Game Category: slot machines

Sicilian Sun Slots

Players are immediately transported to an Italian sunset which is a stunning setting that makes you want to play more and more. Merkur Gaming is based in Germany and has been in the business of demo slots both in land based casinos and online for many years. During this time, they have developed some stellar offerings which include titles such as Sherlock Holme, the Wild West and a plethora of animals, jewels and fruity fun. 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. Players who are familiar with Merkur Gaming will know that the slots they produce are not complicated neither do they offer huge bonus features, what you get with any Merkur slot is some no-nonsense play and straightforward bonus rounds. For example, The Final Frontier is a ten pay line slot that is set in space and is played over 5-reels. The reels are jam packed with space styled fruits amongst many other intergalactically inspired symbols. Landing three scatters rewards players with ten free spins, their slots really are this easy. When you first look at Sicilian Sun it will strike you as a standard five reel slot complete with three rows. With just twenty fixed pay lines and a bet range that starts from just 0.01 and has a maximum of 2.00 per pay line giving the maximum bet of 40.00.

Symbols

The RTP is incredibly good considering and stands at just over 96%. However, take a closer look and things become very interesting because whilst most standard five reel slots award prizes when symbols are matched from left to right, Sicilian Sun however pays out both left to right and right to left. Players also paid handsomely for landing three or more matching symbols on the three middle reels.

When I played the slot, I was pleasantly surprised that there was a good range of prizes awarded even in the base game. The pay outs ranged from x4 for landing three of a kind, but the jackpots are quite considerably bigger. Players need to keep their eyes open for the wild which is represented by the sun as this is the regular wild in the slot.

Wilds

The sun can replace all of the regular symbols and players are also awarded with a cash prize when they land a winning combination with one of the wilds. However, the best part of the sun wild has to be that it can expand to create a huge wild and the wild will then fall in blocks of 2×2 down onto the reels. When I played, I found that the wild can appear across the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th reels or on both the first and second reels and fourth and fifth reels all at the same time.

There is a very good reason why the colossal wilds have the capacity to replace every single symbol in the game and this is because the slot has no standard bonus features. Personally, I think it is a real shame that the developers didn’t add a free spin feature to run parallel with the wilds as this would have complimented the other feature perfectly. However, it must be said that when I did play the slot for real money, I was a little disappointed with the low variance that it provided. This aside Sicilian Sun is well designed and a lot of fun and I would certainly recommend giving it a spin or two.

 

Hot Flame Slots

Hot Flame is from the gaming developers at Merkur who are the largest slot games developers in Germany and the slot provides players with 3-reels which contain the well-known traditional symbols such as bells, oranges, plums and lemons, however when players look further into the game, they may be pleasantly surprised with the wealth of exciting features which include no less than 27 ways to line up the symbols, and exciting gamble feature and win multipliers.

Merkur offer hundreds of games all of which are fun, fair and reputed to deliver a high rate of return to all players. There are winnings of x80 the players stake when they land the right combinations of symbols, however it should be noted that as Hot Flame is a low volatility slot the wins are usually smaller, but these wins also tend to be more frequent which balances everything out nicely.

Hot Flame is available to play over all devices meaning players have the opportunity to play wherever and whenever they wish, and the slot can be played for free as well as for real money. Personally, I like to play a slot for free when this feature is available as I can get a true sense of how the game plays before I begin to gamble with my own money. The reels of Hot Flame are set with a starry night in the background and although they have subtle 3D effects there are hardly what players would see as state-of-the-art. Whilst the sky is aesthetically pleasing it really has no bearing on the game and this particular developer has a penchant for using the traditional fruit symbols and Hot Flames is just another in a long line of slots that use this type of symbols. The way in which players can land wins is slightly less conventional and although it is not unique it offers 27 different ways in which winning combinations can be made using the three reels.

Gameplay

Merkur refer to it as a Criss Cross system but I like to think of it more as an easy way to land wins as all the player needs to do is match symbols anywhere on all the reels to win. This simplicity is so easy to comprehend and why this is an ideal slot for novice players. Players that land the cherries on their reels are rewarded with a win worth half of their stake, watermelons, plums, lemons and oranges pay twice the bet when they fill any line, and the three vibrant coloured jewels pay out five times the players bet. The silver bell gives pay outs of ten times the players stake with the red seven awarding a massive x20 of the players stake. Whenever players land a win animated flames shoot from either side of the reels hence the name of the slot.

