Branded Slots

Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen is a long-awaited five reel slot from NetEnt, that’s been stuck in production ‘hell’ for well over a year. Happily, the game was finally released March 25. Unlike the great chef, it’s of a low volatility, featuring a raft of bonus features.

GRHK looks great of course, being a Netent slot. A cartoon rendering of a brooding Ramsay serves as the intro. The reels are populated with neon-lit playing card lettering and subtly-animated prize dishes including a hamburger, a cake, a drink and a beef wellington (the most valuable). A rather urgent orchestral track accompanies play. To win in the base game, you’ll need to land a minimum of three symbols across a pay-line.

The Hell’s Kitchen logo is the wild while a blazing GK serves as the scatter. During the base game, the Ramsay’s Wilds feature is randomly triggered, awarding up to 7 wilds which substitute all others to create winning combos.

The standout feature here though is the Team Challenge Bonus Round. If three or four scatters appear in any position excluding the middle reel, 10 or 15 spins are awarded. The screen then splits into two 5 x 3 game areas for the red and blue team. You’ll then choose which team to back.

For each free spin, the 1 to 3 Order Up game comes into play and an array of signature dishes slide underneath the reels, complete with multipliers and wilds. Dishes that match your chosen team colour will then be counted towards a final score. Should your chosen team win, the bonus game is activated and you’ll be able to pick from 15 menus, each of which contains cash prizes, or multipliers.

RTP: 96.07%, Minimum Stake: 0.20

Rick and Morty Wubba Lubba Dub Dub is Blueprint’s second release of 2020 tying in with the adult oriented Cartoon Network animated series and arguably it has a lot more to offer than the Megaways version which came out back in March.

Rick and Morty Megaways had a mere 4 bonus rounds; Wubba Lubba Dub Dub, which has 20 lines,  has a massive 6 different bonus rounds plus 7 different modifiers and if you think this sounds familiar, you’d be right – it’s very reminiscent of other Blueprint “adult cartoon” titles such as Sausage Party and TED and there’s certainly lots of entertainment value to be had if you want to try out all those features.

Rick and Morty Wubba Lubba Dub Dub has RTP of 96.14% (albeit slightly worse than the Megaways version) and can be played from 10p a spin.

TED Jackpot King by Blueprint Gaming brings everyone’s favourite naughty teddy bear into the very popular Jackpot King progressive jackpot system.  Jackpot King is an operator specific jackpot and can be much larger at some sites than others, in some places a mere 6 figures and in others exceeding £2 million.  The Jackpot King bonus game can be triggered on any spin and apart from that the game is the same old TED we know and love, with its 6 bonus features and 5 bonus rounds.

TED Jackpot King has RTP of 93.02% excluding the jackpot contribution and can be played from 10p a spin.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is the latest release from Big Time Gaming, the creators of Bonanza and of the Megaways system.  Big Time Gaming are known for the extreme high volatility of their slot games and thrilling bonus rounds – and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has by far the most insane and ridiculous bonus round yet seen.

The base game plays very much like Big Time Gaming’s earlier release Extra Chilli, and the bonus round builds on a concept first seen in Extra Chilli – the ability to gamble the bonus round in the hope of getting a better one.  In Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, the entire point is to gamble the bonus round and just as in the TV show, the player has to choose correctly from four options at each step to increase the number of free spins.   Win at every step and the 8 spins initially awarded can go all the way up to 50 spins.  As in the TV show, there are three lifelines and there’s also safety nets at 10 spins and 20 spins ensuring that once you get past the risky first step you can’t lose the entire bonus round.  As the free spins are played with a multiplier that increases with every win, every extra spin won can make a huge difference to potential winnings.

Gremlins, is the inspiration for one of WMS’s latest online slots. Praise be. It’s a five-reeler with 20 pay-lines and a raft of bonus features. Billy’s bedroom serves as a backdrop for the colourful reels, decorated with the kind of imagery you might expect such as Gremlin eggs, 3D glasses and popcorn (the movie theatre scene) as well as a microwave (don’t ask).

