Hop on as we ride back in time to the medieval era in this week’s newsletter. We picked four new games from NextGen Gaming, Just For The Win, Core Gaming and Iron Dog Studio that are focussed on knights, kings, shoguns and Vikings. All historical figures and characters that had a big influence on the history of the middle ages.
NextGen Gaming has created yet another King Arthur themed slot, the famed English ruler who has been featured dozens of times on video slots including his legendary sword Excalibur. Expanding symbols are at the center of the action on the King Arthur slot, which can lead to wins of up to 500 times the stake on a single spin. We stay with English royalty on Sir Jackpotsalot, a humorous take on the medieval knights by Core Gaming which comes with three progressive jackpots.
Moving toward East, Iron Dog Studios is exploring Norse legends on Viking Wilds, which is their first foray into expanding game windows and multiway slots that looks like an effort to elevate themselves to the top tier of game providers. We travel not just to the Far East but also through time on Shogun of Time from Just For The Win with a novel reel set that expands mid-game from four to five reels.
King Arthur | NextGen Gaming
The joint effort between NextGen Gaming and BetDigital, both subsidiaries of SG Digital, is their take on the legendary king and his epic Excalibur sword. In standard play, it won’t do a lot but activating the FortuneBet will see a pay mechanic coming into play that most of us now from the countless “Book of…” slots. On King Arthur, the mechanic has a few twists that make the extra cost for activating the feature worthwhile.
Play the game from just 0.10 coins and trigger in the base game the random Jousting Knights feature. One will appear from each side of the game window and if they are on the same row when they hit in the middle, then they will spread random wilds. If they are on different rows, then each knight will turn minimum three symbols into mystery symbols that will reveal one common symbol to provide more win potential.
Activating the FortuneBet will bring the Table Wheel on top of the game window into play. It will cost 100% extra to do so with all regular symbols present on the wheel. It will spin together with the reels and the symbol landing in view will become the expanding symbol for the current spin. All instances on the reels will expand and award scattered pays.
To make it more interesting, you can opt to spend up to 10x your default bet to have the low-value symbols removed from the table wheel, giving you more chances to see high-value symbols expand and thus bigger win potential.
There is also a free spins round when minimum three scatters land on a spin. Symbols can appear marked with a grail and a cash prize amount. If a stacked wild lands together with marked symbols, then the amount on the marked symbols will be awarded.
Sir Jackpotsalot | Core Gaming
Get ready for a hilarious reel brawl with three knights as they protect the treasures in the medieval village. Core Gaming developed a feature-rich slot that also has three progressive jackpots which will trigger before they hit a defined threshold.
Played on a 5×4 reel set with 25 pay lines and from 0.25 coins, you can trigger the Treasure Casket bonus game when a treasure chest lands on reel five. You will be given one pick from eight gold coins to reveal your prize. The choices are one of four types of Lucky Knight’s Free Spins, one of four types of Lucky Knight’s Super Spins, one of the three ‘Guaranteed To Drop’ progressive jackpots or a coin win from 4x to 500x the stake.
Three to five scatters will trigger the random Lucky Knight’s Free Spins selector with four different types of free spins feature. Options are Bronze, Silver, Gold and Lucky Knight’s Free Spins, each with seven free spins and a distinct wild modifier. The Lucky Knight’s Free Spins will have all three modifiers active.
The action continues with the Lucky Knight’s Super Spins, which can be triggered via the Treasure Casket bonus game only. Again, four options are on offer, each with increasingly better wild reel modifiers and significantly more knights symbols on the reels that will trigger the modifiers.
The icing on the cake are three “Guaranteed to Drop” progressive jackpots that will trigger before they reach 200, 1,000 and 4,000 coins. Any of the jackpots can be won in the Treasure Casket bonus game only.
Viking Wilds | Iron Dog Studio
Iron Dog Studio has been around for some years but never quite made it to a Tier 1 provider. Viking Wilds is their most elaborate effort that could pave the way to achieve just that. It has an expanding game window with up to five rows and 3,125 ways to win, tumbling reels, three types of wild symbols and a free spins round that can pay up to 6,000 times your bet.
Playable on mobile and desktop from 0.20 coins, it is all about landing all three wild symbols anywhere on the reels in a single tumbling sequence. Winning combination explode to let new ones tumble into place for more chances to hit multiple wins in one spin. Collect all three wilds to trigger 12 free spins with an x1 starting multiplier. Hitting sticky and expanding wilds will increase the multiplier by x1 for each occurrence.
The game window in default is a 5×4 format with 1,024 ways and will increase randomly in a defined pattern – reel three, reels two and four, reels one and five. In the base game, it will reset after a tumble sequence concludes, while in the free spins it will remain expanded until the end of the feature.
Shogun of Time | Just For The Win
Travel through time with the ancient samurai and its cyberpunk clone on the latest slot from Just For The Win. You will be visiting Tokyo in a distant future where the time machine will beam reel five into view when the Reel Split Respins are triggered.
The default game format is a 4×3 reel set with 81 ways to win. Scoring a four of a kind will randomly trigger the Reel Split Respin feature. Reel five will be added in the middle and the will respin while the other reels are held. Play the game on mobile or desktop from just 0.10 coins and you could also trigger the free spins feature, which is played on the expanded reel set with 243 ways.
And there is one more kicker which will provide the potential to hit the maximum win of 2,717 times the bet. All wins, excluding a five-of-a-kind, are paid both ways in the free spins.