Monster Blox

Monster Blox Overview

Created by the incredibly talented new Peter & Sons studio, Monster Blox is a fantastical trip to a mythical land full of monsters, wizards and brave heroes. We are always impressed by Peter & Son’s style and the incredible detail they put in when creating slots. They seem to have created an aesthetic that is all their own, which is an impressive thing to have done in a frankly saturated market. Mechanically, this game is played on an expandable set of reels that can hold a number of different sized icons on it, thanks to the Gigablox engine.

There are also plenty of features available for this game. The first of which is called the wild bounty feature. This bonus concerns the wild-looking wizard/hunter character that you will be able to see on the right-hand side of the reels. He may spring into life on any random spin and turn a few positions into wild symbols helping you to score more wins. Secondly, there is a re-spin feature, triggered every time you land a winning combination. Every time there is a re-spin, an extra row is added. If players land successive wins, they may be able to get the maximum of eight rows high. Finally, there is also a free spins bonus. All features will be explained in more detail later in the review.

Theme and Symbols

The fantastical medieval theme is one that Peter & Sons are very fond of and do very well. They always manage to design interesting characters to preside over the game, bizarre yet enticing symbols and a setting that looks head and shoulders above other designers in quality and creativity. This particular theme looks to have been inspired by Nordic mythology mixed with ancient English myths and legends. The main character you will see is the hunter/wizard on the right-hand side of the reels, who is holding some sort of magical AK-47. His influence is very welcome, though, as he turns spaces wild.

The background for this game is a medieval village somewhere in a mountainous region, perhaps in Romania or further north. The setting shows rolling hills, small settlements and a wide-open sky. The foreground of this slot has a walled structure with a small shepherd’s hut built into it. This is where the paying board is cleverly held.
The detail from the grass to the tiles is incredibly realistic if still in a cartoon style.

As mentioned, the playing board is styled to look like a shepherd’s hut with the heavily walled interior encasing the symbols.
Speaking of the symbols, they are split between low-value, high-value and special symbols. The low-value symbols are the diamond, spade, club and heart, paying a maximum of 0.8x the stake. The more valuable symbols are the various monsters that you will see on the reels. These begin with the turquoise one, then the green, the purple and finally the red dragon-looking monster. The red dragon is the most valuable of these, paying out at 10x the stake for the top combination. The specials finally are the hunter wild and the free spins icon.

Game Play

Monster Box is played on a 6-reel, 4-row machine with 40 expandable pay lines. Creating winning combinations will trigger re-spins which subsequently help expand the rows available and, therefore, the pay lines. 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 Monster Box is 20p to £100 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 Monster Box is 96.15%, which is above average. The biggest payout that players can win on one spin is 7,400x your stake.

Features

The first feature involved in this game is the wild bounty feature. This bonus concerns the hunter character. He will at some point randomly spring to life, firing his strange mystic machine gun at the reels turning a few positions wild, helping you to score more wins.

The second feature in this game is the Monster re-spin feature. This is triggered every time that you land a winning combination on the reels. For each win, you receive one re-spin. Every consecutive win also adds a row to the board, increasing your odds of scoring more wins. The maximum number of rows available is eight. When this happens, the number of pay lines available reaches 100. Re-spins will continue until a non-winning spin occurs. The reels will reset to their original base level format when this occurs.

The final feature in this game is the free spins game. You need to land five or more of the free spins scatters on the reels on the same spin to trigger it. The number of spins you are awarded is proportional to the number of scatters that you used to trigger the feature. Unlike the base game, the free spins are immediately played out on the fully expanded reel set with 100 pay lines. Any scatters that land within the free spins round also grants another spin.

Scatters in the free spins round also have a second use. If you collect enough of them, you will bring a multiplier into play. The more scatters collected, the larger the multiplier.

Conclusion

Peter & Sons can usually be relied upon to create an interesting and unique game that makes you revaluate how other games perform. This newest product is no different. Monster Box is loads of fun, has plenty of feature content and is one of those games that just gets under your skin in how addictive it is. This is truly an excellent all-around performer from the relatively new kids on the block.