As the slot industry begins to deal with new UK regulation, take a seat as we guide you through a selection of recent game releases including Relax Gaming’s perilous prison escape, Yggdrasil’s underworld battle, Betsoft’s rainbow-chasing romp and more.
Hellcatraz 2 – Relax Gaming
Escape from Alcatraz has been brought into the slot world with Relax Gaming’s latest slot sequel that sees players attempt to flee the prison island on a 5×5 reel board with 3,125 initial ways to win and an RTP of 93.99 per cent.
Shelley Hannah, Director of Casino Products at Relax Gaming, stated: “We have seen fantastic success with our Dream Drop Jackpots titles and incorporating the mechanic into our Hellcatraz series was a natural decision, and one we knew that players would love!
“Hellcatraz 2 provides a unique environment to experience what Dream Drop has to offer, packed full of excitement and all the action and playability that Relax is renowned for.”
This game uses cascading wins, meaning that symbols in a winning formation will disappear after providing their payout, to make way for new symbols to drop in and increase the win game’s potential.
Throughout the base game, mystery jail cell symbols can appear on the top row. These symbols display a number counter that starts between one and five. This value will decrease with every cascading win that occurs on the same spin.
More than one jail cell symbol can appear at once, but they will all have the same counter value. Once these counters reach zero, the jail cell symbols will expand upwards to reveal coin symbols with instant cash prizes between x1 and x1,000 the player’s wager, which will be instantly provided to the player.
During the free spins feature, each scatter that drops into play will award an additional spin.
Additionally, the Dream Drop jackpot game mode can be triggered randomly throughout the game if five special Dream Drop symbols appear on the top row.
In this game mode, players are presented with 15 jail cells with hidden jackpot values, rapid, mini, maxi, major and mega, behind them. Players must then select from these 15 cells until they have picked three jackpot values of the same value, which will then award its respective jackpot prize.
Devour the Weak – Yggdrasil
Yggdrasil has taken players to the centre of the earth in this underworld-dwelling slot release, which uses a 5×3 reel set-up with 243-paylines and a maximum win of up to x10,000 the player’s bet. The game is highly volatile with an RTP of 96 per cent.
Stuart McCarthy, Head of Product & Programs at Yggdrasil, commented: “This exciting new slot isn’t for the faint of heart, with a great theme featuring demonic characters that are beautifully crafted for an immersive experience.
“We can’t wait to see players devour low paying symbols and start racking up impressive wins via hexed icons, win multipliers and free spins.”
This game also uses cascading wins, however, with this game, cascading wins also remove any symbols that are equal to, or lower value than, the symbols involved in the payline win that triggered the cascade, further increasing the game’s win potential.
Destroying six symbols in one cascading win will cause a win multiplier beside the reels to increase in value. This multiplier will be applied to any subsequent wins on the same free spin.
If six or more hexed symbols contribute to cascading wins on the same spin, 10 free spins will be awarded to the player. During these free spins, each hexed symbol that is destroyed by cascading wins will be attributed to a meter.
For every six symbols that contribute to this meter, the player will be gifted an extra free spin. Additionally, ‘+1’ symbols can land on the fifth reel in the free spins, also awarding one extra free turn each.
Charms & Treasures – Betsoft
Players are tasked with finding the gold at the end of the rainbow in Betsoft’s latest leprechaun-themed slot release, which uses 50-paylines on a 5×3 reel set with a maximum win of up to x1,414 the player’s bet. The game is highly volatile with an RTP of 95.8 per cent.
Anastasia Bauer, Head of Account Management at Betsoft Gaming, explained: “Charms and Treasures delivers a beautiful spring aesthetic in this feature packed slot. Players will be delighted with the smooth and very fast gameplay alongside the fantastic features and frequent win potential.
“The deliberately wide betting range ensures universal appeal across all player levels. We are expecting a very positive reaction to Charms and Treasures.”
Four-leaf clovers and money pots represent the high value symbols for this game. If the correct number of winning combinations appear at once, these symbols can offer between x0.2 and x20.
Wild text symbols are also available, substituting for all symbols other than the leprechaun scatter. Landing two, three, four or five wilds in a winning combination can provide respective payouts of x0.4, x1, x4 and x20 the player’s stake.
Additionally, leprechaun scatters can appear, triggering eight free spins if three scatters land on the same base game spin.
During these free spins, reels two, three and four will merge together to drop colossal 3×3 symbols into play, acting as nine identical symbols.
Paylines pay from both left to right and right to left during this game mode, and landing a colossal scatter symbol will award three extra spins.
Book of Eternal Romance – Wizard Games
Embark upon an ancient Egyptian adventure with the likes of Cleopatra in Wizard Games latest historical slot title, which is a 5×3 reel slot with 10-paylines and a maximum win of up to x2,500 the player’s bet. While offering an RTP range of 91.07, 94.05 and 96.04 per cent, the game has medium volatility.
Simon Jagdhar, Director of Games Studio at Wizard Games, commented: “’Book of’ is a popular genre that is universally enjoyed across the industry, and we’re delighted to launch Book of Eternal Romance, this time incorporating an Egyptian theme.
“With an action-packed bonus round and four different levels to reach in the free spins, we’re confident players will love seeing what surprises the book has in store for them.”
During the base game, the eternal romance feature can be activated on random spins. This presents a book that flips through each paytable symbol before selecting one. A spinning wheel will then appear to reveal a multiplier between x2 and x5.
After the multiplier and symbol have been selected, one respin is awarded, in which the selected symbol will appear with the selected multiplier upon it.
On this spin, all multipliers that appear across the reels on the chosen symbol will be added together and applied to the player’s stake to award an instant payout.
In the free spins feature, this book and spinning wheel combination is presented again to choose one paytable symbol to be enhanced throughout the free spins, with all multipliers that appear added together and applied to the player’s stake.
Collecting four scatter symbols during the free spins will provide an additional three spins, with the book and spinning wheel feature occurring again to make extra symbols enhanced for the feature.
This retrigger can occur up to five times, with multipliers on the spinning wheels increasing each time it occurs.
Wild Willy’s Gold Rush – Armadillo Studios
Armadillo Studios has transported players to the 19th century Gold Rush in its latest mining slot release that uses a 5×3 reel board with 20-paylines and a maximum win of up to x2,578 the player’s bet. This slot has high volatility with an RTP range of 88.14, 94.06 and 96.03 per cent.
David Stoveld, COO of Armadillo Studios, stated: “Wild Willy’s Gold Rush is a fantastic addition to our game catalogue, and I’m sure players will love helping our ace gold prospector in his quest to find fortune making sized golden nuggets in the Klondike Gold Rush, unforgettable adventures await.”
Throughout the base game, an additional one cell reel spins above the board, revealing one of the paytable symbols or a golden nugget.
When this reel reveals a paytable symbol, and the same paytable symbol contributes to a payline win on the main board, this payline win will be multiplied by x3.
If this reel reveals a golden nugget symbol, all golden nugget payline wins on the main board will be multiplied by x20.
During the free spins game mode, collecting wild Willys will cause them to be attributed to a meter above the reels. When three wilds have been collected, players will be awarded a win multiplier of x3 with an additional five free spins.
Collecting a further four wild symbols, for seven in total, will provide a x5 multiplier with another five extra spins. If 11 wild symbols are collected throughout the free spins, a x20 multiplier will be activated with another five spins.
Each wild willy will also collect golden nuggets that are on the same spin, applying the golden nugget’s displayed prize value to the player’s free spins payout.
Golden nugget symbols can appear with cash prize amounts ranging from x2 to x25 the player’s bet.