Sicilian Sun Slots
Head into the Italian sunset tonight with our review of the Sicilian Sun slot by Merkur Gaming. The German online casino brand has been operating for decades in both the online gambling and land-based casino markets. Over the years, Merkur has offered players a huge range of titles based on everything from the Wild West and Sherlock Holmes, to jewels, animals, and fruit machines.
So, how does this latest online slot compare to the rest of Merkur's back catalog? Let's delve a little deeper and travel to the land of sun, sea, and amazing food.
Play 5 Reels in a Classic Merkur Online Slot
If you've ever played a land-based slot in Germany, you'll have come across Merkur Gaming. The German video slot pioneers have built up a range of over 200 games over the past 50 years. And many of Merkur's best games can now be found at online casinos.
You don’t play Merkur online slots for complex gameplay and big bonus features. What you get with Merkur's games is no-nonsense gambling and simple bonus rounds. Take the 10-payline The Final Frontier slot. Set in space, this 5-reel game is a fun take on the classic slot, with reels packed with space-age plums and melons, plus a host of intergalactic characters. You can trigger a free spins round with three scatters and enjoy 10 free spins.
We also found free spins while spinning the reels for our Sicilian Sun online slot review. On the face of it, the Sicilian Sun video slot is a standard 5-reel game with three rows. There are just 20 fixed paylines, and coins can be adjusted from 0.01 to 2.00. The max bet is set at 40.00 and the RTP is a so-so 96.11%.
Here's where things get interesting, though. In most standard 5-reel slots, prizes are paid for matching symbols from left to right. In the free Sicilian Sun slot machine, however, prizes are paid out if you match three or more symbols from right to left too. In fact, you will also bag a payout for hitting three or more matching symbols on the middle three reels.
Hit the Colossal Wild Symbol for Bigger Wins
While reviewing the Sicilian Sun online slot, we found a decent range of prize payouts for base game players. Payouts range from 4x for three of a kind, but the jackpots can get a lot bigger.
Look out for the regular wild symbol in the slot. The wild sun symbol will replace all regular symbols in the game. You will also earn a real cash prize when you complete a winning combination with one of the wilds.
The best part of this special bonus icon is that it can expand to form a giant colossal wild. The wild will fall in 2x2 blocks onto the reels. Our Sicilian Sun slot reviewers found that the colossal wild can appear across reels 1 and 2, reels 4 and 5, or on both reels 1 and 2 and 4 and 5 at the same time.
While the colossal wilds replace every symbol in the Sicilian Sun video slot, there's a good reason for that: there are no standard bonus features in the game. Our review team thought it a shame not to find a free spins feature that runs alongside the wilds. However, if you play for real money, you may find the game to be fairly low-variance.
Spin Top Slots from Merkur’s Back Catalog
You won't find a lot of gambling slots from Merkur that come outside the regular 10-20 payline bracket. If you are a fan of low-to-medium-variance online slots action, though, that won't be a problem.
Sticking with other 20-payline video slots in our Sicilian Sun slot review, let's now take a closer look at Merkur Gaming's Cannon Thunder. Cannon Thunder is a 5-reel slot with a military theme. The slick design is a little better than you might find in other Merkur slots. And with a game so focused on the battlefield, expect a lot of action and noise.
As well as a regular cannon wild symbol, Cannon Thunder features a scatter that can trigger free spins. Simply land three or more scatters on the reels in any position to activate 10, 15, or 20 free games.
Here's where things get interesting. In each of the first three free spins, you will see a cannon positioned on one of the spots on reel 5. On each subsequent free spin, the cannon will move one reel to the left. Once it hits reel 1, the wild symbol will stay in place for the duration of the remaining spins.
Let's stick with the action theme and recommend that you also play the Burning Heat video slot by Merkur Gaming. It's a fun take on the Indiana Jones films as we follow a brave adventurer on the hunt for gold. The fiery volcano is the wild symbol, and there are 'Heat Games' which can be triggered with three or more volcanoes. The aim in the Heat Games free spins is to land glowing lava symbols and extinct lava symbols to create big real cash jackpots.
If you like the simplicity of Sicilian Sun with a fun added bonus or two, both Burning Heat and Cannon Thunder are good alternatives. However, with both games having an RTP of just under 96%, you may find your game sessions frustrating.
Soak Up Some Sicilian Sun Online for Free
You won't find many Merkur games in our list of the best online slots available today. Merkur slots don't have the latest 3D graphics or big-money progressives, but they offer simple fun for gamblers.
The big plus from this review of the Sicilian Sun slot is the colossal wild. When it falls, it can really add some nice returns to your bankroll. And despite having a low RTP, the fact that winning combos run left to right, right to left, and through the middle makes the variance a little lower too.
Give Sicilian Sun a play for free today and see what you think. How does it compare with your other Merkur favorites?