ALL ABOUT MILKY WAYS SLOT
After a foray into low–medium variance slots action with Milky Ways and Gaelic Gold Nolimit City are cranking up the dial once again to bring us a high variance game set in the blistering heat of a middle-Eastern desert. This one is inspired by the stories of genies in lamps granting wishes, and here anyone lucky enough to meet one can get rewarded with wilds, progressive multipliers and some pretty outstanding free spins action.
Regular readers of this site will know that we are big fans of Nolimit City. You can check out our picks of their best games and casinos here. Highlights of their catalogue to date include two marvelous Westerns, Deadwood and Tombstone, as well as the highly volatile Barbarian Fury and the iconic, Punk Rocker. We’re really excited to see this studio get back on board the high variance train and this looks like it could be one of the games of the summer. Let’s check it out.
GAME SET-UP, SYMBOLS AND GRAPHICS
So the Arabian feel of this slot is set up by the deep, dark blue night sky behind the reel set, with twinkling stars looking down. The reels are a simple 5×3 format with 20 fixed paylines active at all times. Low value symbols are the cards, 10 through to Ace, whilst the premium ones are represented by the big cat, the serpent, the genie lamps, the face of Aladdin and the Princess. The last of those is the highest paying at a very decent 25x for five on a payline. Look out as well for the Genie in the big turban, a wild looking character (naturally) as he represented both the Wild and the Scatter which perform as normal to sub in and drive more wins, or launch the free spins round.
GOLDEN GENIE AND THE WALKING WILDS SLOT RTP, VARIANCE AND PAYOUTS
For our money this is a return to form for Nolimit – it’s no secret that we love the high variance fare and this game is delivering on that front. The RTP is set to a standard 96.03% so no complaints there and the top payout to strive for is a reasonable 9,583x. That’s not as high as other games from this developer but it’s still a decent opportunity, though don’t expect to get too close, this is just an indicator that the game can deliver good payouts.
GAMEPLAY AND FEATURES
Nolimit City have produced some feature-packed high variance games in their time and they are not holding back here. These are the enhancements that drive the action on when you start spinning:
Genie Lamps Stacked Wilds
This one crops up exclusively in the base game – reels two and four convert to fully stacked Wilds and hold whilst the other 3 reels continue to spin. The pay model shifts to pays both ways at the same time to increase your chances of winning.
Genie Wishes Feature
In a clever twist you’ll need to land the Aladdin symbol directly to the left of any Lamp symbol to release the Genie Wishes. At this point, all the Aladdin and Lamps become Wild which is a significant paytable boost, and EVERY other symbol will take a multiplier value of up to 10x. This is a very good enhancement for the base game and suggests it will be possible to score decent wins even before the free spins round.
Genie Parade Free Spins and Progressive Multipliers
You will need to land 3 or more Genie Scatters anywhere to trigger the bonus round. The round starts and spins continue until there are no more Genie Wilds in play. These symbols all take a multiplier value of 1x and journey from left to right across the reel set until they drop off the end. At the start of the round one Genie becomes the Golden Genie and with each spin its multiplier increases by 1x. It also transfers this value to the other Genies on the reels. Like the rest, the Golden one moves left to right with each spin. When it drops off, any Genie on the reel to its right becomes the new Golden one.
Sounds a little complex, right? But essentially you are building a progressive multiplier value and the more Genies on the reels, the better your payout will be. As long as they keep dropping in, you keep spinning!
OUR VERDICT
Golden Genie and the Walking Wilds will arrive in UK slot sites in July 2020 and it looks to be a strong release from Nolimit City. The graphics are simple and perhaps not as striking as games like Punk Rocker, but the gameplay looks excellent and will move along at a fair place with plenty of features to hit. There are some real opportunities to score good wins with the Genie Wishes feature in the base game before stacking up progressive multipliers in the bonus round where the top payout of over 9,000x is up for grabs. Enjoy, and gamble responsibly.
