Bet365 Games Review: Merlin’s Millions

Last time around we took a look at the Merlin’s Magic Respins slot by NextGen Games, so what better way to follow that up by running the rule over the other games in this series of games. It is called Merlin’s Millions and although it has many similarities to the other game, it is also different in many key respects. Merlin, of course, is the famous wizard of King Arthur’s court, the mysterious figure who appears to assist and advise the young King on his adventures around Camelot, though you are never quite sure whether his intentions are for the benefit of King Arthur or not.

That ambiguity in Merlin’s character is somewhat evident in this 5×4 slot which features a total of 50 paylines in play. The paylines are fixed, but you can alter the size of your wager from £0.02 up to a maximum of £0.40, which means that you can play from as little as £1 and up to £20 per spin. In terms of the standard bet, that puts this slot firmly in the realm of the medium to lower stakes players, but the addition of the Super Bet feature, which can radically increase size of your bet, for some additional bonus features.

You must decide if you want the Super Bet feature in play before you spin. If you do clicking it will double your bet for the 1x Superbet feature, or will increase it up to seven times if you want the full 10x Super Bet feature. However, the cost of this can be expensive. For example, if you are wagering £1 per spin, and you want the full Superbet feature in play, then your bet size increases from £1 up to £7 per spin. That is a massive increase and while SuperBet does offer some extra chances of a win, chiefly by increasing the size of the multiplier on a Wild-completed win from 1x up to 10x the standard amount, the question is are they worth that hefty premium you pay on every spin? If you fancy giving the slot a try to find out for yourself, you can play Merlin’s Millions at Bet365 Games right now.

Key Information

Rather like Merlin’s Magic Respins, the base game of the Merlin’s Millions slot plays perfectly adequately without the Superbet feature activated. However, the game isn’t as exciting and the bonus rewards not as extensive, but it is a considerably lower variance slot when played without Superbet in play. The reels consist of the usual playing card low symbols, from nine through to the ace, while the higher value symbols are a real mix of items including an eye in a purple bottle, Merlin’s staff and a spellbook. This latter symbol offers the highest base game win using high value symbols of 1,000 coins.

Alongside these symbol, Merlin acts as the in game Wild and can substitute for both lower and higher value symbols to trigger additional wins across multiple paylines as this symbol is stacked on the reels and can result in more than one payline win at a time. Land more of these stacked Wilds across the reels on a spin and your chances of triggering a bigger win increase markedly.

The other features to look out for are the Owl Bonus. Land the Owl on the first, third and fifth reels on a spin and you trigger this bonus which is a rather simple Pick Me game where the owl turns all the symbols on the reels into an owl symbol. You can then select symbols revealing cash prizes until you hit the button which says collect, at which point the bonus round ends and the cash you’ve collected is awarded to you.

The Blue Orb feature is the key to unlocking the Free Spins bons round. Land this symbol on the middle three reels and you receive a total of five free spins. During each of these free spins, Merlin, who is stood to the left of the reels, will zap one or more reels during the spin which will turn that entire reel wild. It is through this feature that most of the bigger wins available in the Merlin’s Millions slot can be achieved.

All cash wins can be gambled on the slot using the Gamble Feature, which allows you to wager on the result of drawing a random card from the deck. Guess the colour of the card drawn correctly to double your prize, guess incorrectly however and you lose the money you have just won.

How to win at the Merlin’s Millions slot

The first thing you need to consider with the Merlin’s Millions slot, and it is crucial to the amount you wish to wager, is whether or not to use the SuperBet feature. With it activated, any Wild wins can pay out from 2x to 10x the stated amount, but the down side is that all other wins in the base game pay the same amount as usual (and many of these are very small wins) and the additional cost of having the SuperBet feature active quickly adds up, especially if you are a lower stakes player.

Therefore, you have to judge how you want to play this slot very carefully before you start spinning the reels. Should you play the Superbet at all, or should you play at a lower level, or do you prefer the greater volatility and potentially bigger prizes on offer playing at the higher levels? What your preference here should be guided by the type of slot games you prefer to play and also the size of the bet you are happy to make each spin.

Once you have decided this then in the slot itself the key things to trigger to land the bigger wins are the bonus features. The base game rewards are generally very small and on the majority of occasions you won’t even cover your bet when you receive a win in the base game. As such triggering the two Bonus features, particularly the Orb bonus that offers five Free Spins and the chance to turn multiple reels Wild, is the best way to achieve the bigger wins available on the slot.