The obligatory playing card lettering represents the lower value symbols. The more lucrative symbols include the Gremlin’s logo and the Gremlin character which is the wild. The former pays out 25 times your stake when it appears in combination. However, you’ll get double the amount should you land five of the latter on a pay-line.

Bolted on to the base game are four bonus features: Stripe Wilds, Bonus Entry, Freebie Bonus and the Bonus Selector. The Stripe wilds feature is activated when water is randomly poured onto the Gremlin symbol which spawns more wilds, thereby increasing your chances of winning.

The Freebie Bonus is triggered (on occasion) when one or two Gizmo symbols land across the reels. All bonus symbols can then multiply to activate the bonus selector – this can also be accessed via the Bonus Entry mechanic in which all gremlin wilds turn into Gizmo bonus features.

The Bonus selector side-game takes place in a movie theater and awards one of five bonus features: splashing wild free spins, gremlin link free spins, sun free spins, a Gizmo box hunt pick-and-click game and most notably, the ‘no more cash after midnight’ trail bonus round which offers a top prize of 100x your stake. And if you manage to fill the reels with Gremlin wilds, your stake will be multiplied 1000 times.

RTP: 96.47%, 0.20 Minimum Stake

Just in time for the release of the new Bill & Ted film featuring a much older Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, comes a 20 line slot game from IGT themed on the classic original Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.  As well as the iconic duo of Bill and Ted themselves, lots of other characters from and references to the film are included; for example, the scatter symbol that triggers the bonus round is the time travelling phone booth and during the (uncommon) Lock & Respin bonus round, the aim is to collect all 8 historical characters as well as locking all 15 positions on the reels.  There’s a couple of other fun features – Wild Stallyns which has the Bill and Ted symbols combining to create wilds and No Way! Yes Way! which gives the player a respin of reel 5 to try and collect an elusive third scatter.  If you are a fan of the film, you’ll certainly enjoy all the character animations -possibly more than you enjoy the game itself!

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure can be played from 10p a spin and has a rather less than excellent RTP – in a range from 92.55% to 96.25%, so check before you play.

Downton Abbey is a slot game by the Skywind Group, based on the wildly popular TV series and film. It has three progressive jackpots and is designed for play on a mobile phone screen.  The base game is 40 line and there is an additional 243 way play area which is activated when the special bell symbol lands in the top position on reel 3.  There’s three different scatter symbols triggering three different free spins bonus rounds, a pick-me game which can award a jackpot or free spins, and other features that add extra wilds to the game.  With all the potential interactions between all these different features, there’s a lot of entertainment value to be had.

Downton Abbey has RTP of 96% including the jackpots and 90% without.  The minimum spin value is £1.

Saxon is one of the latest five reel slots from Play N’ Go, featuring 10 pay-lines, a free spins bonus round and an unlimited win multiplier.

The game is officially licensed by English heavy metal band, Saxon which was rather popular in the 1980s, especially in Europe. As one might expect, the game is replete with the kind of imagery that is usually appreciated by people who use the sign of the horns salutation. And we’re not talking unicorns or Irish leprechauns. No.

In addition to playing card symbols, the symbols include a leather jacket, an eagle crest and a Saxon helmet. The game pays out for landing at least three symbol combinations from left to right across one of the requisite 10 pay-lines.

The jacket symbol is the most lucrative and can pay up to 30 times your stake, provided that five appear in combination. The band logo serves as the wild and can appear stacked. Typically, it substitutes every other symbol apart from the singer and bicycle scatters. Land five of these and you’ receive 50 times your stake.

There are two bonus features: the free spins round and a win multiplier. The latter kicks in when a reel is fully-stacked and increases by one for each stacked reel. The free spins round is activated by the singer and motorcycle scatters. You’ll be awarded between five and fifteen spins depending on how many appear. The win multiplier is also in play here and is fixed for each spin.

