The Home Of Fluffy Favourites

Development of Fluffy Favourites
The original Fluffy Favourites truly is a basic design. The conventional five reel, three row format is presented before a green background, perhaps a fuzzy representation of a traditional village green. The upper ‘skyline’ above the reels consists of a basic depiction of the sun and its rays; a rainbow and a red and white striped traditional fairground big tent.

The game has up to twenty five different winning lines, with matching characters paying from left to right only. The Return to Player Rate (RTP) for Fluffy Favourites is around 95.4%.

There are some basic player controls on this game. You can vary the number of winning lines you wish to bet on. You can play with just one winning line if you choose. The advantage of playing with fewer lines is that your stake level can be lower, but most players opt for the maximum twenty five as this maximises your chances of winning.

You can also choose the amount you wish to bet per spin. This can be from 1p up to 50p per potential winning line. This flexibility is why most players prefer to use all twenty five lines. Even at this level, the minimum stake is still a reasonable 25p per spin (a penny per line). The maximum stake per line is 50p, giving a maximum bet per spin of £12.50.

Admin over, let’s get back to the actual game itself. The reel characters consist of a variety of animals in the form of colourful soft toys. In American English, these are known as ‘plushies’, but this is a British design (it’s called Fluffy Favourites, not Fluffy Favorites), so I’m sticking to the cuddly toys description.

These reel symbols include a conventionally coloured Giraffe, a Panda and a pair of Tropical Fish. You also get a yellow Duck, a blue Rhinoceros, a green Tortoise and more. The top paying symbol is the purple Hippopotamus, which will pay out 5,000 x your original stake if you get all five on a winning line.

Fluffy Favourites ReelsThe star of the show though, is the iconic pink Elephant. She is the games ‘Wild’ symbol, acting as a substitute for all the other characters apart from the Scatter to increase your chances of achieving a winning combination.

Pink Elephant SymbolThe Scatter is a Claw symbol, intended to represent the mechanical grabbers seen on traditional seaside amusement arcade games where you can attempt to grab a soft toy or even something more valuable from a tempting mound of prizes behind a Perspex screen. Sadly, in real life, the feeble grip of the grabbers is rarely able to secure you a decent prize. In Fluffy Favourites though, the odds are much more in your favour. Get three or more Claws anywhere on your reels and you trigger some free Picks. See below for full details.

The Claw Scatter SymbolAside from the minimalist graphics, the soundtrack is also pretty basic. The reels run silently apart from a quiet click as they begin to spin. A low note sounds whenever a pink Elephant or set of Claws appears on your screen, and a line win is announced by a kind of electronic ‘fruit machine’ style jingle. However, any win resulting from the appearance of the pink Elephant results in a more spectacular announcement. Some rhythmic jungle drums sound out, and the Elephant dances a little jig in front of a colourful rainbow, before collapsing in a heap and falling asleep!

‘Wild’ Symbol
There is more to the dancing pink Elephant than meets the eye. In addition to her role as a handy substitute for all the other animals, she also doubles the amount of your prize whenever she appears as part of your winning combination.

But there’s even more! Get three or more anywhere on your reels to trigger some Free Spins. Get the minimum three pink Elephants to launch fifteen Free Spins. If you find four Elephants then you trigger twenty Free Spins. Get all five, and you are rewarded with a magnificent twenty five Free Spins. What’s more, all prizes awarded during your Free Spin round are tripled. Even better, your Free Spins can be re-triggered during your bonus round. All you need to do is find at least three more Elephants on any spin. Free games can be re-triggered up to fifteen times to build up some truly impressive prizes.

Bonus ‘Toy Box Pick’ Feature
Fortunately, you don’t need to demonstrate your manual dexterity skills when you trigger this bonus game. It all runs automatically. You need to get three Claw symbols anywhere on your reels (they don’t need to be part of a ‘winning line’). You then get one Pick for every Claw symbol in the triggering combination, so you are guaranteed at least three Picks.

Each Pick could earn you up to 100 x your original wager. Your total prize is paid out at the end of the feature. It represents the total of all your successful Picks added together.

Summary
There is no great strategy involved in playing Fluffy Favourites. This is indeed part of its charm. Complicated tactics and logical deduction is not required, so you can reserve any intellectual gymnastics for other games and just relax and enjoy the fun. The game is bright and colourful, and even the sparse soundtrack is strangely soothing.

So whether you are young enough to need to ask your parents what on earth a dial-up modem is or simply new to the game, this timeless slot is a perfect choice. And if you are of sufficient maturity to remember it from first time around, you won’t need reminding of its nostalgic, evocative charm.

Fluffy Favourites’ several sequels are all charming in their own way, but to many, the original is definitely the best. Enjoy!