Dazzle Me Megaways

Overview Dazzle Me Megaways

If you can cast your minds back to 2015, you will remember the original Dazzle Me slot created by NetEnt. Its creation rode the first huge wave of Candy Crush popularity, when everyone from children to parents were playing the addictive phone-based game. Now 6 years later, NetEnt is back with their long-awaited follow-up, and to make things even more interesting it’s a Megaways slot. There is plenty in this new game that will dazzle fans of its predecessor, as well as appeal to new players of the franchise.

Regarding the game’s bonus features, NetEnt hasn’t held back. Besides the fantastically useful and ever-expanding Megaways, players will also benefit from avalanches, wild reels, as well as a new free spins round. The most novel feature here is the selection of wild reels which appear throughout the base game and bonus game.

Theme and Symbols

NetEnt has gone for a combination theme here combining classic slot symbols with Candy Crush style ‘candies’ or gems. The effect is a multicolour assault on the senses which in many ways does exactly what it says on the tin – dazzle. It might be a little childish for some people’s tastes but its relaxed and colourful interface is fun and easy on the eyes.

The background for Dazzle Me Megaways looks like the blinding light that you can briefly see as a firework explodes. The whole background is taken up with this image. Thankfully, it has been put in soft focus and the colour saturation has been muted a little so that it isn’t too distracting from the playing board. Its pink and blue colour palette helps to make the game feel uplifting and light and reminds one of cotton candy.

The playing board is fascinating from a gaming mechanics perspective, as the reels increase in size from left to right as the player looks at them on the screen. Visually the board is fairly straightforward in that it is clad in a copper lining which keeps it separate from the background.

On the playing window, there is a large range of symbols, these comprise a collection of gemstones or candies, as well as a handful of classic free casino slot games symbols. These latter symbols are the 4 -leafed clover, the bells and the lucky 7. Out of these, the lucky 7 is the most valuable, paying 3x your stake for 6 on a pay line. The gemstones also have different values, all of which can be viewed via the paytable in the main menu. The wild symbol for this slot is the diamond symbol, as is usual for the wild, it can substitute for any other symbols apart from the free spins scatter.

Game Play

Dazzle Me Megaways is played on a 6-reel, Megaways gameboard, meaning that the number of symbols in each reel is liable to change throughout the feature. Between 2 and 9 symbols can land on each reel every spin. This means that the number of pay lines active on each spin is different. The maximum number you can have when all 6 reels expand to their top height is 99,225. To create winners in this game, players must match a minimum of 3 symbols across a pay line starting on reel 1. The betting range for Dazzle Me Megaways is 20p to £200 per spin. To change your betting level per spin, click on the casino chip button located at the bottom left-hand side of the screen.

Further information regarding the slot, including a display of the paytable, can be accessed by clicking on the settings menu. The spin button is in the centre of the reels, next to which is the auto spins button. The volatility for Dazzle Me Megaways is rated in the medium range. The return to player percentage for Dazzle Me Megaways is 96.1% which is average for a Megaways game. The biggest payout that players can win on one spin is 50,000 x your total stake.

Features

There is plenty of good bonus content available to play for this game. Without further ado, let's get stuck into it.
One of the keys to success in this game is the avalanche feature. This feature is triggered every time that a winning combination is found. The symbols which were part of said win are sent off the reels and replaced by a new set from above. This gives players multiple chances to create wins from the same spin. The feature will only stop when a new set of symbols does not form a new win.

The second feature for this slot is the Dazzling Wild Reels feature. This feature is randomly activated and can come into play at any time during gameplay in the base game. When triggered it turns 3 reels completely wild. Any reel bar reel 1 can become wild. Once an avalanche has occurred, a payout consideration will be made, however, the reels will still be full of diamonds.
Lastly, there is the free spins bonus feature. To activate this feature, you must land 4 of the special free spin symbols somewhere on the reels on the same spin. If you manage this, you will be rewarded with 8 free spins. However, you will receive 4 extra spins for every symbol that you trigger the bonus with over that threshold. The maximum you can earn is 16.

Entering the bonus, you will notice that one reel will always be triggered into becoming a wild reel at least once and will remain so for any avalanches that follow its win. Also active on the free spins round is the Dazzling Wild Reels feature. For this feature, the number of wilds that appear in a Wild reel starts at 2 but can be increased by landing wins that include a wild. For every win that includes a wild, the number of wilds that are in that reel grows by 1- this is the expanding reels dynamic.
As in the base game, Megaways and avalanches are still at work too, helping to create some great combination wins.

Conclusion

Thankfully, NetEnt seems to have kept what worked in the old version and then added to the game rather than starting completely fresh. This means that the fun multicolour theme remains, as well as the unusually shaped reels. However, new additions such as the Megaways dynamic, avalanches and the excellent wild reels bonus, have injected new life into this fun but ever so slightly dated game. All in all, this is a good refurbishment that will have new players flocking to the title.