And if two or more scatters appear during the free spins round, you’ll be given another 5 to 15 extra spins. This can be retriggered which means that you could potentially activate unlimited free spins. Good luck with that. Rock on.

RTP: 94.22%, Minimum Stake: 0.10

Sausage Party by Blueprint is a tie-in with the decidedly X-rated animated film from 2016.  Played on a classic 5 x 3 reels array with 20 paylines, it is very much in the mould of that earlier slot based on an adult themed animation, TED.

Sausage Party has a plethora of bonus features.  There’s 6 different modifiers that can be triggered randomly on any spin in the base game, and 6 versions of the bonus round; when three or more bonus symbols are spun a giant spinner determines which version of the bonus round is played and there’s an option to gamble to get a better version, all the way up to the most lucrative one, The Even Greater Beyond.  All of this will be very familiar to anyone who’s played TED or other Blueprint games such as Paws of Fury.  With all of these bonus features it comes as no surprise that wins in the base game are a bit thin on the ground but never fear, there’s an additional bonus feature not mentioned in the paytable that randomly turns a loss into a win.

Sausage Party has RTP of 95.95% and can be played from 10p a spin.

Lara Croft Temples and Tombs by Triple Edge for Microgaming gives a fresh outing (with very impressive graphics) to a much loved video game character.  It is a 243 way slot with Rolling Reels and a multiplier trail (similar to the Avalanche feature in Gonzo’s Quest) and is one of those high variance slots where it’s mostly about the bonus round.  This is triggered in the usual way by getting three or more of the free spins symbol (the Lara Croft book) but in this game, wilds can substitute and the bonus round consists of 8 free spins for each combo of free spins symbols on the first three reels.  During the free spins, all multipliers are increased x3 and the free spins can be retriggered multiple times.

To make things more interesting while you’re waiting for the bonus round the game also has a fixed Grand Jackpot of 5000x stake plus two much smaller Major and Minor prizes.  During each spin, any wilds that are collected go to fill the jackpot meter and the fuller it is at the end of the spin, the more likely the jackpot game is to be triggered for a guaranteed win of one of the three prizes.

Lara Croft Temples and Tombs has RTP of 96.05%.

Evolution Gaming have done it again!  First there was Dream Catcher, then there was Monopoly Live…is it a slot, is it a live casino game or is it something new entirely?

Monopoly Live is basically the live wheel of fortune style game Dream Catcher on steroids.  A live presenter spins the wheel for you as in the earlier game (which won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, of course) – but some of the spaces on the wheel will transport you to an immersive 3D Monopoly board to play a bonus round which has to be seen to be believed.

Village People Macho Moves is a fun 15 line slot from Microgaming featuring cartoon versions of the iconic disco group, periodically breaking into a dance routine.  Village People hits play in the background.

Each of the 6 group members has his own “Macho Move” modifier for the spins bonus round – all versions of which are triggered through play by collecting 5 VP Wild symbols from one of the reels.  Although the bonus round is just 5 free spins, the modifiers are capable of creating some very sizeable wins.

The RTP of Village People Macho Moves is 96% and the minimum spin value is 20p.

Mars Attacks! is a Jackpot King progressive jackpot slot by Blueprint Gaming, themed on the 1996 spoof science fiction film.  In the tradition of Blueprint’s other comedy film themed slot Ted it has 5 different bonus rounds and 5 randomly Mars Attacks modifiers that can appear on any spin – so plenty to discover and enjoy.

The bonus rounds of Mars Attacks! are nice and varied – two are pick-mes, two are free spins with an extra wild feature and the top bonus round is enhanced free spins.  Perhaps the most interesting of the modifiers is Mega Shrink Ray: this shrinks the reels to accommodate 5 symbols rather than three and they are then scored as 3125 ways to win rather than on the usual 20 paylines.

Mars Attacks! can be played from just 10p a spin and the Big Money boost in the bonus rounds can pay up to 1000x bet.

