Mask Carnival sends the reels down a Venetian canal. Every time a round wins, the whole board slides one reel to the right, the rightmost reel drops off, and a fresh reel enters on the left, while a gondola under the board carries a multiplier that grows with each new reel. PG Soft released it in December 2021 with the masks of the Carnival of Venice as symbols: cats, jesters, golden and blue half-masks. I gave the demo a hundred spins at 12.00 each: the best one climbed to x6 and paid 155.40, and the session returned 948.00 of the 1,200.00 staked.
United States
Mask Carnival available at Cafe Casino
Same game, real money
Cafe Casino runs the same Mask Carnival with the same math and adds a welcome bonus for players from the United States:
300% up to $2,000 + 150 FS 18+ · T&Cs apply · the demo stays free
Release data and bet range
| Feature | Specification |
|---|---|
| Provider | PG Soft |
| Released | December 2021 |
| Reels / rows | 5 x 4, shifting reels |
| Ways | 1,024 fixed, base bet 20 |
| Multiplier | x1, +1 per added reel; free spins x2, +2 |
| Free spins | 10 for 3 scatters collected in one spin, +2 per extra; +1 symbols add spins |
| RTP | 96.70% |
| Max win | 20,000x |
| Bet in the demo | 0.60 to 180.00 per spin |
RTP, maximum win and release date are PG Soft's figures. Venice is one setting among many in the PG Soft catalogue on this site.
1,024 ways and a board that moves
Five reels of four symbols give a fixed 1,024 ways, paid from the leftmost reel. There is no cascade in the usual sense: winning symbols do not drop out. Instead the reels shift, so most of the board stays in place one column further right, and only the new reel on the left is fresh. A jester in a red-and-gold hat is the wild; it covers for any mask or card, though not for the scatter.
Every spin in my session cost 12.00, the opening bet of size 0.30 on level 2, which puts a paytable point at 0.60.
Shift, add a reel, add one to the gondola
Each base-game spin starts at x1. Once a winning round has been paid, the board shifts, a reel comes in and the gondola moves up a step: round two pays at x2, round three at x3, and the count keeps going while the board keeps winning. A spin ends when a round produces no win.
Because only one reel changes per round, a win tends to survive the shift: the same symbols are still on the board, and the new reel on the left only has to start the way again. A year earlier, Jack Frost's Winter tied the multiplier to new reels in the same way, adding them on the right without removing any.
Spin 93: five winning rounds
My longest chain began with a line of kings. The rounds paid 6.00, 26.40, 36.00 and 12.00 as the gondola climbed, and then four purple cat masks lined up on one way: 25 points, 15.00 before the multiplier, paid at x5 as 75.00.
The spin ended at 155.40 with the gondola on x6, thirteen stakes. Spin 23 followed a similar path with aces: 6.00, 24.00, 43.20 and finally a 57.60 round paid at x4, 130.80 in total.
Most other spins stopped after the first or second round, and with a paytable this modest a round at x1 or x2 rarely covers the stake.
Masks and cards
The jester tops the list, the three lowest cards close it. Values are paid for every way a mask completes; on the right, a way of five is measured against a 20-point spin.
| Symbol | 3 / 4 / 5 | Five on one way vs stake |
|---|---|---|
| Jester (wild) | 10 / 50 / 100 | 5x |
| Red and gold mask | 5 / 30 / 60 | 3x |
| Purple cat mask | 5 / 25 / 50 | 2.5x |
| Blue and white mask | 4 / 20 / 40 | 2x |
| Green mask | 4 / 15 / 30 | 1.5x |
| A, K | 3 / 10 / 20 | 1x |
| Q, J, 10 | 2 / 5 / 10 | 0.5x |
Scatters collected through the spin
Scatters work differently here. They are collected over the whole spin, including the shifts, and the counter at the top of the board shows how many are in hand. When the spin ends with three or more in hand, a round of 10 free spins begins, extended by two for every scatter past the third. During the bonus the gondola opens at x2 and gains two steps for every new reel, while a +1 symbol landing anywhere adds an extra free spin. On several spins the counter stopped at two, never at three, so the bonus is described from the help screens.
For another carnival on PG Soft's reels, Rio Fantasia takes the theme to Brazil on a compact 3x3 board.
Mask Carnival FAQ
What are shifting reels in Mask Carnival?
How does the multiplier grow?
How do scatters trigger the free spins?
Which mask pays the most?
A slow parade
Mask Carnival rewards spins that keep winning, since each round raises the gondola and keeps most of the board in place. In my session that happened often enough for a few spins of eleven to thirteen stakes, but the low paytable meant short chains paid little, and the session ended 252.00 down. The free spins, with a multiplier that climbs twice as fast, are where the game's 20,000x is meant to come from.