Chief's Magic Slots

Travel back to a simpler time in Chief's Magic, a classic 3 reel slot machine from Microgaming that draws on Native American imagery to distinguish itself from other retro gaming titles.

Featuring just one payline and three pre-defined paytables, Chief's Magic is about as simple as it gets in a slot gaming experience, with not so much as a wild icon or scatter symbol for players to concern themselves with. Available to play from between $0.25 and $15, the game features a top prize award of 200x your bet for matching three chief icons, but this is only available at the highest level.

American spirit

As a classic video slot, both the reels themselves and all the information you need to know about payouts are confined to one screen in Chief's Magic, meaning players can easily get an at-a-glance look at how the slot works without delving into additional menus. Furthermore, there are only three buttons included in the game's entire user interface, namely coin amount, coin size and bet max.

Playable from between one and three coins, the “bet one” button will increase your bet to the next available amount, while /- button will alter the actual coin value. The “bet max” button, meanwhile, will instantly raise the coin size to the highest level and multiply your bet. Payouts in the game are awarded for matching any three-of-a-kind on the central space of all three reels, with the single, double and triple BAR logos being the only exceptions as they payout in any combination.

Paytables are displayed at the right of the screen and players will notice that the amounts that can be won increase the more you wager on each spin. This means that when playing with one coin, you'll win a maximum of 150x your bet, but when you up it to three, 200x your bet is up for grabs.

Going native

In terms of visuals, Chief's Magic keeps it traditional in regards to the game's design and the symbols that feature on its 3 reels. As a single-screen slot, the game features a Native American chief in full headdress standing in front of a mountainous landscape as its background – and the profile of this character is also included as the game's highest value symbol.

Beyond that, the icons that appear on the reels are mostly retro slot staples like the various BAR symbols, a lucky seven and the yellow and orange Chief's Magic logo, with the whirring noise of each spin and the bleeps of a winning payline also reminiscent of a classic bricks and mortar machine. The Native American chief in the game's background does twitch into life when a winning playine is activated, but this is the sole piece of animation in an otherwise very simplistic-looking slot machine.

Featureless landscape

As mentioned earlier, despite the game's title, there's very little in Chief's Magic that will conjure up any genuine excitement. The game does not feature a wild symbol, with the only quirky payout feature being reserved for the BAR logos, which can all be combined to create a winning payline.

While three single BAR logos payout 3x your bet, three double BAR logos payout 5x your bet and three triple BAR logos payout 10x your bet, players are able to mix and match any combination of the three to double their starting stake. For example, two single BARs followed by a double BAR would still be a win in Chief's Magic, but players would receive the lowest possible winning amount.

Beyond this, there really isn't anything to the game and we can't help but wonder why the game's highest value icon, the titular chief himself, doesn't feature as a substitute wild. With just one payline available, this really wouldn't have such a bearing on Microgaming's bottom line that it would make the slot a sure-fire winner for players, but it would at least provide some kind of drama.

Lacking value

Overall, there's not much to recommend Chief's Magic unless you're particularly fond of playing classic slot machines. The increased payouts on offer for playing with the maximum number of coins offers a bit of extra value for players using the “bet max” button, but as they don't increase further with the actual bet size, there's little additional incentive for playing for $15 per spin instead of $3.