Transformers: Ultimate Payback

Transformers: Ultimate Payback is a themed slot machine from the ever-inventive WagerWorks, based on the hit 70s toys that spawned comics, TV series and ultimately big-budget, CGI-fest Hollywood action flicks. From the graphics and sound-design its evident that this slots inspiration is squarely focused on the 80s era of Transformers when the animated TV-series began, so its likely to get men-of-a-certain-age all misty-eyed and reminiscing of a time when the World Wide Web was the stuff of fantasy, and you could buy cans of Quattro in the corner shop.

Play the Transformers: Ultimate Payback slot for free

To business; the cold-techno heart of Transformers: Ultimate Payback is a classic five-reel, twenty-five payline video slot game with Wild and Bonus symbols joining ten regular symbols to add extra depth to the gameplay. Naturally lots of the symbols take their design cues from the Transformers themselves, so if the names Jazz, Bumblebee, Starscream and Soundwave mean anything to you, you'll love the cast of characters spinning before your eyes here. What of Optimus Prime and arch-rival Megatron? These bad boys put in an appearance as the Bonus symbols, while their home planet of Cybertron (keep up!) orbits these reels as a Variable Wild. We'll come to the Bonus game in a moment, but the Variable Wild is a nice feature we've not seen before on WagerWorks slot machines. When the Cybertron Wild is part of a winning combination it folds out to reveal three planets for the player to choose from. Clicking one of the selections reveals a multiplier between 2x and 10x, which is applied to that payout. Y'see - 'more than meets the eye' with this Transformer slot, eh?

Transformers: Ultimate Payback also surprises with a second innovative Wild symbol, sporting either the Autobot or Decepticon icons. These 'Transforming Expanding' Wilds will convert the entire column of symbols visible on their reel into Wilds to payout the highest possible combination on an active payline. Groovy and – well - pretty transformative of your fortunes.

The big Ultimate Payback bonus round kicks off when Optimus Prime and Megatron show up together anywhere on the first and last reels. Before battle commences, players of this slot game get to pick the Transformer they think will kick arse in this bonus round, and will earn twice their initial stake for every hit that Transformer lands on their opponent. These 'hits' happen when the extra "fight' symbol shows up on the fifth reel, triggering an onscreen animated clash between the two combatants with a 50/50 chance your champion will prevail. Each Transformer can sustain three hits before they're defeated, ending the Bonus round, so effectively you're in a free spin zone racking up any awards on active paylines until Optimus Prime or Megatron have taken a proper pasting. The number of power units your Transformer has left at the end of this round (between zero and three) will also determine an extra bonus awarded. Ultimate payback indeed!

Transformers packs quite a punch of entertainment and we reckon its billing as a slot where 'there's more than meets the eye' is a pretty fair claim. If we have one criticism it's that the Transformer's theme song which this slot machine liberally blasts over the action here sounded better in our memory than in the cold reality of the 21st Century. To be honest it sounds bloody irritating now, so we were relieved to find an option to kill it before it drove us completely mad! This niggle aside, we think Transformers: Ultimate Payback is well worth a spin as it has a number of novel features that makes it a distinctive slot to play, and deliver interesting ways to build initial wins to much bigger payouts.