BGaming, TaDa, and Pragmatic (with its partner studios) are the only contributors of new slot demos for this week, and I’m going to be honest: the standard is pretty average, but let’s see if we can pick the best stuff out.
Reel Kingdom and Pragmatic continue their collaboration with yet another reskin from the world of Big Bass. In fact, this one’s a reskin of a reskin. Bigger Bass Blizzard > Club Tropicana > Club Tropicana Happy Hour. Ah, the life of a Reel Kingdom developer – sounds like an easy job to me!
Chilli Heat Spicy Spins is another Mexican/chilli-themed slot, and the base game is unremarkable, but the bonus feature might pique your interest. It looks like a hold and win-type game, but as your money symbols link up to form clusters, the multiplier increases. OK, it’s not ground-breaking but it’s something a little novel.
Fat Panda, a Pragmatic Play offshoot, continues to bring us its small-scale, cute slots, and I went into Olympus Wins Super Scatter thinking it might be a ‘chibi’ version of Gates of Olympus. However, it’s not the same game; it’s more like Gonzo’s Quest Megaways or Ragnarok, where the multiplier increases with each tumble. This is probably the best game from Fat Panda so far, especially when you consider there’s a 100,000x max win available!
We also have Fat Panda’s Master Gems, perhaps staking its claim for the most simplistic slot of all time. There is 1 row of 5 reels, and all you have to do is land 3 or more of the same gem per spin. It could work as an introduction to slots, but it’ll be far too basic for most experienced players.
Dragon Queen Megaways from BGaming looks great and has a dramatic atmosphere that’s especially suitable for fans of Game of Thrones-style fantasy worlds. There’s a wheel spin going into the bonus round that decides your multiplier and free spin number, but not much more to elevate it beyond a standard Megaways title. The max win is only 6,000x too.
Royal Shooter from TaDa Gaming is like a fish game with a fantasy theme, and whether you’ll enjoy this purely depends on whether you like this style of game over slots. It is quite a bit more involved than your standard fish game though.
That leaves us with Alien Invaders, which, on a normal week, would be just another game, but this week it gets elevated to the top spot!
New Slots
- Alien Invaders – Pragmatic Play
- Football Plinko – BGaming
- Royal Shooter – TaDa Gaming
- Chilli Heat Spicy Spins – Pragmatic Play
- Dragon Queen Megaways – BGaming
- Master Gems – Pragmatic Play
- Club Tropicana – Happy Hour – Pragmatic Play
- Olympus Wins Super Scatter – Pragmatic Play
- 3 Coin Golden Ox – TaDa Gaming
- 3 Coin Treasures 2 – TaDa Gaming
Game of the Week
Alien Invaders from Pragmatic Play looks a little technical at first, and even though it does introduce a fresh mechanic, it’s easy to get to grips with. The goofy alien creatures might bring a smile to your face, and the bouncy, silly music reminds me of the great soundtrack from Pragmatic’s The Dog House series.
The grid is 5 x 5, but the number of alien symbols that land are random, and so there will always be some gaps in the play. The key is the bottom row, which is always lit up – essentially you want to land 3 or more of the same symbol here. When you do that, any reels with a winning symbol get scanned vertically for that same symbol, and if it exists, it disappears as part of the win.
With the tumble mechanic, wins can go on for quite a while, and for every 10 winning symbols, your multiplier builds (it can also be supercharged by Multiplier Wilds). The multiplier meter resets every spin, but in the bonus round, it builds throughout the feature.
The bottom row concept is a welcome new twist to slots gameplay, but it’s easy to pick up. One thing that lets this slot down is the low max win of 5,000x, but things can get tasty in the free spins, and Alien Invaders is simply the best of a bad bunch this week.
