The 2013 Carnival in Rio kicks off on February 8. The pageantry on the streets will be matched by the glitz on the reels through Carnival themed online slots. For a long time players at online casinos had to fall back on the same set of slot machines – Carnaval and Mardi Gras Fever from Microgaming and Samba Nights from Cryptologic. But this year two other software providers have launched Carnival themed online slots to increase the number of venues for the gaiety.

Playtech has launched an online slot game titled Samba Brazil. Visually players would have expected more from this slot game. The thematic symbols are fire eater, maracas and drum. The animation in the fire eater symbol does exude the Carnival atmosphere. The low paying symbols are the playing card icons painted in green and yellow, which are the colors of Brazil. The highlight of the Samba Brazil slot game is the Samba girl. One symbol depicts her face and another symbol depicts her bust. Two or more like symbols appearing from left to right award line payouts when. The two Samba girl symbols also award payouts when they appear in mixed combinations. The mixed payouts are lower. These symbols can appear in stacks of two or three on reels 2, 3 and 4. A stack of three symbols in a winning combination converts into an expanding wild. Players then see the full length animated figure of the sexy gyrating Samba girl, which is the essence of the Carnival. The Samba Brazil logo is the scatter symbol. When three or more appear scattered on the reels the Samba Music Bonus is triggered. Players have to pick from maracas and will be awarded cash prizes, free spins or free spins multipliers with each pick. When the picks are completed the free spins are played out at the determined multiplier. The bonus can be retriggered indefinitely.

Wild Carnival from Rival Gaming is more in line with the expectations that online casino players have from Carnival themed slots. The introductory clip shows spectators watching a parade that has clowns on stilts and samba girls. The reels maintain the vibrancy of the Carnival. The thematic symbols are tambourine, drum, trumpet, beads, peacock feathers and masks. The high value card symbols are painted in psychedelic colors. The jackpot symbol is the trumpet and it offers the highest line payout of 7,000 coins. The blue mask is the wild symbol that appears only on reels 1, 3 and 5 but expands to fill the reels. Three or more peacock feathers scattered on the reels trigger up to 20 free spins with tripled payouts. The beads symbol increases the bonus bead meter by 1 whenever it appears on the reels. When the meter has reaches the value indicated the player is awarded a bonus payout. Three or more golden masks scattered on the reels trigger the bonus game on the second screen. A samba girl without her accessories is shown next to 16 boxes. Some contain accessories while others are empty. Players have to open six boxes and give the accessories within to the samba girl. For every box that contains an accessory, the players will get lucrative bonuses.