Pirate Pays Megaways

Pirate Pays Megaways Overview

Take to the wide-open seas in this new game from consummate game designer Big Time Gaming. Pirate Pays Megaways is a thrilling pirate-themed slot game with 6 Megaways reels and an amazingly high 117,649 pay lines available. In addition to some fantastic combination possibilities, Pirate Pays Megaways also has plenty of exciting feature content. All of this combines to make a worthwhile gaming experience for players of all abilities. And if the experience wasn’t enough to tempt you, how about a 104,400 x your stake max win?

The features in this game comprise the usual Megaways fare, with a few unique features thrown in for novelty. One of the best features in this game is the Kraken Bonus feature, triggered when players land three golden chest scatters anywhere on the reels. After doing this, you will be shown a collection of free spin and starting multiplier combinations, which are slowly blown off the ship by cannonballs.

You will be asked if you want to take a particular combination deal to play out or let the cannonballs keep destroying offers at regular intervals. In addition to this feature, this game also has a reactions feature, a Compass Wilds Feature, and a Mega Kraken bonus (similar to the regular Kraken bonus. All bonuses will be explained in greater detail later in the review.

Theme and Symbols

The theme for this slot game is pirate life, which means vast pirate ships, colourful parrots, crusty pirates and plenty of treasure chests full of booty. This game seems to have been directly inspired by the classic novel Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. In the book, Pirates are described as eccentric characters turned mad by the endless months at sea and desperate for the touch of gold. It is this treasure obsessed class that this slot takes its visual aesthetic cues from. Although Pirates were nothing like what is described in the book, that wouldn’t make for a very entertaining slot.

The background for Pirate Pays Megaways is a tableau of the beautiful sea and sky into which a considerable pirate ship (the playing window) is sailing into. Indeed the bottom third of the screen is dominated by a relatively calm ocean disturbed only by the ship’s movement. The next part of the screen is dedicated to the wide-open sky stretching into the horizon. On this horizon, players will be able to notice a few islands smattered here and there, signalling that this ship may be travelling around one of the famous pirate-infested archipelagos such as the Bahamas.

As we have mentioned, the playing board for this game has been cleverly designed as the stern of the ship, with every icon reeling across the ship’s deep brown wooden planks.

The symbols for this slot are split into low-value, high value and special symbols. The low-value symbols are comprised of the 9, 10, J, Q, K and A in playing card royals. The high-value symbols, on the other hand, are the various gemstones. These come in green, blue, red and purple. The most valuable of which is the purple gemstone, worth 25x the stake for the top combination. Finally, the special symbols are the Parrot Wild, the Compass Wild, the Gold Treasure Chest scatter, and the Purple Treasure Chest Scatter.

Game Play

Pirate Pays Megaways is played on a 6-reel Megaways machine with as many as 117,649 pay lines to play on. To win combinations, players must land three or more matching symbols on pay lines moving from left to right, starting from the leftmost reel.

The betting range for Pirate Pays Megaways is 20p to £20 per spin. To adjust their bet levels, players can toggle their stake up and down using the tool located at the bottom left-hand side of the screen.

Further information, including a short tutorial and a display of the paytable, can be found via the menu button in the right-hand corner of the screen. The spin and auto spin buttons are located in the centre of the screen.
Volatility for this slot is rated in the very high range. The return to player percentage for Pirate Pays Megaways is 96.23%, which is about average. The biggest payout that players can win on one spin is 104,400x your stake.

Features

The first feature included in this game is the reactions feature, although you may recognise it as the cascade feature. It is triggered every time that a win is registered. When this happens, all of the successful symbols in the winning combination are jettisoned off the reels, with new ones falling into their place. A new pay out calculation then follows. These reactions or cascades will continue until the new set of symbols does not form a winning combination.

The second feature in Pirate Pays Megaways is the Compass Wilds feature. You will notice pretty early on that the ship’s compass is a special wild in this game. Like regular wilds, it will replace other symbols to help form more winning combinations. However, when it lands, the compass will point in one of four directions: North, East, South or West. Depending on the direction of the compass, a string of regular wilds will be sent out in that direction, creating a long trail of wilds.

Next on the feature list is the Kraken bonus. Players must land three of the golden treasure chest scatters anywhere on the reels at once to trigger this feature. You will first of all be shown a range of free spins and starting multipliers. After this, canon balls will begin raining down on the reels. At various stages in this process, you will be made offers of spins and multiplier combinations. Pick one or wait until the last offer.

The maximum number of free spins that you can attain is 25, with the maximum starting multiplier being 10x. When you accept an offer, you will go through and play those free spins. However, for every cascade that you win, the multiplier will grow by 1x. The multiplier will also not reset between cascades. Landing additional scatters can also mean retriggers.

Finally, there is the Mega Kaken bonus. This feature activates when players land two or more of the golden treasure chest scatters on reels 1 through 5, as well as the purple treasure chest scatter on reel 5. Like the regular Kraken feature, you then go through the offers process. However, in the Mega Kraken bonus, the offers are more significant than in the standard round. As in the standard Kraken round, multipliers increase, and retriggers are also possible.

Conclusion

With Megaways and features aplenty, Pirate Pays Megaways was never going to disappoint. This is especially in regard to that awesome top prize and the favourable RTP rate. However, players should be wary of the extremely high volatility, meaning that wins and features will be incredibly erratic.