The Hottest Recent Slot Releases at Wildz

So far 2020 has brought us plenty of exciting new video slots developed by a selection of the industry’s first rate game providers. Let’s take a look at some of the standout releases from the last few months that have caught our eye.

Gonzo’s Quest Megaways

Considered the game of 2020 by many, the most famous conquistador in all of casino land made a triumphant return in July courtesy of Red Tiger.

Originally released back in 2011, Gonzo’s Quest has achieved nothing short of cult status since bursting onto the reels, establishing itself as a stonewall industry classic. Fast forward nine years, and NetEnt’s flagship video slot has been given the Megaways treatment by Red Tiger, the ground-breaking game engine developed by Big Time Gaming.

Anyone familiar with the original will recognise the look and feel of Gonzo’s Quest Megaways, but may notice some modern-day graphical enhancements bestowed upon its central character. However, it’s the Megaways mechanism that really steals the show the second time round, promising a maximum 117,648 ways to win to get the adrenaline flowing in this superb remake.

Nonetheless, the slot manages to pay homage to its precedessor in more ways than one, sporting a similar stunning backdrop against a Mayan temple adorned with ancient illustrations, and the symbols remain iconic of the foregone civilization.

Owing to the Megaways random reel modifier, we get to enjoy an enlarged, 7x7 playing format. The same cascading reels mechanism makes a return, however the 2020 version boasts a brand new feature that has the potential to spell serious paydays. At any moment you’ll bear witness to an earthquake that proceeds to shake your screen and smash up every low paying symbol present - making for some sizeable rewards at times and kicking off the occasional chain reaction.

Aside from the above earthquake feature, landing 3 Scatters during a spin grants you 9 free spins, which can be buffeted by an additional trio for every subsequent winning symbol that shows up. Perform up to 4 successive avalanches during the free spins round to help yourself to multiplier wins worth a top 15x!

Slot enthusiasts the world over rejoiced when Red Tiger brought back Gonzo for this 2020 reincarnation, and the result is the magical slot affair that many predicted it would be.

Golden Ticket 2

2020 will be remembered in some quarters as ’the year of the sequel’, and in September software powerhouse Play’n GO brought their latest contribution to the table with Golden Ticket 2.

The slot perfectly manages to recapture the circus spirit of the 2014 original, boasting the same impressive visuals and whimsical sound effects, while throwing in a smattering of new features.

Visually, there are a lot of similarities between the original version and this upgrade, however six years on the action has shifted inside, rather than outside, the confines of the circus canvas.

Play’n GO have noticeably cranked up the volatility factor this time round, too, with the game commanding the very highest variance setting. With a resulting top payout worth 5,000x your stake, expect the latest edition in the mini-series to acquire a whole new high roller segment who were possibly deterred by its predecessor’s medium variance rating.

Onto the main gameplay, while we see a return of the 5x5 reel setup and cascading reels mechanism, Play’n GO have given us a brand new set of symbols to contend with. Expect to find low paying symbols like targets, knives and a ringmaster’s hat, alongside the trio of characters who represent the game’s more premium symbols.

In the 2020 upgrade, Wilds, Win Spins and Free Spins become key components, and represent your path to the bigger payouts. Add in some lucrative Multiplier Wilds, and you have all the makings of a classic remake that deserves its place as an excellent slot successor.

The Dog House Megaways

Another Megaways upgrade features prominently on our rundown of the hottest recent releases; this time it’s Pragmatic Play’s four-legged friends who get themselves in on the action.

Cartoon-like creation The Dog House hit the shelves only last year and instantly found favour with slot fans everywhere, with its charactiatured canines creating cuteness overload.

One year on, and while The Dog House Megaways doesn’t exactly provide us a carbon copy, there are some marked differences from the original - not least the ramped up winning opportunities made possible by Megaways. The quartet of loveable, if goofy pups, are back to take centre stage, but with a bigger bark and much sharper bite. The aesthetics, thankfully, are just as bright and eye-catching as we remember them; the soundtrack carries more of the same quirkiness, and we’re back at another idyllic rural dwelling to begin our quest for riches.

The math model, too, remains largely unchanged from the original, with a similar RTP rate of 96.55%, but the Megaways engine throws up some potentially huge wins and is, after all, the sole reason for the sequel.

Sticky Wilds Free Spins return, triggered by landing upwards of 3 Scatters in a spin, but the follow-up hands a debut to Raining Wilds Free Spins, earned in the same manner as their Sticky Wilds equivalents. Take your pick between the two, if 3 Scatters should should ever show up.

15, 18, 25 or 30 Raining Wilds Free Spins are yours if you can land 3, 4, 5 or 6 Scatters respectively, and hold the key to unlocking the more premium rewards. If you don’t fancy hanging round, you can buy the bonus instantly for shelling out 100x your stake.

This August 2020 release is a worthy inclusion into the Megaways roster of games, and fans of the original will be overjoyed to find little has changed this time round. It packs a bunch of charm, along with the potential to net a huge 12,305x your wager from any one spin.

Mystery Museum

The ancient worlds of Greece and Egypt come together as Push Gaming invite us inside the Mystery Museum to discover treasured artefacts.

A haunting backing track accompanies the action in this July 2020 release, while angel statues and totems flank the playing area to create a sense of mysticism and combine to ratchet up the drama.

Pivotol to the game is the Mystery Stacks feature. The appearance of three or more Mystery Stack symbols during any base game spin is enough nudge them into a winning position, before they turn gold. They’ll then all proceed to reveal their paying symbols and swell your coffers nicely.

