Magic Jester Slots
Can the jester’s foolery and shenanigans entertain the gambler in you? The Middle Ages and your classic fruit machines come together to create this medieval themed free to play and real money online slot by Novomatic collectively with Mazooma. The middle ages, wherein this game is set, were commonly referred to as the Dark Ages as it was a period of no scientific accomplishments, no great art produced and no leaders born. However, there is nothing dark about this slot as its enchanting magic reel feature presents the potential to double and even triple your prizes. The theme utilised in this slot is the very familiar medieval jester concept. It’s probably down to this collaboration with Mazooma that this Novomatic slot is a step above the rest visually, especially when compared to the gaming group’s video slot history. If you’re a fan of this theme, Jester’s Follies by Merkur Gaming and IGT’s Medieval Money are some other video slots which might tickle your fancy. It is readily available to play across desktop, mobile and tablet devices.
Themes & Icons
The game is good quality with decent graphics and magical sounds. Everything from the reels to the symbols are quintessentially medieval centring the jester, who is the game’s Wild. The background is magical-looking and the reels are coloured in royal purple. The icons range from lower value playing card symbols to classical fruit machine symbols. The playing card symbols are your standard King, Queen, Jacks, Aces, and tens, topped with those eccentric little hats typically worn by court jokers. Everyone’s favourite sevens, bells (although old and broken in line with the theme), cherries and watermelons are present on the reels. In comparison with other video slots, the game doesn’t have numerous symbols, supposedly making it easier to hit a winning combination. In fact, there are no special icons like Scatters or multipliers in this game, just the Wild which substitutes all symbols.
Gameplay & Features
Magic Jester is a 5x3 10 pay-line high variance slot with no free spins but has a magic reel feature and a different kind of inbuilt function, not usual of Novomatic and many other video slots today. Compared to most popular online slots, 10 pay-lines don’t warrant much gaming action seeing as the tendency is to have around 20 to 25 possible combinations across the reels. You are free to adjust how many pay-lines to play on, but with so few at hand I don’t recommend it. The minimum bet is 0.2 credits which is not very low and might not be the best for those of you on a smaller bankroll. The maximum bet is 1000 credits which is perfectly suitable for high rollers and veterans alike. RTP is at a high of 95.07%, although mostly owed to the spellbinding magic reel feature. This unique function comes into play during each spin, meaning you don’t have to wait for the magic to happen if you’re one of those impatient players. One or more reels will become a magic reel, in turn creating split symbols, doubling or tripling your high value icons; the Wild and ‘fruity’ symbols. Essentially, all reels could become magic, hence giving you the opportunity to win up to fifteen times your bet. If you’re fortunate enough to trigger this marvellous feature I am sure that the jester’s job will be fulfilled! These split symbols are usually very popular with WMS and IGT games should you wish to give them a go on different slots.
One of the game’s most exclusive and very responsible gambling feature is the ‘reality check interval’ which pops up right at the start of the game. The player has to decide how long to play the game for, so it will interrupt you and declare your stats when your time is up. The timer is displayed by the reels. You can even set your loss limit when playing on auto spin mode. This is a great feature which benefits players and prevents them from getting too carried away when spinning those reels when Lady Luck isn’t by your side.
Finally, Magic Jester allows you to view your account history which is not very popular in contemporary online slots, but it’s slowly making its way as an inbuilt function. The game also provides players with a gamble feature when hitting a winning combination like three or four of a kind, wherein the player must attempt to figure out the colour, either red or black, of the upcoming playing card.
Summary
This is one of Novomatic’s better games in terms of design, however, the medieval theme is far from original. I very much liked the added twist with those typical fruit machine icons. What’s disappointing about the game is that it doesn’t have any other exciting features to look forward to and keep you spinning. The magic reel feature is great and can be highly rewarding as you can win up to fifteen times your bet, but with no bonus spins it’s very easy to burn out quickly. It’s this feature which is the highlight of the game, and frankly, without it, the base game might not be enough to entertain a whole court of noble players.
