Pokie Megaways, a slot machine from iSoftBet, is a trip to Australia. Keep in mind that the locals are referring to slot machines when they say “pokies,” so don’t assume that this is some NSFW phenomena caused by the cold. When you look at the data, Australia is mind-boggling. More than twice as large as India, yet with just around 2% of its population. All sorts of creepy crawlies are making their way through the populace, waiting to sting, bite, or at the very least terrify the naïve. The country is also home to a number of adorable creatures, some of which have found their way into Pokie Megaways.
iSoftBet probably didn’t have the time or energy to cram in a lot of new features when they were busy herding animals onto the reels of Pokie Megaways. So they’ve resorted to remaking yet another ancient slot machine, this time called Western Gold Megaways (which was itself a rehash of Aztec Gold Megaways). To get to the meat of the matter, imagine a 6-reel game panel in the midst of the Outback, with Ayers Rock on one side, as clouds race across the sky at incredible speeds and dust flies by below. It’s a wild area, but it’s not as bright as the rest of Australia’s interior.
As many as 117,649 possible winning combinations are generated when you hit the play button and the reels stop spinning. Players have the option of spending anything from 20 pence to £/€20 on a single paid spin to skip to the Hold & Win respins bonus game. The basic play RTP is 95.98%, increasing to 97% with the purchase of the bonus game, and the volatility of the game is medium-high.
Matching symbols from the leftmost reel provide a winning combination according to the standard Megaways rules. The Roo Casino logo sits atop the reels, followed by symbols depicting koala bears, crocodiles, a man wearing an Outback hat, and other animals indigenous to Australia. Payouts range from 0.5x the wager for six low-value symbols to 1.5x the bet for six premiums if they land on adjacent reels. The wild sign can substitute for any other symbol except the scatter if it lands on reels 2, 3, 4, or 5.
Slot Machine Megaways
Cascades, Max Megaways, and a Bonus Add are just some of the extras that may be unlocked in the main game. Pokie Win Cash Respins can also be triggered by scatter symbols.
Cascades
The base game’s “cascade” feature is activated once a win is made, and it replaces the winning symbols with symbols falling from above. This can cause a streak of wins on a single spin, which will eventually stop if no more wins are formed.
A. Max Megaways
Any monetary spin has a chance of activating this bonus. When this happens, all of the Megaways are activated and all positions on the reels are occupied.
Plus, Plus
It is possible, but not guaranteed, that the Bonus Add will trigger on any paid spin, awarding the player with a number of Pokie Cash Respins.
Free Games with Bonus Money on Slot Machines
This is the big one, and it’s triggered by getting at least five scatter symbols in the regular game. All other symbols will disappear from the reels save for the scatters that triggered the feature. Scatter symbols (with bet multipliers) and jackpot scatters are the only symbols that land during the bonus game. Depending on the size of the scatter, the payout might range from 10x to 25x to 50x the wager. Now, anytime a new symbol hits and latches into the reels, the respin counter resets to 3. It’s worth noting that if all locations on a given reel are occupied by symbols, the values of those symbols are multiplied by the number of positions on that reel.
Incentives to Purchase
If you’re not in the mood to wait for scatters to appear naturally, you may pay 50 times your bet for a Pokie Win Cash Respin.
Megaways Slot Machines: A Verdict
After the positive reception of Aztec Gold Megaways and the less enthusiastic response to its sequel, Western Gold Megaways, Pokie Megaways was met with muted enthusiasm. At least between the first two Gold Megaways slots, iSoftBet didn’t reduce rewards. Instead, they dove headfirst into a skinned port and put more emphasis on the Australian graphics. Also, they’re not terrible. Players receive a taste of Australia, a region that is underrepresented in the slots market despite the country’s prominence in the gambling industry.
There’s nothing really innovative about the gameplay, so maybe the game’s faithful recreation of the Crocodile Dundee aesthetic will be enough to win you over. The main game drags on until the bonus game starts, in which a streak respin round occurs pretty frequently. The usage of multipliers in the Gold games when all of the reels are occupied by symbols is their claim to novelty and is a cool feature when it really happens. The novelty, however, has worn off somewhat after being exposed to the same element so many times. Players still have a shot at winning up to 12,000 times their wager. Aztec Gold Megaways and its upgraded version, Aztec Gold Extra Gold Megaways, may be more exciting options as iSoftBet is clearly fond of the precious metal.
If your ideal morning meal consists of Pokie Megaways and a thick layer of Vegemite over bread, then you must visit Australia. Pokie Megaways doesn’t accomplish anything its predecessor wasn’t capable of, so if you’re not interested in the game for its own merits, it’s not going to be that attractive. Armchair travelers, on the other hand, may find Pokie Megawys to be the ideal way to see the Outback without risking getting stung or devoured by the native flora and fauna.