Le Kaffee Bar (Microgaming): Overview

When we initially contacted Microgaming to request access to their demo portal, they seemingly assumed we’d be offering them a promotional stage to praise and hype their titles. It’s not hard to see why. For years, affiliates have bent over backwards to push any kind of nonsense—slots or casinos alike—without taking responsibility for it. “Oh, a game about turds with a 93% RTP and 500x max win potential, amazing!”. What’s telling is that we’ve even seen some of the biggest sell-out sites struggle to hide their distaste in their Microgaming reviews, which speaks volumes.

It likely came as a surprise for Microgaming to read our criticisms, and after our falling-out with the company they haven’t exactly helped us review their releases. In fact, they severed all ties with us. At Bigwinboard.com we still acknowledge quality when it’s deserved, though, and at last we’ve been able to give them a bit of praise. But that’s enough on that.

As strange as it sounds, Le Kaffee Bar isn’t Microgaming’s first coffee-themed slot. The other one, called Cashoccino, first launched in 2014 and was later re-released in the html5 format last year. It’s not a good slot, so we recommend you simply skip it. Le Kaffee Bar comes with that classic Microgaming configuration of 5 reels and 243 ways to win which, back in its heyday, was essentially what Megaways is today—an impression of near-limitless potential compared to fixed paylines.

With stakes ranging from 0.30 to 30€ per spin on all devices, there’s little to fault in terms of presentation. Set in a coffee shop, the reel set is packed with A to 9 card suit symbols alongside jugs, cupcakes and 3 different characters—the barista, guy and girl—with the last of these paying the most, awarding 10 times your stake for landing 5 across a payline. The character symbols are also the only ones that can appear fully stacked on the three middle reels.

Le Kaffee Bar (Microgaming): Features

Le Kaffee Bar features a Wild Spin Again mechanic. Any time 3 symbols line up in a vertical or horizontal arrangement, you’re awarded 1 free spin. The symbol in the middle then turns into a wild and stays sticky for that spin. The idea is to give you an extra opportunity to complete a winning combination.

The main attraction, however, is the scatter collection mechanic. Keep an eye out for the coffee mug scatter, which only shows up on reel 1 and 5. When a scatter lands, it’s added to your collection. Once you collect 10 or more, you’ll unlock the Free Spins. From there, you can continue collecting mugs to trigger the feature with a bigger multiplier:

• Collect 10 scatters for 10 free spins with a 3x multiplier
• Collect 20 scatters for 15 free spins with a 4x multiplier
• Collect 30 scatters for 18 free spins with a 5x multiplier

Le Kaffee Bar (Microgaming): Verdict

Sadly, Le Kaffee Bar is a lot like the coffee you get at IKEA—thin, watery and not particularly satisfying. In short, the volatility is a little too low and the excitement we want from a slot machine just isn’t present. You can win up to 2833 times your stake in Le Kaffee Bar, so there’s at least some motivation to try it, but the overall generic vibe makes us feel like grabbing coffee somewhere else.