Mystic Wheel

The theme is distinctly Celtic, mirroring the warm greens and golds we associate with this culture. The intricate details are accompanied by some rather lovely music which, sadly, has been rudely drowned out by the clanging and thudding of the spinning reels. It’s a shame that the designers prioritized sound effects over soundtrack, as this would have been the kind of music you’d want to keep your sound on for.

The grid itself forms the Mystic Wheel, which animates subtly depending on which combinations you land. Strangely the slot does away with Wilds altogether, replacing them with 8 regular symbols and a Bonus Scatter. Across the reels are symbols like enchanted rings, a pendant, a diamond and a key. Together, these represent the high paying symbols. The rather dull (although well designed) card suits stand in for all 4 low paying values. There’s no story to tell, and it does get tiresome after a while because the animation is highly limited.

Disappointingly the slot only has one special feature. This is even more of a let down when you factor in how dull the base game is. But does this solitary feature make up for the dreary spins required to activate it? Here’s how it works.

Let’s begin with the wagering options. Mystic Wheel allows players to set their bets starting as low as C$0.20 per spin. Unfortunately this can only be increased up to C$10, which will be an instant turn off to any players who are partial to big betting. You would think this makes the slot appropriate for low budget players, but the base game wins, although larger than most, won’t generate much of a win in the long-term. A winning combination is created as soon as there are three or more identical symbols from left to right on a qualifying payline. On average, I was paid out varying amounts on every other spin, but a few of these were too small to keep me in profit over an extended period of time.

If you’re lucky enough to hit on the bonus game (and you’ll need to be lucky because it’s a tricky one to trigger), then you could find yourself paid out up to 10,000 x. That’s a very tremendous cash prize of C$100,000, but I wouldn’t bank on it. More realistic winning combinations will pay about 10 x your bet, or up to 300 x if you can fill your screen with diamond symbols. The RTP is set at 96.16%, which is just above the average with most modern slots.