Da Vinci Slots
Although Leonardo Da Vinci was known as one of the greatest inventors of his times, those clever guys and girls at casino games developer KA Gaming have put their minds to a new slot machine based around him and come up with some ingenious ideas of their own. With so many slot games available, it’s rare that we can talk about a totally unique bonus round, however the Invention Feature of the Da Vinci video slot is something we have never seen before. In essence, you win a prize by landing symbols of the items needed to create one of Da Vinci’s creations, such as a flying machine, or catapult. Genius!
The base game is pretty smart as well, with five reels, symbols in four rows and the rewarding 1,024 Ways to Win format that pays out whenever you land matching symbols in any places across adjacent reels. Even the design is well thought out, where the symbols are each set against a scroll of paper with engineering drawings and calculations on them. A wood-effect backdrop is dotted with cogs and gears, while the soundtrack seems to come right from the Renaissance period and fits in perfectly well.
KA Gaming is quickly building a good reputation for innovative online casino slot machines. Their rapidly-expanding range consists of game that cover a wide spectrum of topics. You’ll find slots themed around the circus, ancient Greece, zombies and leprechauns in their collection, all of which are guaranteed to be fair by the independent Gaming Labs International company. Is this game a work of art worthy of the great man himself, or have KA Gaming been painting by numbers?
A Modern Marvel
The paytable details what you win for each potential combination. Regular prizes are paid as multiples of the coin value, and with 50 in play, you collect five, 15, or 50 coins when the lowest-value symbol appears. Lumps of wood, shovels, axes, a carpenter’s plane, plumb line and skewer are some of the other symbols representing the tools of Leonardo’s trade. The saw is worth 40, 400, or 500 coins when it stops on three, four, or all five reels, while the top awards are paid by the book. This valuable item returns prizes of 50, 500, or 2,000 coins.
We haven’t seen Leonardo yet, but he hasn’t been forgotten, as he’s the games wild symbol. Although he only turns up on the middle reel, this image of the man can fill the whole of the reel, which makes it easier for him to complete combinations when acting as any other, apart from the scatter symbol.
The symbol of an inkpot and feather pen is the trigger for a free spins round when it’s seen in any three, four, or five places at once. The bonus games only start once you have claimed a generous award of 100x, 150x, or 250x the total stake, depending on how many appeared. The number of free spins also depends on how many scatter symbols triggered the round, with three, four, or five giving you 12, 18, or 25 games.
The Master at Work
Here’s where the Da Vinci video slot gets really clever. If the wild symbol appears during a free spin that doesn’t result in a win being paid out, you can enter the Invention Feature. You win multiples of the total bet when certain combinations of symbols appear, for example, the two guys at a drawing board, plus the skewer, block of wood and plumb line are the components needed tomake a catapult, which is worth two times your bet.
Other inventions to create using combinations of symbols include a crossbow, wooden bridge and bicycle (not sure if Leo can take credit for that, but never mind). There’s also a type of submarine (which he really did design), waterwheel, a church and a flying machine. These last items pay you five times your bet amount when you land the right symbols to construct them with. While the rewards from the Invention Feature are not exactly huge, it’s still a fun round and a unique innovation from KA Gaming that should be applauded.
Da Vinci Dough
Coin values can be adjusted from 0.01, which will give you an overall minimum stake of 0.50, to 2.00, for a 100.00 wager per spin. By adding more coins per Way, this can be raised even further, to an impressive high limit of 2000.00 per spin.
An Autoplay function is opened by holding down the Spin button, although you can’t pre-set win or loss limits to end the spins, so you’ll have to keep an eye on the bankroll throughout them. KA Gaming have made their slots compatible with Android devices, iPhones, iPads and Windows smartphones, so you can play this game from pretty much anywhere.
There’s also the option to practice in free Da Vinci video slots mode, although outside of the Invention Feature, it comes with fairly standard gameplay, so few punters will actually need to test it out before making real wagers.
Picture These Slots
Surprisingly enough, there’s another game themed around Da Vinci. The Genius of Leonardo video slot from EGT pays respect to both the inventor and also features his artistic side, which KA Gaming seem to have missed. His most famous work is of course, the Mona Lisa and this enigmatic lady is a scatter symbol, launching between five and 50 free games. Vitruvian Man, which is the other famous work that has a naked guy in the middle of a circle, is a wild symbol. Other high-paying images include the various inventions, while lower-value wins come from playing card symbols.
The Van Gogh slot from High 5 Gaming gives players the chance to view some of the famous works of the most popular Post-Impressionist painter without having to visit a museum. Sunflowers and Starry Night are just a couple of the masterpieces on show in this mobile optimised five-reel, 20-line game. It also features a wild symbol that can replace any painting to complete extra lines of matching symbols for you, plus there’s a free spins bonus round. A cascading reels feature removes any symbols that are part of a win, leaving empty spaces for new ones to fall into, and if you’re lucky this will complete more wins without having to spin the reels again.
Re-inventing the Wheel
Da Vinci is a slot machine that’s as clever as the subject matter. Although there’s not much unique about the normal run of play, the design is certainly intelligent, and the Invention Bonus is excellent.
With so many different ways to land winning combinations across the reels, you should see a steady stream of payouts from his reliable game. If there’s anything we would have liked to have seen changed, it’s the fact that you can’t get the Autoplay function to stop on its own when you hit certain limits.
In addition, it would have been nice if Leonardo was an expanding wild symbol, filling the middle reel whenever he’s seen, but you might just get his feet or the top of his head in view after a spin. Aside from these minor grumbles, Da Vinci is an excellent slot machine from a developer who have crafted a few masterpieces of their own.
