The chamber of a castle forms the backdrop to the action in Rise of Merlin. On the reels you’ll find lower value A to 10 symbols as well as an owl and a pair of dragons. The top paying symbol is the bearded figure of Merlin. Land 2, 3, 4 or 5 of the master magician on 1 of the game’s 10 paylines and you’ll receive an award of 1, 10, 100 or 500 times your stake. The crystal ball serves a dual role, acting as both the wild and the scatter. It too offers awards like Merlin as well as substituting for all of the standard symbols.
Land 3 or more of the crystal ball on the same spin and you’ll trigger the game’s Free Spins feature. You can then look forward to 8 free spins. Before the feature starts, 1 of the standard symbols is randomly selected. Whenever this chosen symbol lands during the feature, it expands to fill the whole of the reels. This symbol will also pay scatter style so you don’t have to land symbols next to each other to create a winning combination.
Landing 3 scatters triggers another round of 8 free spins. You’ll also get another special expanding symbol. You can do this various times with up to 9 special expanding symbols possible – there’s no limit to how many free spins you can win too.
Like many Play ’N Go slot games, Rise of Merlin delivers simple but hugely volatile gameplay. Expect lengthy spells when the dragons will seemingly set fire to your bankroll. Land the Free Spins feature though and get a re-trigger with high value expanding symbols then look out.
If you get the highest value Merlin symbol as the expanding symbol, it makes it much easier to win the maximum 5,000 times stake payout per spin. You won’t find a huge range of extras here so if you’re after plenty of variety. you might want to look elsewhere.
For straightforward, super high variance action, then you won’t go too far wrong with Rise of Merlin. Play ‘N Go’s Book of Dead is very similar (but just with 1 special expanding symbol) – Book of Ra Magic from Novomatic offers up to 9 special expanding symbols.