Risqué Megaways

Risqué Megaways Overview

Themed around a famous cabaret venue, this new slot game, designed by Red Tiger, brings glitz and glamour to slot gaming that is mostly absent in this gambling genre. Aesthetically this game seems to have taken a great deal of inspiration from Le Moulin Rouge, one of the most famous cabaret spots on the planet, immortalized by the Hollywood film of the same name, starring Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman. Mechanically, this is a Megaways game with six reels and a top win of 5,250x the stake. The RTP is 95.73%.

There are two bonus features for this game. The first is called the Fan bonus. Fan symbols may land on the upper or lower bonus reels throughout the game. If a couple of fans align on the top and bottom reels, they will link up and cover the entire reel, transforming into either a random pay symbol or a wild super icon. This new symbol will also come with a multiplier. The other feature in this game is the free spins round, triggered by landing three scatters in the base game. Doing so will give you ten free spins. Both features will be explained in more detail later in the review.

Theme and Symbols

As we have mentioned in the introduction, this game is themed around cabaret and all the amazing aesthetic cues that that entails. A cabaret is a form of entertainment that usually takes place in large venues at night. The audience is usually seated, either dining or drinking, with the show performed on a stage in front of them. Although this is not always true, cabaret can be quite adult in its themes because of its underground and after-dark origins, with titillation being key to the performance. However, more than anything, cabaret is dance orientated with male and female participants taking part in big numbers.

The stage is very important for these types of performances as it sets the tone for the audience before the performers arrive on the scene. The background for this game is the stage where this cabaret show is being performed, with a giant heart-shaped façade in the centre. The tone is clearly much like the Moulin Rouge – one of love, fantasy, and extravagant glamour. Some classic elements have also been weaved in, including old-school vanity bulbs and feather boas decorating certain parts of the stage.
The playing board has been designed to look like a 1920s art deco mirror with golden touches of delicate beauty.

The symbols for this game are split into low-value, high-value and special symbols. The low-value symbols are the clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades in card suits. The most valuable of these is the spade, paying out at 0.4x the stake for the top combination. The more valuable symbols, on the other hand, are the leather boots, the martini glass, the green hat, the purse and finally, the microphone. The microphone is the most valuable symbol, worth 2x the stake for the top combination. The specials in this game are the mystery boa icon, the free spins scatter and the wild.

Game Play

Risqué Megaways is played on a 6-reel Megaways gameboard, meaning that the number of icons in each reel changes with every spin. They vary between 2 and 8. This means the pay lines also change with every spin. The maximum they can be is 321,489. 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 Risqué Megaways is 10p 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 high range. The return to player percentage for Risqué Megaways is 95.73%, which is below average. The biggest payout that players can win on one spin is 5,250x your stake.

Features

Apart from the Megaways dynamic and the normal influence of the wild, this game really has just two features. The first is the fan symbols bonus. At the bottom and top of the reels, you will notice two reels that spin horizontally. If you manage to get two fans to face each other across the board on one of your spins, you will trigger the fans bonus. Do this, and the reel that connects them will be filled with either a random paying symbol or an extended wild. Whatever symbol you get, it will also be accompanied by a win multiplier between 4x and 9x.

When in the base game, this new full reel will lock in place and reveal a new random symbol with every spin until it becomes part of a win. After which, it will dissolve. If the fan symbol feature happens with more than one reel simultaneously, they will both reveal the same icon.
The next feature is the free spins game, triggered when you land three or more scatters in the base game at the same time. This will trigger ten free spins. Landing additional scatters once within the bonus round will add to your free spins tally. This round also comes with a win multiplier that starts at 1x and increases by 1x for every win registered to a maximum of 20x. The fans feature is also at play in this game and stays locked until used for a win.

Conclusion

With plenty of pay lines, some good features, and a glitzy cabaret theme, this game has a lot to offer. The aesthetics and entertainment value, however, are much more exciting than the actual win potential here. The RTP is poor, the top payout is pretty rubbish, and although this is a Megaways game, wins are remarkably few and far between.