Play Monsters for Free

Serbian online gaming provider Fazi has a long history in the industry. Starting out by producing electronic roulette games in the early 1990s, Fazi has since branched out into the world of online and land-based slots. The company's betting games can now be found in casinos as far afield as Mexico and South Africa.

At first sight, Fazi's games are pretty basic. However, among the many 5-reel slots the developer has put out, it has managed to find some space for some reasonable graphics and gameplay. In some respects, Fazi's most recent games feel a little like some of Play’n GO's older titles.

While Monsters is a recent addition to the Fazi stable, it has some pretty old-school graphics and animation. The backdrop is a castle, presumably owned by a mad Frankenstein-style scientist. On either side of the five reels, scientific lab equipment churns out electricity bolts.

Players have the option of picking 1-20 paylines when they play. Coins can be altered from 0.01 to 2.00, making for a max bet of 40.00 per spin. Monsters also has an autoplay function that can be set prior to spinning. Players can program up to 1,000 spins in a row; plus, there are several stop loss/stop win settings to pick from.

The symbols in Monsters recall classic characters from the golden years of Hollywood horror films. There's even the Creature from the Black Lagoon to aim for on the reels.

Starting off the low limit icons are the poker symbols. These are made up of bits of flesh stitched together – probably something the castle's mad scientist used to cobble together those monstrous creatures. The lowest payouts are poor for the J, Q, K, and A icons. Three of a kind will pay 5x the line bet, but the five-of-a-kind jackpot is 100x.

Faring slightly better are the monsters themselves. The castle and Wolfman symbols both pay 10-150x, while the Creature from the Black Lagoon pays 15-200x – as does the mummy. The demon bride, who looks like a character from The Munsters, dishes out 20-500x.

The jackpot symbol in this slot is Frankenstein's monster. He will substitute for all normal icons in the game other than the bonus scatter symbol. He's worth hitting on a payline too, with three wilds paying 50x as part of a win line, four wilds rewarding 200x your line bet, and five wilds getting you the 1000x jackpot.

The free Monsters slot machine features a gamble option after any winning spin. It's a pretty standard red/black card-guessing game. Simply guess the color of the next card to be drawn out – if you're right, you double your money.

Look out for the mallet and stake. While those are great tools for dispatching vampires quickly, they can also help you win lots of cash. Just land one of these bonus icons on the third reel to trigger free spins. You'll only win three free spins, but each of these comes with locked wild symbols.

If the free spins feature isn't juicy enough for you, you might like the sound of a mystery progressive. On the screen, you'll notice several tiered jackpots. These can trigger at any time after a base game spin.

A small portion of each bet goes towards the jackpots. But as always, the more you bet to start with, the better the chance you have of triggering a nice prize. The Diamond Jackpot is the one to watch out for – when we wrote the review, it was well into the high four figures. Lower-stakes slots nuts can hit the smaller Platinum Jackpot. This seems to trigger more frequently, but it rarely goes above 200.00.

If you like 5-reel slots with a free spins feature, you'll find plenty online. But with just three spins up for grabs in Monsters, players may want to go on the prowl for better alternatives.

Also from Fazi, Pirates is another themed slot that skimps on the words when it comes to names. But despite the underwhelming slot title, the game has lots of features. Players can trigger a free spins round by landing two to three scatters on the correct reels. The more scatters you land, the more free games you win.

In addition, gamblers can help themselves to a Diamond or Platinum Jackpot. As in Monsters, these trigger at random, but players have a better chance of activating the jackpot the more they spend. A minimum line bet of 0.20 is required in order to qualify for the progressives.

Forming part of the Platinum Jackpot range of slots, Fazi's Monsters has a few ghostly treats up its sleeves. It can be a volatile slot, however, especially with the random jackpot that threatens to creep up and hit at any time. A bigger free spins feature would have been a good addition, especially for players who love their bonuses. When it comes to the graphics, a few animated lightning bolts are as good as it gets.

Try the Monsters video slot for free and see what you think. For our buck, we will stick with Fazi's other recent 5-reel game: Pirates.