We Take on the Classic Theme of Fire, Ice and Wizardry as Merlin Battles the Ice Queen Morgana!
Great news Merlin is back, and this time he's armed with fireballs! The Rise of Merlin slot was one of Play'n GO's best and most popular "Book-style" slots. Read on to see if this release has done justice to the predecessor slot.
This time around, we join his battle in the Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana slot. Morgana was a previous apprentice to Merlin, has now gone rogue, the now titled Ice Queen has claimed a frozen land as her own, and Merlin must do battle in a classic tale of fire and ice.
You can expect to see this slot on general release on the 25th of November 2021, and from our initial playtests, Book style slot fans may want to add this to their diary as one to seek out on release day!
Typical "Book Style" payouts with a few new Wild Reel/Multipliers additions tick the volatility and potential boxes, and a max win of 20,000x stake is considerably more than a vanilla book slot, so plenty worth checking out.
Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana - Base Gameplay
The base gameplay in the Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana takes place on a standard 5x3 reel set. The payline structure is a regular ten paylines which is the standard for a Book slot. This isn't a fixed payline machine either. You have the option of playing with even fewer paylines if that's your style (1-10 active paylines).
The paytable reflects this with the top premium Explorer symbol (Merlin) paying a 250x stake win. This is slightly lower than a Vanilla book slot (500x), but for a good reason.
Ice Queen Morgana
On this machine, the Ice Queen Morgana features heavily in both the base game and bonus rounds. These additional symbols act as wilds, but landing a full stack of them on the reels provides a multiplier value that can be as high as 8x.
The Ice Queen will also act as an expanding symbol during the bonus round boosting wins with additional symbols and multipliers.
Apart from this, however, you have a reasonably vanilla book slot. The Merlin Staff acts as the Scatter/Wild symbol and is the crucial symbol required to trigger the free spins. In the bonus round, the addition of Expanding symbols comes into play, where this machine's most significant win potential is to be found.
Having said that, though, in our playtests, we did manage to score some massive base game hits thanks to the Morgana Wild, Scatter/Wilds and the top paying Merlin symbols landing on active paylines (see screenshots below).
18+. Play Safe. New UK customers only. Opt-in required. 1x per customer. Free spins on Lucky Mr Green only Max. 50 free spins at £0.10/spin with 35x wagering. Spins expire 72 hours from issue. Game, country, currency, player restrictions and terms apply. www.begambleaware.org
Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana - Gameplay & Features
Desktop Gameplay
| Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana Slot - Technical Summary | |
|---|---|
| Paylines | 10 |
| Variance/Volatility | High (7/10 Volatility) |
| Free Spins | Yes |
| Multipliers | Yes |
| Re-Trigger Bonus Round | Yes |
| Special Features | Free Spins Scatter/Wilds Expanding Symbols Re-Triggers Multiplier Wild Reels |
| Max Win | 20000x Stake |
| RTP (Return To Player) | 96.20% Default |
| Min Bet | 0.01 EUR |
| Max Bet | 100 EUR |
| Game Provider | Play'n GO |
| Release Date | 25/11/2021 |
Official Site - Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana Slot Resource page.
Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana Special Features
Book Symbol
The "Book Symbol" in Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana is the Merlin Staff symbol shown to the right. During the bonus round, the staff is set alight with fire, but its function remains the same, acting as both a scatter and a wild symbol.
Landing 3 of these symbols anywhere on the reel triggers the main free spins bonus round and random symbol selection screen or will re-trigger the bonus round during the free spins.
Re-triggers on this machine provide ten more extra free spins, with no additional expanding symbols being awarded.
Merlins Staff Scatter Wild Symbol
Explorer Symbol
The Merlin symbol is the highest paying symbol on this machine. This slot uses a 10 payline layout and a 5 of a kind win on a single payline awards a 250x stake win.
A full-screen expanding symbols win; however, you are looking at a win of 2500x stake before any multipliers that can be added by Morgana are even considered.
During the bonus round the selected symbol chosen to act as an expander is highlighted in flames, and also shown above the reels to indicate which symbol is the active expander.