Bonus

Landing symbols on the right of the reels can sometimes have a multiplier overlaid on them and these range from x2 – x4 and should this symbol then be part of a winning combination the prize is doubled, tripled or quadrupled respectively. Lucky players that land a complete line of red sevens coupled with a x4 multiplier receive the top win of x80 of their total bet, and this can be boosted further if the player chooses to play one of the two gamble features.

Players have two ways they can multiply their win using the simple card colour guessing game where the player has to guess the right colour of the card that is lying face down and they also have the opportunity to keep going until they have reached the maximum prize, or they guess wrong and the game ends. The other gamble feature is the ladder gamble where the win is highlighted on the ladder and every correct pick moves the player further up the ladder to secure bigger prizes, pick wrong and players move down the ladder rapidly, however players do have the choice to collect the prize at any time.

 

Gold Beaver Slot Machines

Gold Beaver is the new online slots uk from the development team at Merkur and rather than being just another western themed slot which stars the best gunfighters in town, but as the title suggests this slot revolves around nocturnal, large semiaquatic rodents that dominate this Wild West style slot. Although beavers are most notoriously known for their dam building skills in this slot they display their super cute dance moves across the reels, as they cancan to entertain the people who frequent the saloon such as the cowboys, gamblers and miners who can expect a night that they will never expect. The beavers take to the stage in full costume that comprises of burlesque costumes and feathered hats, and they show they prowess as they high kick their stocking clad legs through the air.

Players can expect to be paid in real, hard cash when they manage to land three or more matching symbols from left to right but the stars of the show the beavers are paid in gold. Every spin of the reels is accompanied by hi-tempo music that is a combination of guitar and piano acoustics that will have players wanting to get up and dance, and they will certainly be better if they manage to land a five of a kind combination which could reward them with as much as x500 of their stake just from watching beavers dancing their butts off! The developer Merkur is part of the Gauselmann Group who have plenty of experience in slot creation with Gold Beaver playing out over 5-reels and 5 fixed pay lines and there is an impressive RTP of almost 96% and with the pay lines being fixed they are active on every single spin. The bet values can be adjusted and start from just 0.01 through to 2 making the low limit just 0.05 and the highest 10 credits per game.

 

Design

So, grab a drink, settle down and prepare to be blown away by the dancing beavers! The show put on by the beavers can be enjoyed regardless of where you are as the slot is fully optimized and can be played over all devices, giving you the freedom to watch the beavers show wherever and whenever you want, so if you are looking for some totally light hearted fun Golden Beaver is the slot for you. Just by sneaking a look at the pay table you will see that the bet is a small price to pay when you consider what is on offer as there are rewards that are equivalent to x500 of your stake throughout the whole game.

This top prize is claimed by landing five stacks of gold bars on a pay line. The next two highest paying symbols provide a massive x300 of the players stake and these symbols are a grand piano and external view of a saloon lit up by the night. The next symbol on the pay table is the horse-drawn carriages which are used as transport for the beavers to get too and from the saloon closely followed by alcoholic drinks which both reward the player with x100 of their stake for matching two or more. There are also the usual playing card symbols which have all been designed in such a way to make the most of the western theme.

 

Symbols

Players that land the Ace or King are rewarded with x40 of their stake whereas landing the Queen or the Jack provides a maximum reward of x30 of the stake, and finally there are the 10s and 9s which are worth a maximum of x20 the stake bet. There is just one special symbol in Gold beaver and this is the wild that will expand and cover the entire reel with the animation used for the expansion being just as impressive as the dance moves being made by the beavers. Every time the wild appears there is a expanding headshot of the beaver who has just two teeth and is swinging their right leg high in the air, and the beaver wild can substitute for all other symbols to help create winning combinations. The only real disappointment with the bonus feature is that the beavers only appear on 2nd, 3rd and 4th reels instead of all five. Gambling took place in saloons all over the Wild West and therefore it is no surprise that the Gold Beaver is inclusive of gamble buttons which gives players the chance to risk or double their winnings.

 

Gamble

There are two gamble options available the first is a classic card where players need to choose whether the next card will be black or red. The other is the ladder gamble where players need to land on the next step. Players can gamble their winnings as many times as they want although they should remember that this could see them giving their winnings straight back.