Review: Baby Boomers Cash Cruise

All aboard, indeed.

Rival Software, those makers of the As the Reels Turn series and the prospective Cosmic Quest series, offer another strong contribution to the genre it likes to call the “iSlot,” Baby Boomers: Cash Cruise (shame about the half-nonsensical name).

The 5-reel 15-payline Cash Cruise begins with a travel agency theme – that’s right, travel agency – with symbols like sunglasses, passports and the like. The SCATTER symbol here are the cruise ships (you can’t miss ‘em: They’re black and white and bigger than Titanic); as is typical, with three SCATTERs, the player enters the bonus round.

The bonus round begins with the Prize Wheel segment; spinning the wheel can win you fat jackpots of up to 6,000 coins or land you in one of three "destinations": Alaska (hey, that’s Sarah Palin’s home state!), Greece or the Caribbean (Or so the Os Man understands, having seen lots of Greece and nowhere else). After the spin, the game’s skin changes into one of three location-appropriate designs.

The Greek theme boasts swell graphics – all three vacation rounds carry cleaner, sharper-looking symbols than that of the travel agency bit, incidentally – but one wonders just what sort of Greek vacation features a moped, pink squid and Agamemnon’s helmet. The music (or muzak) is a bit run-of-the-mill blah, but the reels spin to the whirring sound effect characteristic of Rival games.

Overall, the effect is addictive. Slightly less leisurely than an actual cruise is Baby Boomers: Cash Cruise, but at least you won’t need Dramamine.