Assassin Moon

Assassin Moon, a five reel 25 pay-line game from Microgaming, is our slot of the month for December 2020. Comprising a max win potential of x6000, an entertaining free spins round as well as the new HyperHold re-spin mechanic, AM is proving very popular at the moment.

Theme/Visuals

OK, so it’s not very festive (is anything these days?). But much like snow at Christmas, half-decent yuletide offerings have been decidedly thin on the ground this year. Current titles doing the rounds are either devoid of any standout features or just lazy re-skins.

Anyway, this particular slot, developed by Microgaming’s winged monkeys at Tripled Edge Studios, is themed around espionage. The game is fronted by a female assassin (natch) with the action taking place in Monte Carlo, as opposed to some windswept Prague backstreet. The heroine interjects play with the occasional clichéd inanity and is backed by a decent Bond-esque soundtrack.

How to Play Assassin Moon

In the base game, you’ll need to land a minimum of three symbols from left to right. The reels are decorated with luxury items relating to the high life such as a set of dice, a sports car and a Martini. Low value symbols are represented by playing card suits.

A Leslie Nielsen type character (or is it Philip Schofield) in a cross-hair is the most valuable symbol and pays out two, five or 25 times your stake should he appear three, four or five times across a pay-line respectively.

Lola the assassin serves as the wild and substitutes all other symbols apart from the Hyper Hold symbol and scatter. Land her five times and you’ll receive 500 times your stake. Lola can also appear in stacks which can obviously make for some pretty substantial pay-outs. The scatter is signified by a poker chip and activates the free spins round.

Bonus Features

Accompanying what amounts to a standard base game is a solid collection of bonus elements including the Hyper Hold feature.

Hype Hold Bonus Feature

To trigger this, you’ll need to land six special moon symbols on a single spin. These are then held in place while the others fade away and three re-spins activated. Should another moon symbol, appear, the feature begins all over again.

Each moon symbol rewards either multipliers of 1.5x or 20x your stake or a mini, minor or major jackpot of 50x, 150x or 750x your bet. If you’re fortunate enough to bag the Mega Jackpot you’ll be the very, very, very lucky recipient of 5000 x total stake.

Win Booster Bonus Feature

The Win Booster improves your chances of unlocking Hyper Hold provided that you increase your stake by 2.5. Extra symbols will also be added to the reels. Unfortunately though, the multipliers and jackpot prizes remain the same value.

Free Spins Feature

The free spins round kicks in when at least three pulsating poke chip scatters appear on the second, third and fourth reels on a single spin. You will then be awarded a pay-out that’s equal to your stake as well as 10 spins. During the round, the three central reels merge into a 3 x 3 ‘jumbo’ block. If a scatter appears, another 10 spins are awarded. The Hyper Hold feature can also be re-triggered.

Conclusion

Looks-wise, Assassin Moon appear fairly well-polished while the reel animations are certainly above-par. And although the base game is simplistic, Hyper Hold is an engaging interpretation of the old streak re-spin feature. The free spins round is also helped big-time by the jumbo blocks mechanic which can make for some substantial pay-outs.

RTP: 96.08%, Minimum Stake: 0.10

Dale Shelabarger

Freelance Contributor, creating content since 2003

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