Medusa’s Lair Slots
The Medusa’s Lair video slot from Gamomat (formerly Bally Wulff) stars an attractive single woman who has a couple of negative features. For starters, her hair is made up of snakes; secondly, one look at her, and potential dates are instantly turned to stone – both factors that are going to put most guys off. She’s a famous demon from Greek mythology who eventually had her head chopped off by Perseus, who needed it to kill the giant Kraken that was attacking his city. Perseus also makes an appearance in this game, along with the shield he used to trick Medusa into looking at her own reflection, a sword, winged sandals and a helmet.
It’s a five-reel game with just five paylines running from the left side; and despite the detailed design features, there’s little in the way of bonus rounds. An expanding wild symbol is all we get in the way of extras, although you can opt to gamble winnings in a couple of different ways, potentially turning small prizes into substantial payouts. The Gamomat/Bally Wulff casino games developer is based in Berlin and has been running in one form or another since the 1950s. It boasts a huge range of slots and online casino games, some of which come packed with features. Others, like this one, offer more basic gameplay.
Basic or not, this is an attractive game that has the dark and dangerous lair behind the reels, plus little design details such as decorative reel dividers giving it some visual flair. It’s a shame the soundtrack is a generic bit of synthesized music, but it’s inoffensive and has some mechanical effects to go with the spinning of the reels. Playable on Android smartphones and tablets, iPhones, iPads and Windows devices, Medusa’s Lair is a fair and reliable slot game which has a declared return-to-player percentage (RTP) of 95.95%.
Snakes Alive!
Prizes are won by landing three or more of the same symbol across any of the five paylines from the left reel. Medusa, however, is a wild symbol that can act as any other. So, if you have a break in the run of matching symbols and she’s in the right place to bridge it, you will still get paid for a win. To make it easier, she’s an expanding wild symbol and there’s a nice animation as the view changes from just Medusa’s head to a full-length view as she fills any reel she lands on.
Many winning combinations will be created by the playing card symbols 9 through to A. Prizes range in value from 10x, 30x, or 100x per line bet when either 9 or 10 symbols stop on 3, 4 or 5 reels respectively, to 20x, 60x and 200x when you land the K or A. The weapons are each valued at 25x, 100x and 550x, while the winged shoes and helmet are each worth a high limit of 1,500x. Perseus himself will pay out 50x, 250x, or a huge 2,500x the amount you have wagered on each payline.
Medusa Moolah
In common with most Gamomat slot machines, Medusa’s Lair gives you the chance to multiply wins over and over in a couple of gamble features. You will be offered the Card gamble, or Ladder feature after a winning spin, or you could simply collect the prize and carry on spinning the reels. The card game is a straightforward 50/50 guessing game on the color of a face-down playing card, with wins doubled if you get it right.
The ladder round is a little more interesting. There are 10 levels to the ladder, with rising prize values from the bottom up. Two values will be flashing alternately on and off. If you click the higher prize at the right time, you can either collect it or keep climbing the ladder with more correctly timed clicks. If you get it wrong, you will move down the ladder – and it only takes a couple of badly timed choices to lose the round.
Betting Options
All five paylines are permanently active and can be played for just 0.01 per line, or 0.05 per spin. Of course, winnings will rise in relation to the amount staked. At the maximum wager of 25.00, you can win 12,500.00 when Perseus stops across a line. Click the Auto Start button to get the reels spinning on their own for up to 100 times. This can be a real timesaver, as you won’t have to do anything between spins and can just sit back and watch the games play out. You will still need to stop them if you want to gamble a prize, though.
More Medusas
The excitingMedusa has been told for centuries in literature, poems, and even in the Clash of the Titans movies. Now it’s the turn of online casino slot machines to bring this mythological monster to you, with a number of games dedicated to the story. Medusa II from NextGen Gaming is a great example where, once again, she’s presented as a beautiful woman with an unconventional hairdo. You have the popular 243-ways-to-win format across the five reels of this game, allowing you to claim a prize whenever symbols stop in any places on adjacent reels from left to right. Medusa II also has stacked wild symbols triggered by an unfortunate stone soldier appearing on any reel. Locked reels which spin up matching symbols can appear at random in any base game, while during the free spins round, two or more reels will be locked in every spin.
If you’re feeling brave, why not gaze upon the reels of the Medusa’s Gaze video slot from Playtech? This unique slot game replaces conventional reels with concentric rings of colored blocks that spin around Medusa’s head. Landing three or more matching colors gives you a win, after which Medusa turns the winning tiles to stone, leaving spaces for new ones to cascade into. If a new combination is formed, the win is doubled in value and the process goes on until no new winning combinations of colors are seen.
Worth Gambling on This Gorgon?
Medusa’s Lair is an unusual mix of a game with lots of attention paid to the design, but with a very simple format and features. While that’s certainly not a bad thing, it’s just something you should be aware of before being seduced by Medusa’s beauty. Try out the free Medusa’s Lair video slots that Novomatic provide and see for yourself. Punters who like to land lots of winning combinations will be very happy with this slot game, but anyone who wants to enjoy free spins, mini-games and more will probably be left feeling stone cold.
