Mid-December, most of us will be sipping on mulled wine and hoarding food like the winter apocalypse is coming.
But some of us will be traveling to a bright colourful candy filled land, where one old man decides whether you deserve to walk away with a little something extra.
No, we’re not talking about Santa Claus. We’re talking about the less well known, but no less powerful, Wizard of Gems slot from the game studios of Play’n GO.
And he’s got some stiffer competition than the jolly fat man.
How interesting is this new Play’n GO slot?
Play’n GO have given us some unexpected, and brilliant, new mobile slots this 2015.
- Royal Masquerade
- Spin Party
- Tower Quest
- Eye of the Kraken
In fact, some of our very favourite video slots of the year are theirs, including the easy playing Eye of the Kraken, and the electrifying Royal Masquerade.
Which means we are optimistic about the Wizard of Gems slot machine; from the information we’ve gotten it feels like a well balanced game.
First though, we need to rain on Play’n GO’s parade for just a second.
Who might be able to distract us from this Wizard?
Despite the fact that everyone seems to be slowing down in December, not the casino software providers.
There are rumours NextGen will be bringing out something big at the end of the month, and both Yggdrasil and Quickspin have plans for the 15th. WMS have been suspiciously quiet, which means that a new game will pop out soon.
Only NetEnt, it seems, have taken December off, mostly to work on their major Guns & Roses slot release in January.
But all this is background noise to Play’n GO, who know that their major December nemesis is none other the behemoth of slot creators: International Gaming Technologies (IGT).
The Wizard of Gems slot VS Family Guy
IGT released their Family Guy slot machine to Las Vegas casinos last year. To say it was well received would be an understatement; it’s been a roaring success in land based casinos.
Leo Vegas hosts both IGT and Play’n GO slots, and give you a generous £1,500 / €$1,000 bonus over 4 deposits.
Guess what is due out on December 10th? That’s right. The Family Guy online slot, which will also be available to play on mobile.
Can Play’n GO hope to compete against a company that has been making slots for decades?
This is the David and Goliath of slot battles.
Don’t underestimate The Wizard of Gems slot
The thing about David and Goliath is that David won.
And don’t we all love an underdog story? Play’n GO may not have been making casino slots for decades, but this year alone they have released more 5 star slots than IGT.
The reason for that is simple; IGT might be good at making vegas slots, but Play’n GO have nailed the mobile slots market.
What we know about this new game
What is particularly intriguing, as we were reading the stats and information about this Wizard of Gems slot game, is that they have merged a familiar theme with well-known mechanics.
- 5 reels and 20 paylines
- Cascading reels with increasing multiplier up to 5x
- 2 scatters trigger 10 free spins
- You are guaranteed anything from 1 to 9 wilds in each free spin
- Win a maximum of 50 free spins
- Win up to 12,500 times your bet
We always love cascading reels
There’s something about the thrill of watching winning symbols explode, and getting mini free ‘spins’ afterwards, that make each spin feel infinitely more valuable.
- Energoonz: A grid slot with exploding aliens
- Pimped: Sure Wins guarantee you free spins cash
- Gemix: Progress through worlds and features
Add the joy of watching that multiplier increase as you hope for bigger and bigger wins, and it’s an effective way to get us excited.
However, it has been done before, with great games like Big Bad Wolf and the iconic Gonzo’s Quest.
The unique Play’n GO Quality
This is not a studio who are happy to make copies. So whilst they bring us a much loved slot feature, one intriguing aspect of this Wizard of Gems slot machine is the free spins.
Namely because whilst it looks like the multipliers won’t increase beyond 5x, you are guaranteed to get anything from 1 to 9 wild symbols across the reels on each spin in this bonus feature.
It sounds like it almost guarantees you a win on each spin.
That doesn’t sound that impressive?
The reason why slots like Gonzo or Pyramid: Quest for Immortality do so well if because they promise you the hope of big multiplier – up to 10x your wins.
But they are damn hard to get. Mostly you are spinning for the joy of spinning, and are gratified when you get a decent 2x or 3x multiplier.
Wizard of Gems is taking a gamble that you’re going to want to be able to reach that 5x multiplier more often, rather than increase the usually almost impossible to reach top multiplier.
We will tell you whether it pays off or not when we write the slot review on December 10th.
Isn’t Christmas the time for Miracles?
We are honestly not sure Wizard of Gems will be able to compete against Family Guy.
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But, on the other hand, we’ve seen bigger game studios fall for less reasons, and a cartoon TV show that had it’s heydays back in 2001 might put enough people off to want to try something different.
Wizard of Gems isn’t particularly different, but it does have some sound mechanics we know and love, and a theme we already know we like.
From Gemix to Christmas, with love
This wide eyed friendly magician was actually a character in the incredibly unique Gemix mobile slot.
In fact, the candy symbols, the book of spells, the star… all ‘borrowed from Gemix.
And whilst some may say this is a little lazy on Play’n GO side, you don’t know what we know. Which is that Gemix was a runner up to win the Slot Game of the Year at the EGR awards.
Only a small list of games made it to the top, so you can imagine that this studio would be more than keen to recreate the success, if only by producing a game that is of the same family.
A family member you should certainly meet by playing at Guts Casino who give you £€$300 in bonus to play on the whole Play’n GO range, including the uniquely charming Gemix game.
