ALL ABOUT BATTLESHIP DIRECT HIT! SLOT
The latest slot developer to enjoy the fruits of a licensing deal with Big Time Gaming is casino veteran WMS, working here with Red 7 to give the classic Hasbro board game, Battleships, the 117,649 ways to win treatment.
If you’re a fan of BTG’s slots for their awesome high variance then you may be a little disappointed with this one. Battleships doesn’t come with the same fire power as a Bonanza or White Rabbit – it pays out more regularly but in smaller amounts and it omits the multiplier features that have been a big part of those other slots.
However, we do have cascading wins and a decent free spins round in which destroying your opposition’s crafts earns you more for you cache. There are also four fixed jackpots with a max payout of 2,500x.
Gameplay, Symbols and Pay Tables
The Hasbro game Battleships has a timeless appeal and WMS / Red 7 have done a great job of turning it into a video slot. The action takes place in the bridge of a ship with bleeping radars, buttons and levers around the reels, as well as some mean looking gun carriages.
The reels themselves are standard Megaways™ fare – that means six reels each displaying between two and seven rows of symbols after each spin to create anywhere between 729 and 117,649 ways to win.
The low value symbols are the cards from 10 through to Ace, whilst the premium symbols are the four colored medals and the battleship which pays out 4x for six on a payline.
Look out as well for the Battleship Wild (replaces all other symbols to form winlines) and the Missile Scatters that are required to launch the free spins round.
Battleship Direct Hit! Features
Cascading Wins
This is a classic feature of Megaways™ games. After each spin where a win line is created, the symbols making up the line are blown-up by battleships to be replaced by more symbols. If more win lines are created then those symbols are blown-up too. This process continues until no more win lines are created.
Turret Fire
This is a basic transforming symbol feature, given a Battleships dressing-up! At random times during the base game the guns either side of the reels may open fire, hitting low value symbols as they do. This causes them to be replaced by premium symbols which may create win lines.
Free Spins
During the game watch the screen above the reels which will show one or more battleships displaying a value which related to a number of free spins. To enter the free spins round you must destroy one of these ships. This happens when random missile symbols land on the reels and fire on the ships above.
You can earn between 5 and 50 free spins this way.
The action gets pretty exciting here when it’s combined with the cascading reels feature. After each missile is fired it is replaced in a cascade with a new symbol. This can happen at the same time as a cascading win, leading to more missile symbols landing. With more missiles there is more chance of sinking the battleships above and landing more free spins.
And …
Look out for more wilds on reels 2, 3, 4 and 5 which are there to help you create more win lines.
And …
During the free spins round there are more battleships in the screen above the reels. Some carry more spins and some carry jackpots – Mini (20x), Minor (100x), Major (500x) and the Grand (2,500x).
And …
If you destroy two ships with one spin you will automatically receive 100 free spins!
The Slot Buzz Verdict
There are some who will find Battleship Direct Hit! to be a little too tame for their liking. Slots fanatics who crave the high variance monster action of games like Extra Chilli and White Rabbit won’t get their fix here. However, despite the relatively low values of the wins involved we found this WMS slot to be pretty entertaining. They’ve done a great job of assimilating the theme of Battleships into the slot format and the free spins trigger is a really neat trick. The thrill of sinking battleships to score jackpots or big free spins triggers looks excellent and gives some good win potential for a medium variance game.
