ALL ABOUT WICKED TALES: DARK RED SLOT
In Wicked Tales: Dark Red we get another of Microgaming’s game releases from a partner production house. This seems to be their way of doing things now – we’ve recently had the Sidewinder slots produced by Just For the Win and Microgaming. And now we have Wicked Tales: Dark Red a game forged in alliance with Triple Edge Studios.
Fans of NetEnt’s Fairy Tale series of slot games may like the look of this one. But be ready for something a bit darker – Dark Red features a grown-up version of Little Red Riding Hood taking on a fearsome wolf.
We also notice that the gameplay has strong similarities with the MG Halloween slot but with a slightly different maths model that pushes up the variance. It is possible in the bonus round to hit a 1,000x payout in one spin too.
Wicked Tales: Dark Red Game Set Up
The game has 5 reels and 25 paylines. Normal so far, but straight away you’ll also see that there is a block of reels that is 3×4, as well as another block that is 3×3. The bigger block is a ‘wanderer’ and can move from left to right and right to left to create a different reel configuration during the game. This makes things a little more interesting, particularly when it combines with giant 3×4 symbols.
Dark Red can be played from 25p up to £200 per spin.
Wicked Tales: Dark Red Game Symbols
The background to this game is a classic fairytale-style illustration of a dark forest, called Ravenmire, and a house pouring smoke from a chimney. Quaint, by slightly spooky.
The reels feature standard low value symbols of Jack, Queen, King and Ace, as well as candles and gold coins. The premium symbols are a pendant, a wolf, a man with a flaming torch, and the Riding Hood character too. She is the highest paying at 80x for five on a payline.
You can also pick up an 80x payout for landing 5 of the wilds (logos) which also substitute for all other symbols bar the scatter (full moon).
Wicked Tales: Dark Red Features
Wandering Reels and Big Symbols
Triple Edge and Microgaming have added an interesting feature to this game with Wandering Reels. There is a block of 3 reels by 4 rows which moves horizontally across the reel set, stopping either at the left, in the middle or on the right, to create a set-up of 4, 4, 4, 3, 3 or 3, 4, 4, 4, 3, or 3, 3, 4, 4, 4.
The wandering reels also contain massive symbol blocks that occupy 3 reels by 4 rows, making it easier to land a full screen of a symbol, including the highest paying ones, to create 1,000x win.
Wolf’s Wheel Bonus
You need to land three Full Moon scatter symbols to trigger this bonus round in which you must spin the wheel. This will reveal either a win of a multiplier (up to 20x) which brings up a cash prize, or access to one of the features – Forest of Fortunes Pick Me round, or Free Spins.
In the Forest of Fortunes you must pick to win cash prizes. There are 10 in all, and after each pick your prize multiplier increases by 1x. However, if you reveal a ‘Stopper’ then the round ends. There are also immunities that can be collected to prevent the Stoppers from working.
Free Spins are triggered when the wheel lands on a premium symbol. Now you get 9 free spins. But more importantly, the symbol the wheel landed on replaces ALL instances of ANY premium symbol during the free spins round. So, if the Riding Hood character triggers the free spins, then she replaces all premiums, giving you more chance of landing a full screen at top payout and hitting a 1,000x win.
THE SLOT BUZZ VERDICT
Wicked Tales: Dark Edge is a great looking slot game with some interesting features. The wandering reels and big blocks are more fun to watch than your standard set up, but it’s the bonus rounds and in particular the free spins that are where the action hots up. There is good win potential in the free spins round as your odds improve as you get more identical high value symbols on the reels.
Just bear in mind that this is a medium-high variance number so it’s not that easy to trigger the bonuses in the first place!
