Guardians of Fire & Ice Slot
Gamesys are breaking into the superhero scene in a big way with their offering of Guardians of Fire and Ice. This comic book styled interface has 25 fixed winlines and a free spins bar for you to play with, not to mention some unique wilds. This is no Marvel or DC title, but it’ll satisfy your need when you want to smash the bad guys.
Alongside the characteristics we’ve already commented on, players also get to benefit from cascading reels. This trait is seen in nearly all of the brand’s real cash slots, but we never tire of it. We like how easily those wins seem to roll our way when the reels are predestined to drop into your lap. This isn’t going to be a busy title by any means, but it’ll keep you going when you’re in between bigger slot machines.
Fantastic... Two?
When we first looked upon the matrix, we didn’t really pay much attention to the design of the aesthetic; we knew it was superhero themed and that was it. But when we looked closer, we realised that the style was very similar to the Fantastic Four. True, in this example you have only two heroes instead of four, but their looks are very similar.
In addition to the sameness in appearance, you then have a grid that, on the whole, follows the generic conventions of comic book slots. This means you get a highly illustrated, but still animated, interface to engage with. It isn’t a criticism, but we do long for more innovation in the looks department - once you’ve seen one title like this, you’ve sort of seen them all.
Maintaining the Status Quo
To show you what we mean when we say conventions, just have a look at the interface of Blast Bang Boom, a slot machine developed by Endorphina. If you weren’t aware of the difference in brands, when putting these two side by side, you’d be forgiven for mistaking them as one and the same. They both have a male and female hero, as well as an illustrative style.
Aside from the sameness, you can savour 50 winlines inside the matrix rather than the 25 here, as well as a greater series of features. What is more, the pay-in seems to be relatively low, though not as low as Guardians of Fire and Ice with their 0.25 credits starting wager. Speaking of betting, in comparison Blast Bang Boom has a much higher maximum stake, meaning more high rollers can apply, whereas this Gamesys example peters out at 200 credits.
Moving on Up
In previous Gamesys titles we’ve seen a connection with cascading wins and the extras bar on the right hand side; sometimes they gift multipliers, others free games. Here you still get the extra spins, but not simply because you form a win. What you instead need to do is collect scatter icons. Just one will start the ball moving, but of course you need to keep getting them in a row.
Furthermore, this feature will immediately reset if you alter your bet in any way, which of course makes the special all the more volatile. That being said, there’s very few slot machines out there that’ll allow you to play around with your wager and not be stung in some form or another. And getting stung in this slot is what you get with a lower end RTP of just 94.82%, it may sound high and on your side, but it really isn’t.
Predictable Heroes
We don’t wish to be party poopers, but we have to be honest and say that Guardians of Fire and Ice just doesn’t cut it for us. It delivers quality, of that we can be sure, but it fails to provoke interest from you – you could be more stimulated if you was sleeping. This is yet another example of a slot machine that has been designed to look pretty but deliver no real substance. Perhaps if we hadn’t seen the free games bar before, or the cascading reels, we’d have felt more moved, but as they’re typical Gamesys features, we’ve become disillusioned by their titles.
