Those of you that are old enough to remember a time before online casinos may well get a hint of nostalgia from this one. Red Tiger have re-made the old Novomatic, and before that the Astra land-based classic, Reel King; and although it has had a fresh paint job it stays true to the original in many ways.
I had a quick blast on it this morning and while it was good to see the King again, it didn’t blow me away. Here’s why:
Entertainment Value
Very little I’m afraid. The features are not very interesting and the sound effects get tiresome quickly.
One random feature sees the King’s Crown float down onto the reels and turns one or more symbols wild to create at least one winning line, but it’s rarely very rewarding and not much fun to watch either.
There are giant symbols, 2×2, but the reels are stacked anyway so that doesn’t seem to have a real purpose.
The main Reel King feature requires the player to turn all 5 reels yellow, at which point the King himself will appear and set the reels spinning on a mini-slot. This can net you between 2x and 25x your stake, but it didn’t trigger all that often during my play time.
You can gamble your wins on a sort of pie chart and this was the only aspect of the slot that really worked for me. There is the potential to boost your winnings quite significantly if you go for it, whereas the base game will only feed you a few pounds every couple of spins, so there is no anticipation, just a slow and steady decline.
Classic
I have nothing against classic or retro slots, but they need to be backed up with something else. This is a regular 5×3 layout with 20 paylines, but since it is low volatility and not particularly entertaining to play, the classic theme has nowhere to go which means you may as well just be playing a really old slot.
I watched my bankroll dwindle away and even after hitting the Reel King feature got nowhere close to breaking even. I felt quite demoralised by the end.
No points for guessing then that I wouldn’t recommend Reel King Mega; as much as I loved the good old days I think this one should have stayed there.