Merlin High Paying Symbol
Morgana Multiplier
The Ice Queen Morgana symbol acts as a Wild symbol in addition to the wilds that are provided by the Book (Merlin Staff) symbol. These can appear on any reel and can also land fully stacked (Wild Reel) with an eruption of ice surrounding the reels when this feature occurs.
When these symbols land fully stacked and cover the reel, the Morgana Multiplier is awarded to any winning combinations. This random multiplier value can range from 2x, 3x, 5x, up to 8x. Expect most, however, to be 2x or 3x range based on our playtests. Any activated Multiplier is also applied to the Scatter wins.
The additional critical function of the Wild Multiplier Reels is that they also work in the bonus round and will payout as the expanding symbol would, so if you landed three expanding symbols and this full wild reel, the slot would payout as a four symbol scatter pay with the multiplier awarded on top!
If you check the screenshots section, we have highlighted one win when these features have been combined.
Ice Queen Morgana Expanded Wild Symbol
Free Spins
Triggering the main bonus feature is achieved by landing three or more Scatter symbols anywhere on the reels and awards an initial ten free spins.
During the bonus round, it is also possible to fully re-trigger the feature. This awards an extra ten free spins each time, with no additional symbols added as special expanders.
In essence, the bonus round plays out like a regular book slot, with a chosen symbol acting as the expander being highlighted in flames for the duration of the feature with the addition of the Morgana Wild feature able to assist in creating more matching symbols and a multiplier value to these wins.
Gamble Feature
A simple gamble feature can be used on regular wins, or even complete bonus round wins, with the option to pick the correct card suit for an x4 multiplier or a red or black gamble for a 2x to any wins.
The gamble feature can be done a total of 5 times in a row or a limit of 2,500 coins, whichever comes first.
Paytable
The paytable displayed below shows the premium win symbols payouts based on a €5 stake size.
Since this is a ten payline machine, the top symbol awards 250x for a 5 of a kind win (Merlin), this can be won on all ten paylines during the free spins, awarding 2500x.
The addition of the Morgana Multiplier, which can be as high as 8x, means this value can increase to a staggering 20,000x win.
Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana Slot - FAQ's
Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana Slot Review
Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana Final Opinions
The Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana slot is a thoroughly polished Book Style release from Play’n GO. Graphics, sounds, cutscenes, animations and overall theme are all solid. The classic Fire, ice and wizards have been done perfectly here!
Whilst we can’t say this new release is brimming with new and exciting features, the addition of the Ice Queen Morgana Expanded Wild Symbol has a beneficial impact in the base game, providing some serious payline hit potential.
This feature carries over nicely into the bonus round, helping boost the expanding symbols pays to much higher levels and providing extra excitement when things line up nicely.
Having reviewed the Rich Wilde and the Wandering City Slot, one might assume this will play quite similarly, with the potential of 8x multipliers, maybe it does, but the execution on this slot seems to work better, whether that is down to more regular pay lines, or the fact this expanding wild can appear on any of the reels and is a “visual tease” is hard to say. Still, in terms of our enjoyment of playtesting, we much preferred this release.
Long term wise, it remains to be seen how this will fare against other book slots. Some things have had to be altered to squeeze in a potential 8x Multiplier. Overall paytable values, bonus triggers or even bonus re-trigger chance may have been tweaked to add this quite regular feature.
One unusual value is the 7/10 volatility rating which almost makes this feel like a medium/high variance slot release, which seems practically counterintuitive given the max win potential. Max Wins will be very rare given this rating, but thankfully, we saw enough win potential to recommend this slot in our playtest.
Overall though, if you love Book slots, this one is well worth taking for a spin. Our playtest extended way beyond what was required because the slot was genuinely enjoyable to play.
User Review
( vote)18+. Play Safe. New UK customers only. Opt-in required. 1x per customer. Free spins on Lucky Mr Green only Max. 50 free spins at £0.10/spin with 35x wagering. Spins expire 72 hours from issue. Game, country, currency, player restrictions and terms apply. www.begambleaware.org
Play Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana Slot at these Casinos
Wagering 35x Deposit
UK Accepted
Terms Apply - 18+, New Customers Only, Gamble Responsibly - www.begambleaware.org
