staff, security, hospital staff, & priests who have to deal with the fallout…you must all really love your jobs.
The base game offers a steady flow of Shoppers across the reels, alongside the occasional Cop, Protester, or Politician…one of which looks suspiciously like Donald Trump – who knew he loved a bargain? As the reels spin, you may also find yourself involved in Road Rage Respins or the odd Parking Lot Stampede.
When comparing the two, Road Rage Respins gives you more bang for your buck, but it only triggers when a Cop, Protester, or Politician rears its head. Attempting to stop this bargain hunter will result in the recipient being run over, allowing the vehicle to cover 2, 3, or 4 reel positions with Wilds.
The excitement builds when multiple vehicles are present in the same Respin cycle, particularly when each one reveals a random Multiplier as part of this sweet deal. While the Parking Lot Stampede feature is harder to obtain, it’s worth the long wait as it eliminates all low-paying symbols from the reels.
Moving into Free Spins, both this mode & Super Free Spins follow the same algorithms, except all three screens can no longer reveal Blanks. Each screen spins through a series of Weapons, which are paramount in upgrading Coin Prizes on the reels & eliminating Shoppers before they reach the bottom-most reel position.
Brawls are standard in any Black Friday event, and Shady Lady has graciously added them to the free Spins modes, with none other than Karen making an appearance on the reels, carrying a Coin Prize of up to 2,000x your bet.
Thanks to Karen & her mega rewards, the 20,000x max win potential doesn’t seem overly difficult to achieve. All in all, Black Friday is an enjoyable & entertaining addition to Shady Lady’s glowing portfolio, offering exclusive deals & a variety of engaging features & mechanics.
*The images found in this slot review are currently from Demo Play. On average, our reviews are written prior to the initial release date and before real play is available.
