Time Bender Slot
There are a few ways you could interpret a slot named Time Bender, but for the record, this game is strictly about time travel, nothing more, nothing less. It’s a pays both ways slot, which is fitting since you can travel both ways in this game: into the past and into the future. Whichever way you head, you’ll find riches beyond compare accompanied by a sense of wonder at how small and insignificant we are in the universe.
That’s the thing about time travel, man: it opens your mind to new dimensions. There’s more than a dash of Doctor Who to this slot, not only in terms of theme, but also the typography and graphics used. The backdrop features the galaxy, lit up in hazy reds and greens with the occasional shooting star flashing across the skies.
Back to the Future
Visually, there’s a lot going on in Time Bender and there’s all kinds of little details to take in. The most pertinent of these details is the value of the game’s twin jackpots. There’s a cash grab jackpot and a higher value super slots jackpot. Time Bender’s 40 paylines can’t be adjusted but you can set the bet per spin at between 0.01 and 1.00, so there’s more than enough scope for adjusting things to suit your playing style – or rather your bankroll. There’s a Max Bet button for convenience, an autoplay feature that can be set as high as 50 spins and controls for the audio and sound effects volume along with the speed of the reels.
Time to Win
Aside from the playing card symbols – which loosely have a space vibe to them – there are three themed symbols. One depicts a hand passing into a timewarp, another shows a time machine which resembles the Tardis and the other shows a time traveller, a fedora perched jauntily on his head.
The former two symbols – the hand and the time machine – aren’t worth much at all, but the time traveller is worth 800 for 5. There are quite a few features built in to Time Bender, and pleasing as this is, they haven’t been described particularly well on the paytable. One of these is the Highlight Feature, which will randomly highlight certain positions on reels 2-4 every time you spin the reels. If it entirely covers reels 2-4 by the time the spin has been completed, it will trigger a colossal symbols respin. This comprises a block of symbols measuring 3x4, while the first and fifth reels spin normally.
Other Slots Worth Checking Out
If Time Bender has proven to be your kind of game, you might appreciate something like Royal Crown by Beefee. This is a simple fruit-based slot, but like Time Bender it’s reliant on what happens on its game board rather than any bonus features built in. You see, Time Bender doesn’t dispense free spins, multipliers or any of that jazz. Instead, the action you do get to enjoy is limited to nudges and expanded wilds. Other games which operate in this fashion include Novomatic’s Fruit Fest, which is a basic 10 payline slot.
Indeed, the reason why the closest slots to Time Bender in terms of gameplay have substantially less paylines is because this Arrow’s Edge game behaves in a manner more akin to that of a basic old school slot – nudges, after all, are one of the oldest fruit machine features in the business. As a low to medium variance game, Time Bender is more in keeping with these sorts of slots, even if if does have a pair of hefty jackpots to dispense.
Concluding Thoughts
Time Bender is a strange one, a game that’s simultaneously impressive and lacklustre. On the one hand, it’s great to see a relatively unsung developer coming up with a slot that tries an uncrowded genre and which successfully sets the scene. The detail applied to the game board is particularly impressive, and the sound effects aren’t bad either.
At the same time though, it’s hard to shake the feeling that in terms of features, Arrow’s Edge haven’t done as much as they could. Considering it boasts two jackpots, the features don’t feel exciting or innovative. Time Bender is a curio then, but one which is still a welcome addition and worth a spin if you happen to encounter it in your time travels.
