Hogwarts Slot Machine
If you don’t know your Golden Snitch from your Pensieve, then you are a Muggle who probably won’t want to read any further. If, however, you are one of the millions of Harry Potter fans in the world, then this review of the Hogwarts video slot could be just what you have been looking for.
Hogwarts is the first slot machine to feature the world’s most famous fictional wizard, although whether or not it’s officially licensed is something we won’t go into. It’s probably not. Anyway, this is a five-reel slot game that’s been developed independently, so finding it could be tricky. If you locate it, though, you are in for a treat.
Our review team found that the Hogwarts slot comes with some potentially rewarding bonus features. The graphics, while quite simple, bring the magical world of Hogwarts to life. It’s got a cascading reels format that can bring win after win for a single stake, plus a fun high-card round where Harry and Voldemort face off to see which card is the winner.
If you’ve never heard of Harry Potter, then seriously, where have you been for the last 20 years? There’s no need to go into any plot details here, but the game captures some of the images that have made the books, films and now theme parks so popular.
Even the orchestral soundtrack fits in with the style of this game, so our reviewers have no doubt that the Hogwarts online slot machine is going to appeal to a massive number of players.
Find Some Magical Rewards
Ten paylines run across these reels, and you win a prize whenever three or more of the same type land across from either the left or the right sides. The game is set inside a wizard’s room, where a cauldron of who-knows-what bubbles away to one side and the skeleton of some strange creature hangs from the ceiling.
Nice animations add some movement to the scene, with steam coming from the cauldron and lit candles flickering by the title above the reels. But don’t expect stunning 3D graphics from the Hogwarts slot, although our review will reveal some nice features that make up for the basic design.
Standard winning combinations come from five high-card symbols and four ‘house’ symbols. The badger of Hufflepuff House is worth 40x, 150x or 750x the amount you stake on a payline when it lands across three, four or all five reels on a line.
Ravenclaw is worth up to 2000x, while the Slytherin snake pays a high limit of 5000x. The lion of Gryffindor pays out a huge 500x your line stake just for appearing on three reels from either side, while four will be worth 1,500x. If you manage to land a full line of lions, you’ll be lining your pockets with a win 15,000x your line bet.
A special question mark symbol is able to act as any of these if it then completes a combination. This wild symbol can bridge any gaps in a continuous line of other matching symbols, or boost the value of a win if it’s in the right places. The wild won’t pay any prizes on its own, though.
Any symbols that make up a winning line will magically vanish, leaving empty spaces for others to drop into, while new symbols will fall into view from above the reels. If a new combination is created, those symbols will vanish and you get paid again. This can go on and on, in what many slot machine developers call a cascading reels feature.
Our reviewers landed four wins in succession, but there’s no upper limit to how many times the Hogwarts slot machine can pay out from the cascading reels.
Choose Your Wizard
A ‘2x’ symbol can appear at any time following a winning spin, unlocking a bonus game where you can double the triggering bet over and over.
You start by deciding whether to root for Voldemort or Harry, after which a playing card is drawn for each wizard. If your chosen character has a higher-value card than the other, your prize is doubled. If not, the round ends.
If you win, you can either collect the prize or play again, doubling the current win. With some more luck, you could even multiply the initial prize by 8x, 16x and finally 32x. It’s a 50/50 guess each time, and if you think you are pushing your luck, the win can be collected at any point.
With any gamble feature, our review experts usually go for one or two rounds at most before collecting a win. We would recommend that you do the same when playing the Hogwarts slot machine.
Play a Range of Betting Options
You can stake from just 0.01 to 9.00 on each of the ten paylines, although you won’t be able to choose how many lines to activate, as they are all in play at all times. The only other betting option is to click the Autoplay button and have the reels spinning on their own. It’s not magic, but just a simple on/off option.
Unlike most slots that our reviewers now look at, the Hogwarts slot machine isn’t mobile optimized. That means you will need to find a desktop-compatible online casino to play it.
Another Game Inspired by Harry Potter
If you like all things Harry Potter related but want a game that’s easier to find than the Hogwarts slot, then you should give Harry Trotter the Pig Wizard from Blueprint Gaming a try.
This five-reel, 20-line slot puts the ‘hog’ in ‘Hogwarts’ and comes with no less than five magical bonus rounds. The advanced graphics include symbols of a pig in a wizard costume, a hat, a bag of coins and a spell book – but it’s the fun features that make this game such a hit.
The Squeal or No Squeal game sees Harry prompting players to pick spell books, and to then decide whether to collect the prize or pick again in the hope of a higher payout. There are also free spins, a Trail of Night board game where you collect potions and prizes, as well as random wild reels added by our friendly pig.
Our Magical Verdict
Although free Hogwarts video slots are available on this page, our reviewers think it’s well worth tracking it down at online casinos. It doesn’t have the most advanced graphics in the world, but the low-volatility gameplay, where you will tend to win frequent prizes, makes it an exciting slot to play.