Monopoly Megaways is one of the latest slots to be powered by Big Time Gaming’s revolutionary Megaways engine. Its central feature is a random reel modifier that adjusts the number of symbols that appear for each spin.

With a six-reel format, you’ve therefore got potentially thousands of ways to win. The core game, which is based on the Reel Adventures mechanic, requires you to move Mr Monopoly around a virtual board with the squares in which he lands having a direct impact on your progress.

For instance, landing on GO will trigger the biggest number of Megaways spins possible while landing on street squares populates them with houses. Collect at least five and you’ll unlock the Free Spins feature which rewards you with 8 free spins – however these increase according to the number of houses you own. It’s not really possible to do this feature-laden game full justice here. Suffice to say though, that it takes Monopoly to a completely different dimension.

Monopoly Megaways features upwards of 110,000 pay-lines and can be played for 10p. The game features an RTP of 96.39%

Everyone’s favourite naughty plushie TED is back in a brand new game from Blueprint Gaming which can be played from 10p a spin.  The 5 reel, 5 line slot is modelled on a fruit machine with a feature panel above the reels (hence the name) and this works particularly well on mobile (in portrait mode).  Trigger the bonus game and the feature panel expands upwards revealing a complex set of bonus features; as in the original game, the aim is to reach the Big Money bonus and there’s certainly plenty of entertainment value to be had trying.  The RTP is 96.57% if best strategy is followed.

Monopoly Big Event is a five reel slot with twenty pay-lines. It is the first from Barcrest to be based on the iconic board game and includes a ‘big event’ pick-and-win round, free spins and a big bet bonus buy game.

The reels are adorned with renderings of famous silver pieces such as a car, a battleship, dog and cat. Mr Monopoly is the most valuable, paying out 2000x your stake when five appear. Typically, the wild symbol substitutes all others apart from the Big Event icon and ‘in-jail’ icon.

The Big Event is a pick-and-win round where you can choose community or chance cards to earn extra spins and guaranteed wins. The round is triggered by landing the related symbol on reels one three and five. If you activate the round with two stacked symbols, you’ll enter the round with a House Sneak Preview. Land three and you’ll activate the Hotel Sneak Preview.

These previews reveal chance card positions for the house and hotels respectively, giving you the chance to either activate wild reels or fix wild symbols in place during the free spins round.

The Big Bet round comprises a £20 or £30 game. Each one features an improved RTP as well as the chance to win up to 250,000 credits.

The £20 round is progressive, with multipliers added to wins for each spin. For the £30 game you’ll be presented with a spinning wheel that will eventually reveal either a progressive win multiplier where up to 5x are added to each spin.

There’s also a ‘persisting wild big event’ in which the big event symbol becomes wild and locks in place for the five free spins. If three or more of these symbols remain visible at the end, you’ll be rewarded with the big event bonus.

RTP: 96.01%, 99% (Big Bet Game), Minimum Stake: 0.20

Ascot Sporting Legends is the latest release in Playtech’s Sporting Legends suite of progressive jackpot games.  The theming of this 5 reel, 25 line slot is based on that jewel of the British sporting and social calendar, Royal Ascot, and the symbols include some impeccably dressed racegoers.  The game features bronze, silver and gold Ascot Cup wilds; bronze are regular wilds, silvers expand to fill the reel they are on and gold expand to fill the reel they are on and apply a 2x multiplier.  There’s also a free spins bonus round with extra wilds.

As well as the Sporting Legends Mega Jackpot, must-drop weekly and daily progressive jackpots are attached to these games.  The jackpot game can be randomly triggered on any spin (the higher the stake, the better the chance) and entering it guarantees a win of one of the jackpots.  Ascot Sporting Legends has RTP ranging from 93.27% to 94.96%.

