PopNoir

Are you a fan of black and white cinema? Depending on your age, you’ve probably lived your life enjoying most of your cinematic experiences in colour, but black and white movies reigned supreme from the 1900s to the 1960s. Whilst colour films started to sprinkle into Hollywood as early as the 1920s with the introduction of Technicolor, it wasn’t until much later that they became the norm.

As a result, black and white film is a nostalgic experience for many older generations today, in particular film noir, a term coined by French critics. Film noir movies were crime dramas, with complex storylines and an unmistakable aesthetic of darkened cities.

Provider AvatarUX are clearly a fan of this genre as they’re bringing us another release in their iconic PopWins series, and now they’re taking us back in time to follow the clues in PopNoir.

With RTP options available up to 96.03%, this highly volatile release can produce wins up to 20,000x bet.

PopNoir Base Game

It’s all very dark in this release, as all of the landscape is black and white. This isn’t the only release we’ve seen lately taking on this theme – Hacksaw Gaming have tried their hand at greyscale recently in Cash Crew, for example.

Either way, we’re in a metropolitan city late at night, with dull clouds sweeping across the sky and tall skyscrapers towering over.

On the reels we see a bit more colour, so this release is definitely inspired by – and not a direct copy of – film noir.

A variety of symbols including guns, alcohol and both male and female characters dressed to impress take their place on the reels, whilst a jazzy soundtrack comes in to tie it all together, getting a bit more intense as wins build. All in all, it’s a nice picture.

PopNoir Offers Players up to 32,768 Ways to Win

PopNoir Base Features

Taking place across 5 reels, wins are formed on PopNoir by matching at least 3 symbols on adjacent reels, beginning with the leftmost or rightmost reel as wins pay both ways.

Each reel holds 3 symbols initially, producing 243 ways to win, but this can increase as high as 32,768 ways to win thanks to the PopWins mechanic.

Symbols available begin with non premiums, with 10s, Js, Qs, Ks and As, awarding wins between 0.30 and 0.60x bet for matches between 3 and 5 of a kind.

In the mid range we have bottles of alcohol and guns, awarding wins of 0.40 and 0.50x bet respectively for 3 of a kind matches, increasing to values of 1 and 1.50x bet respectively for 5 of a kind wins.

Premiums consist of male and female characters, both of which award wins between 0.50 and 1.50x bet for matches between 3 and 5 of a kind, whilst the highest paying symbol is a golden eagle trophy, awarding wins between 1 and 3x bet, again for matches between 3 and 5 of a kind. 

Winning Symbols Pop From the Reels and Expand Symbol Heights

PopWins

The main attraction in PopNoir is the PopWins mechanic itself.

On every spin, all symbols involved in a winning combination will pop from the reels.

Each symbol that is removed will be replaced by 2 new symbols, thereby increasing the reel height by +1 for each symbol that is removed.

In turn, the ways to win are also increased.

This process continues until no new wins are formed, at which point the reels are reset to their original height at the start of the next spin.

Before Free Spins Players Will Be Taken to the Rewards Screen to Determine Starting Spins, Starting Ways, Starting Multiplier and Multiplier Growth

Base Game Unlock

Reels can increase to hold a maximum of 6 or 8 symbols respectively in the base game or Free Spins.

This means in the base game 7,776 ways to win are available, whilst Free Spins can produce a maximum of 32,768 ways to win.

When the maximum reel height has been reached in the base game, players are awarded 2 Free Spins and a random multiplier.

At this stage winning symbols continue to be removed from the reels when winning combinations occur, but they are replaced by only one symbol.

PopNoir Free Spins

PopNoir Bonus

Land 3, 4 or 5 Bonus symbols to trigger Free Spins.

During Free Spins, the process of unlocking reels does not fully reset between each spin; instead all reels will reset to the shortest reel height in view.

Additionally, an unlimited win multiplier comes into play during Free Spins, increasing for each winning drop that occurs.

The win multiplier is applied to every win that occurs.

When all reels have reached a height of 8 symbols tall, an additional +2 spins are awarded.

Rewards

Before starting Free Spins, players will be taken to a reward screen to receive rewards:

• Starting Free Spins – 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 or 11
• Starting Reel Height – 3, 4, 5 or 6
• Starting Multiplier – x1, x2, x3, x4, x5 or x6
• Multiplier Growth – +1, +2, +3, +4 or +5

The more Bonus symbols that landed to trigger Free Spins, the higher the rewards.

The multiplier growth refers to the increase the win multiplier will receive after every winning drop in Free Spins.

During Free Spins Reels Only Reset to the Shortest Reel Height

Bonus Collection & Gilded Super High

During Free Spins all Bonus symbols that land in view are collected.

When 3 Bonus symbols are collected the highest paying symbol (the golden eagle trophy) is upgraded and given a multiplier of x5.

Each time 3 more Bonus symbols are collected, the value of this symbol is upgraded by +5 up to a maximum of x50.

This continues for the duration of Free Spins, with this multiplier not resetting.

XPress

Players in appropriate regions can take advantage of the following Buy Bonus options with XPress:

• Buy Bonus (min 3,125 ways and up to 8 spins, x3 multiplier, +3 growth) – 80x bet
• Buy Bonus Plus (min 3,125 ways and up to 9 spins, x4 multiplier, +4 growth) – 160x bet
• Buy Bonus Premium (min 3,125 ways and up to 10 spins, x5 multiplier, +5 growth) – 400x bet
• Buy Bonus Max (min 7,776 ways and up to 11 spins, x6 multiplier, +5 growth) – 800x bet

The maximum win available in PopNoir is 20,000x bet. If the sum of a single game round exceeds this, the game round will end and 20,000x bet will be awarded.

PopNoir Free Spins – Buy Bonus Max

First Impression

There’s a few different things happening in PopNoir, but none of them will be unique if you’ve been familiar with AvatarUX and the PopWins mechanic for a while.

Whereas some of this team’s releases, like LooneyPop and HipHopPop, are more distinct and showcase new features and mechanics, PopNoir takes it back to basics – in both aesthetics and features.

In the base game, it’s PopWins and the possibility of triggering 2 spins with a multiplier by increasing all reel heights to the maximum level that helps things feel interesting.

In Free Spins, rewards offer players higher potential starting ways, multipliers, spins and even multiplier growth. As you can see in the screenshots above, there’s plenty of opportunity here to see impressive multipliers, plus you have Bonus symbol collection to increase multipliers on the highest paying symbol. When the right combinations land, wins are possible up to 20,000x bet.

Finally, maths is highly volatile and RTP options are available up to 96.03%, so as always it’s worth checking this. If you’re a fan of the PopWins series, nothing here will be new to you, but PopNoir does offer a new setting to enjoy your favourite features in.

*The screenshots taken of games reviewed on this site are taken from Demo Play, as reviews are often written before games are released for real play.