Circus Wonders Slots
Nothing can beat a good show of talented artists to make you forget about work and all the daily stress for a few hours, and what better place to go than the circus?
Circus Wonders is a video slot game designed by Red Rake Gaming, a team of developers that surely believes that acrobats, wild animals and clowns can be both entertaining and, in a slot machine contest, worth a lot of money.
Now, slot games with a circus theme are not unheard of on the market, though they might not be the most popular. Microgaming went down that road with Flying Circus, and Bally adapted the “Kooza” show from the world-famous Cirque du Soleil as a visually unique slot game. Circus Wonders blends old-school slot machine features with modern characters and some addictive bonuses.
The game features a classic 5x3 layout with 30 fixed paylines and a theoretical RTP of 95.79%, placing it in the upper average category on the market. The basic paytable offers decent prizes, with a gentle upward slot and some special wilds to spice things up a little.
You can learn all you need to know about the basic features of Circus Wonders, and more, if you take a moment to read our complete review of the game before you hit the casino.
The Show Must Go On
Circus Wonders sticks to a classic casino look, with several slot machines lining up on both sides of the screen. Like many other Red Rake Gaming creations, the goal is to make you feel like you are sitting in front of one of the machines of a prominent casino somewhere on the Vegas strip.
The flashing lights and sound effects certainly help in that regard, as do the old-fashioned look of the machine that you are facing. The big, flashy buttons at the bottom will help you choose a wager and spin the reels, or activate the autospin game mode to speed things up a little while saving your current bet settings. Only the characters on the reels and the tiny top layer of the machine with its striped tents and clowns are truly reminiscent of the circus itself. So do not let the name fool you, Circus Wonders is much closer to a classic casino slot machine than it is to Atlantis, for instance, and its ultra-immersive experience. Note that both games come from the same developers.
The most common symbols on the reels of Circus Wonders are a selection of traditional circus performers. Strongmen, acrobats, juggling otters, dancing horses, lion tamers and magicians, they are all here and ready to perform – for a maximum prize worth 150 times your current line bet.
The 30 paylines of the game are fixed, and you can bet from 2 to 6500 credits per line, making the maximum possible bet equal to 195,000 credits.
Let the Reels Spin Loose
Circus Wonders can reward players with a decent variety of special reel symbols, starting with normal and expanding wilds. Both of them can replace the other symbols to help you score extra wins, but expanding wilds only show up on the 3 central reels and, well, expand. Normal wilds can appear anywhere and also for combinations of their own worth up to x250.
The elephant is a bonus symbol, only available on the central reels as well. 3 of them in any configuration grant you access to the free spin feature, which can be extended by landing new bonus symbols underway. During the free games, wilds are fixed and will stay in place for as long as the free spins continue.
When Casino and Circus Meet
Circus Wonders is a great challenge for players who are not afraid to risk a lot on the reels. The basic combinations might not seem as generous as in many other slot games, but Circus Wonders does give players a lot of freedom in terms of bet size. Feel free to adjust your settings and your strategy as you see fit.
Despite its somewhat basic design, Circus Wonders still features very decent bonus features and a free spin bonus that you can extend almost indefinitely, if luck stays on your side. Nemo's Voyage from WMS is based on a very similar bonus system, with a slightly higher RTP and equivalent variance, just in case you would rather swap the circus show for an exciting voyage under the surface of the ocean.