Aquaman is a 2018 slot game in the series of DC Comics themed slots by Playtech and is connected to the DC Super Heroes progressive jackpot.  If you were hoping to see some clips of Jason Momoa, you’re in for a disappointment as despite its release being timed nicely to coincide with that of the live action film, it is very firmly based on the original comics.  It is a 243 way slot with two bonus features in the base game – Trident Wild Respins and Ocean Rush Respins – and a free spins bonus round.

Aquaman has a fixed bet of 25 coins and can be played at anything from 25p to £50 a spin. It has an RTP of 95% excluding the jackpot.

Beetlejuice Megaways is a branded five reel slot from Barcrest featuring BGT’s ubiquitous engine. We say ‘branded’ because it’s based on the 80s black comedy classic starring Michael Keaton.
One the game loads up, the game screen comes into view and the unusual 5 x 6 game area comes into view. The reels are split into two sections, one of which is greyed out – these can include up to 12 symbols.

As with all Megaways titles, the base game features cascading reels (winning symbols are replaced with new ones). There are also four bonus features. First up is the Mighty Ways feature. Here, any symbols that help form a winning combination open up the top reel section, thus generating more pay-lines.

Then there’s the Mystery Symbols feature in which random ghost symbols transform in to the same symbols to sometimes reveal winning combos. A free spins round is also available and is triggered by landing three, four or five scatters.

Eight, twelve of sixteen free spins are then awarded as well as a single multiplier. It’s possible to win up to eight extra spins if scatters appear during the round. Finally, there’s a win multiplier that boosts multipliers by one for every winning combo.

RTP: 96%, Minimum Stake: 0.10

Ted is a branded five reel slot that’s based on the crude comedy hit starring Mark Wahlberg and an animated soft toy. It was released in 2017 and became extremely popular thanks to a superb collection of extra features and base game bonuses including random reel modifiers.

Thematically, the game is highly polished with the five reel game area fronted up by the movie bear. In addition to playing card symbols, the reels include a swan, a crate of beer and Ted’s GF, Tami-Lynn.

The stacked game logo is the most valuable and is worth 25 times your stake when it lands five times on a pay-line. But the game is all about the bonus features, of which there are eleven.

Highlights including the Beer Streak feature that can move the reels to create winning combos, the Psychedelic Colossal Spin feature in which the reels merge to create a 3 x 3 symbol and the Laser Gun Wilds feature that sees Ted shoot a laser gun at random symbols turning them wild.

Also worth looking out for is the Thunder Buddies Bonus round comprising five features. This is activated by getting three bonus symbols on the same spin. You’ll then be presented with a wheel of fortune round that determines which game you’ll gain access to.

There’s a big money bonus game that can pay out 500x your stake, a Super Smart Free Spins round that rewards five spins and a Flash Free Spins game. Gain access to this one and an extra grid appears above the reels containing free spins, wilds and cash prizes. Landing a Flash symbol on any spin during the round will help you to climb the grid and win prizes of increasing value.

RTP: 95.81%, Minimum Stake: 0.20

The Goonies is a five reel branded slot from Blueprint that’s been around since 2018. Based on the classic 80’s adventure flick, this feature-laden game includes a very wide variety of bonus features such as wild reels, mystery symbols and free spins.

Despite its 2018 release, Goonies still looks pretty decent with play set against a map from the movie. Even by today’s standards the reel animations manage to hold their own as do the sound bites from the film.Pirate-related imagery as well as the official characters are included as symbols – the pirate flag is the most lucrative and can also appear super-stacked.

A medallion serves as the wild and replaces all other symbols apart from the scatter. Land five across a pay-line and you’ll be rewarded with 50 times your stake. In the base game are six random reel modifiers – these are joined by no less than twelve bonus features which we can’t fully go into here given the space limitations.

However, highlights include the Super Sloth and Goonies Go Wild free spins features, both of which offer you the chance to win 500x your stake on every free spin. Then there’s the Inferno Free Spins round in which its possible to activate 3 wild reels on each spin.

RTP: 96%, Minimum Stake: 0.10