Invaders Megaways

Overview Invaders Megaways

The WMS studio takes players to a quiet rural town deep in the heart of Louisiana where nothing is quite what it seems. Indeed, night after night strange disappearances have been occurring in the town from farm animals to people. What is to blame? It can only be a race of super-intelligent aliens who have flown here from some far-away galaxy in their flying saucers. That’s right, this slot is a classic alien invaders game complete with little green aliens, crop circles and big silver spaceships.

Features for this slot include a cascading reels feature (a classic accompaniment to any Megaways slot), the hilarious Unicow feature, the UFO Wild selector feature and a quite complicated free spin feature. The cascading reels feature, most players will have come across before in some form or another. This feature is triggered when a winning combination is found and replaces the winning symbols with a set of new symbols to immediately try and get another win. The UFO wild feature zaps a symbol and turns every iteration of that symbol into a wild. The Unicow and free spins feature however need more explaining, which we will do later on in this review.

Theme and Symbols

The theme for Invaders Megaways is one of the aliens, specifically, the classic alien-type movie you might have seen in the 50s’ where abduction and silver flying saucers were all the rage. For example, this movie could be based on “Plan 9 From Outer Space,” a movie in which aliens invade earth planning to stop humans from creating a superweapon that could destroy the universe. The theme is very melodramatic but also cartoonish and light-hearted in its style and finish.

The background for the base game is a farm somewhere in the deep south where aliens have flown in and created crop circle in the wheat fields. To the left of the reels, players can see the house of the local farmer which glows green thanks to the extra-terrestrial life that has now invaded it. The background for the bonus free spins game on the other hand is the surface of a foreign planet. Its surface is dominated by conical structures and strange Martian craters. The implied narrative is that you have been abducted and taken to the home planet of your captors.

The board by comparison is a simple rectangular creation that has very few design features at all. The only discernible one perhaps being the glowing transforming margin.

The symbols for Invaders Megaways are as ever split into low-paying, high-paying and special symbols. The low-value symbols are the 9 to A in card royals styled in a cool retro Hollywood idea of the alien script. Up from these in terms of the game symbols are the ray guns, the flying cow, the little green alien and the mad scientist character. However, the top paying symbol is the game’s logo. This symbol rewards you with 4x your stake for 6 on a pay line. The specials comprise the wild, which is any symbol with a wild label on it and the free spin bonus scatter, which is the orange planet with the word ‘bonus’ written across it.

Game Play

Invaders Megaways is a 6 reel, Megaways slot game. The Megaways aspect means that the number of symbols that appear in each row per spin changes. The more symbols that are on the reels at once the more pay line there are available to play. The maximum number of Megaways that you can play on is apparently up to a million with the help of the Unicow feature. To achieve wins on this slot, players must match 3 of a kind on a pay line or use the special symbols to make combinations. Each combination made must start on reel 1. The betting range for Invaders Megaways is 10p and £10 per spin.

To adjust their bet levels, players can toggle their stake up and down using the bet adjuster located to the right of the reels. Information about the slot, including the paytable and the auto spins options, can be found via the settings button to the left-hand side of the playing board.

The volatility rating for Invaders Megaways is very high. The return to player percentage for Invaders Megaways is 96.30%, which is about average for a slot like this. The biggest payout that players can win on one spin is £250,000.

Features

There are quite a few features for this game so why don’t we just dive in. The first feature for this game is the cascading reels feature. This feature is activated when players score a winning combination. The winning symbols are removed from the board and immediately replaced by a new set from above to try and find another win from the same spin. This feature continues until the new set does not trigger a win.

The next feature is called the UFO Wild selector feature. On top of the regular vertically spinning reels you will see an extra reel that spins horizontally. At some points in the game, a UFO will appear and select one of these symbols in this reel by zapping it with its ray gun. All iterations of these symbols that appear on reels 2 to 5 then turn wild for that spin and any cascades that follow.

Next is the Unicow feature. Somehow one of the abducted cows has learnt to use one of the flying UFOs and will appear at random on any base game spin and grow the number of symbols in all the reels. In doing so it will boost the number of pay lines from 168,070 up to 1 million Megaways.
Finally, there is the free spin feature. To trigger this feature players must land 4 or more of the scatter symbols on the reels on the same spin. The more scatters that the bonus is triggered with the more spins that are granted. These are as follows:
4 scatters = 7 free spins
5 scatters = 12 free spins
6 scatters = 15 free spins

On every free spin 1 of the higher value symbols is selected to become wild for just that spin. The wild will also come with a modifier attached to it. The modifier that is applied depends on the symbol that is chosen to become wild. The modifiers and their respective symbols are as follows:

The Invaders Logo: This symbol if turned wild will expand to fill the entire reel on which it lands.
The Mad Scientist: If this symbol is chosen it means that cascades double an attached multiplier, starting at 2x but potentially reaching a maximum of 256x.
The Little Green Alien: This symbol increases the number of symbols on the reel that it lands on and the next-door reels too.
The Cow: Every cow on the board counts as 2 wilds.
The Ray Gun: Every Ray Gun that lands add another wild to the reels for that spin.
Retriggers are possible by landing additional scatters.

Conclusion

Light-hearted, ludicrously fun and a great them to boot, Invaders Megaways is a top-quality slot not to be missed by pro or amateur. Statistically, the slot also stands up pretty well, having both a great top payout and a decent RTP. The large range of features also means players are very unlikely to get bored playing this game.