The game is also notable for its adoption of the innovative Power Gamble bonus feature, which comes into play whenever you manage a win worth at least 2x your wager. Choose from one of three gamble options each carrying varying degrees of risk, including cash prizes and free spins. Parlay your win up to 100x and you get to either cash in your winnings or exchange them for a bunch of further free spins.

Overall, Mystery Musem is a solid addition to the world of antiquity-themed slots, which makes use of some compelling bonus features and sports visually-pleasing imagery to create an immersive gaming experience.

Book of Shadows

Most game providers worth their salt have some token ‘Book of’ offering in their back catalogue, typically themed around Ancient Egypt.

But NolimitCity is no ordinary game provider.

The software house have taken the original concept and turned it on its head to produce something truly original in Book of Shadows - something bound to make game developers rethink the whole ‘Book of’ model.

The game trades the warm, sandy planes of Egypt for somewhere altogether darker, colder and downright creepier - accentuated by an eerie soundtrack.

The usual expanding symbols are there - but any similarities to other titles in the genre mostly end there. An inspection of the paytable, meanwhile, reveals playing card icons 10-A plus a butterfly, goat’s skull, female goth and purple cat; the premium set dishing up wins that can stretch to 500x your bet.

A trio of bonus features light up the game for the opportunity to bump up your earnings: Lucky Locks, Gamble and Wheel of Bonus.

For a fixed sum, the former allows players to lock up to 4 reels in place for the duration of a spin, which can help in the formation of winning combos - especially if you land adjoining Wilds, while the Gamble feature is a standard 50/50 red/black affair for the chance to double your winnings.

Every win also presents you with the chance to enter the Free Spins round via the Wheel of Bonus. Landing in the wheel’s highlighted segment unlocks the round, and the size of the segment is proportionate to the amount of your win. It’s not easy, but it can be worth it to gain access to the lucrative bonus round.

This is an exceptional effort from developers Nolimitcity, who apply a decidedly occult flavour to the popular ‘Book of’ slot category. There are plenty of twists along the way, with players given multiple ways to shape their own fate through a unique mix of innovative features, and, combined with expertly executed gameplay, the title is worth any player’s time and effort seeking an otherworldly slot experience.

Firedrake’s Fortune

Get ready to grapple with fearsome dragons in this fantasy-filled frolic from our software partners at Kalamba Games, another top slot title entering the fray recently.

Wildz was the proud exclusive host for Firedrake’s Fortune last month with the promise of €10,000 in prizes, and there’s plenty of reason why we put our weight behind this exhilarating new release.

A quartet of higher yielding vikings make up the paytable symbols, along with the token playing card icons across a 6x4 reelface. It’s the trio of dragons, however, who are central to the gameplay. They sit casting their eye over proceedings to the right, and their mythical powers can be worth a pretty penny whenever they escape onto the grid and multiply your winnings. That’s after the ’egg meter’ gets sufficiently filled after showing up on the reels in turn - but only over the course of 10 straight spins.

Once this happens, watch as one of the dragons flies onto the reels in a Stacked Wild fashion, assisting you in those all-important winning combos. Additional dragons will then follow suit for the appearance of more eggs filling up the meter.

This is a nifty feature from Kalamba Games and helps crank up the intensity, which is spurred on by a Game of Thrones-esque backing track.

Firedrake’s Fortune is not your standard fantasy video slot, and the game’s owners deserve praise for throwing in the odd original bonus feature to maintain player interest and put a new slant on the game category. The chance to win up to 5,000x your stake is not to be sniffed at, either.

1 Million Megaways BC

What’s better than 117,695 ways to win? Over a million, that’s what! This is clearly what premier software developer Iron Dog Studios had in mind upon producing their tempting August 2020 creation, 1 Million Megaways BC.

The 6-reel slot invites us to delve into the prehistoric Pleistocene era that began life well over 2million years ago - which, incidentally, is just about double the number of ways to win in this ground-breaking effort.

Scan the playing area to find a cave located on one side, amongst snow-lined rocks and greenery. It’s all rather serene, and the vibe is amplified by a rhythmic beat that sounds almost tribal-like.

Cascading reels are at play here, which clear symbols belonging to winning combos, and replace them with a new set that falls from above. And to spice things up even further, you can feast on increasing multipliers that max out at 8x for each successive winning cascade.

That counts as sufficient appeal on its own, but the game truly earns its place as an outlier thanks to its gargantuan possible ways to win. It employs the famed Megaways system made famous by Big Time Gaming, but instead of the standard 117,695 ways to win, get ready to multiply that number 9-fold, all the way up to a mammoth 1,058,841. You might wonder how that’s mathematically possible. Well that’s why we’re here, and we’ll get onto that now.

Manage to achieve four consecutive tumbles in the base game, and you’ll be the grateful recipient of 8 free spins. Any additional tumble beyond this then grants you 2 additional spins, up to the maximum 14. This is where it gets interesting. Once you’re in free spin mode, you’ll notice a new reel muscle its way into the grid centre. Known affectionately as the mammoth reel, this modifier has the abillity to posess 9 symbols, and with the numbers crunched, it tops out at well over a million ways to win.

Sticky Wilds are also known to lock onto this new reel on occasion, spelling even greater riches whenever all 9 latch on for an entire spin. Feeling flush and short of time? Then purchase the free spins round for a fee of between 50x to 270x your stake in exchange for 6 to 14 spins.

Megaways slots have become all the rage recently, with a pair of offerings covered previously in this article. However, Iron Dog Studios push the boat well and truly out to sea with this release, sending ways to win off the richter scale and promising a maximum payout worth 45,000x your wager. For those reasons alone, high rollers and casual gamers alike ought give this game a whirl at least once.