There’s plenty to sink our teeth into this week – let’s kick things off with Balloon Mania from BGaming, which isn’t actually a slot. It’s a novel game where you click various balloons floating on screen, each with a multiplier emblazoned on the front. The higher the multiplier, the lower the probability you’ll be able to ‘pop’ it, but when you do, you get the multiplied amount. It’s low volatility and quite limited, but it’s something different and fun for a short while.
Mummy’s Jewels from Pragmatic is another Egyptian-themed slot with a bunch of mechanics we’ve all seen before. That said, it looks great, and if you like money symbols or jackpots, maybe give this a go.
Next is Kill Em All from Nolimit City, which really does do something different from your typical slot. The ‘grid’ is only a 3-reeler, but there’s a lot going on around it. There’s a definite dungeon-crawler type of feel, with a slew of enemies to fight your way through, and you do it with the weapons that land on the reels. The monsters are charming and funny-looking, and the whole thing is a bit like a slot version of Dungeons & Dragons. Some people really won’t like this, but others will enjoy its originality.
100 Blazing Clover from TaDa Gaming isn’t worth talking about, but Groovy Knights Dream Drop from Relax Gaming is. Sure, the gameplay might be a bit dull, but it’s worth trying out the demo just to see the mashup of medieval knights and disco, all rendered in a claymation or CGI style. It’s quite something.
Pragmatic imprint, Fat Panda has another portrait-style slot that looks like it’s on a mobile screen, even when you play on desktop: Fortune of Aztec. It’s actually one of the more involved and interesting games from this studio, who tend to focus on simpler slots. That is until you realise it’s basically a clone of Treasures of Aztec from PG Soft. It’s quite unashamed in its pilfering of both the gameplay and look, but it’s still a fun spin if you look past that.
Speaking of stolen ideas, Home of Thor from Backseat borrows heavily from Le Bandit, but since Backseat builds its games using Hacksaw’s OpenRGS system, it’s probably safe to assume this was done with permission. There’s also a slight gameplay tweak: Golden Squares can now land a batch of OAK symbols, not just Coins.
Speaking of Le Bandit, we have another sequel (Le King) and it’s our Game of the Week, so scroll down for that. The only slot left to mention is Gods vs Warriors from Pragmatic again, which looks fully epic, but is quite derivative, using the Duel Reels idea from games like Wanted Dead or a Wild.
New Slots
- Le King – Hacksaw Gaming
- Gods vs Warriors – Pragmatic Play
- Home of Thor – Backseat Gaming
- Fortune of Aztec – Pragmatic Play
- Groovy Knights Dream Drop – Relax Gaming
- 100 Blazing Clover – TaDa Gaming
- Kill Em All – Nolimit City
- Mummy’s Jewels – Pragmatic Play
- Balloon Mania – BGaming
Game of the Week
Elvis Presley’s final run of performances famously took place in Las Vegas, and it’s this glitzy world that Hacksaw’s Smokey Le Bandit has been transported to in our top pick this week: Le King! In fact, it’s an ultra-bright, pink-neon version of Sin City, with the titular character donning an Elvis-style wig to complete the scene. This slot looks great, and sounds great with rockabilly-style BGM.
For those who’ve played Le Bandit (which should be most), you’ll notice a jackpot board to the left of the grid that wasn’t in the original. Jackpot-based games can be very samey, so my heart sank a little when I first clocked it, but it’s used rather subtly and it doesn’t take over the game. In fact, it’s one of few changes from the original; unlike Le Pharaoh and Le Viking, the gameplay remains very close to Le Bandit, and I’m sure that will disappoint some who were hoping for more new features.
What we do get is the aforementioned jackpot feature, meaning Jackpot Markers can land on the grid or as part of the Golden Squares feature, and when they land with a (neon) Rainbow, you win the amount shown on the board. The other main addition is a Gold Clover symbol, which acts much like the standard Clover, but this one multiplies all the Coins on screen, rather than just the ones adjacent.
There is a much higher max win than the original, at 20,000x rather than 10,000x, but that’s about it for changes. We do hope Hacksaw isn’t going to think this is enough going forward (reminding us of some recent slots from cough…Pragmatic), but Le Bandit is still one of the most enjoyable and elegant slots of all time, so this new shinier remix is still a lot of fun to play.
