King Cashalot Slots
King Cashalot has, for a long time, been one of the most popular progressive slots in the world of online gaming. This famous Microgaming title offers players a crack at a truly gargantuan jackpot – indeed, the booty regular soars north of a cool one million. Imagine what you could do with all that cash! OK, don’t get too far ahead of yourself; simply read this review, acquaint yourself with the gameplay, then decide if you want to grab a piece of the action…
Featuring 5 reels and 9 paylines, King Cashalot is a Viper progressive that integrates a medieval theme with wilds, scatters, multipliers and a free spins bonus round. Whether you play in regular or expert mode, you’ll be in with a chance of bankrupting the titular King Cashalot – but be warned, you can only use the autoplay function when in expert mode.
Gold Everywhere
Some say gold is getting old, but that’s not the case in King Cashalot. There’s more gold on the reels than on a rapper’s neck. Symbols include a dashing prince, inexplicably wearing a suit of armour made of – you guessed it – gold; the eye-wateringly rich King Cashalot, bedecked a gold crown and a regal red-and-gold robe; a fetching damsel wearing a gold headband; and a golden dragon. There are also symbols depicting bowls of fruit, baking turkeys, a blueberry pudding, a massive ham hock and a bowl of fish. The slot’s medieval banquet theme is also conveyed with the use of sound effects, whence royal music booms from the speakers as gamers spin the reels.
The aim, if you haven’t yet guessed, is to line up matching combinations. Players can wager between 0.01 and 0.45 per spin to get involved, and all wins pay left-to-right save for the scatter symbol. The highest-paying symbol is that of the titular King, which yields a whopping 15,000x for five-in-a-line. Five queens, meanwhile, pays 1,000, while five knights pays 500. The scatter symbol is the jester, which appears on all five reels. It pays out a rather meagre amount though, and doesn’t grant free spins. Landing five-in-a-line pays a rather poky 50, but on the plus side, the scatter pays even on non-activated paylines.
In addition to being’s the game’s true money symbol, King Cashalot is also wild, and can replace all symbols except the scatter and golden dragon to constitute winning combinations. Not only that, but the inclusion of a substituting wild in a successful combination sees the win doubled.
Incidentally, players must bet the maximum number of coins to qualify for the progressive jackpot, which is won when one lands five King Cashalot icons on the ninth pay-line. In other words, players must wager five coins on each of the game’s nine pay-lines to give themselves the chance of a glorious victory. The progressive jackpot starts at 100,000, but as stated, it frequently exceeds the one million mark. Indeed, there have been instances where the jackpot has risen to 1.7 million. The progressive pays out, on average, once every 40 or so weeks. This is clearly a game aimed at cash players and is highly popular in Dutch Casinos online.
Special Features
Let’s face it, it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll scoop the progressive jackpot – but you have a better chance of activating the Treasure Bonus Game. This triggers when one lands three golden dragon symbols anywhere on reels two, three and four. In the bonus game, you get the opportunity to open three treasure chests containing various prizes. You open a chest one at a time, and you can elect to either keep the winnings you uncover or discard them and move on to a new chest.
All bonus game winnings are multiplied by the number of coins staked per line, as well as the number of paylines in play. In other words, the more you’ve gambled, the more dosh you’ll win.
Fit For A King?
Given the immense progressive jackpot, it’s little wonder gamers keep coming back for more. It’s not just the promise of untold riches that attracts them, though; the fun gameplay and enticing bonuses play their part. There are plenty of small wins to be had, and considering the fixed coin bet is just 0.05, the game should appeal to low-rollers as well as high. Free spins would have undoubtedly improved the game, and some players might bemoan the lack of a gamble function, but on the whole, King Cashalot is a thoroughly recommendable slot.