Halloween

Unless you’re like us, and we aren’t a big fan of horror movies, you’ve probably seen the 1978 start to a beloved franchise of scary slasher films called Halloween. However, both fans of the original movie and slotgoers looking to expand their horizons both have a new way to dip their toes into this universe – with Microgaming’s newest game by the same name. From the start, it opens strong – the music puts you on edge immediately, and as you spin the reels, there’s a sense of tension and drama – especially when a certain someone slides into view for a few seconds. We won’t spoil the fun of where you can find him – all we’re saying is, keep your eyes peeled.

And honestly, while just looking at the slot won’t rock your world, it does a fantastic job at making its theme come to life. This is sometimes a fault we find with a fair bit of titles, that they feel static. Not so with this game, however. It brings the creepy mood from the get-go, while throwing fans fun throwbacks in sound bites taken from the movie. And apart from being able to see the main characters from the film, you can also get a glimpse of Michael Myers lurking around, in either one of the bonuses – or in another place, waiting for you to let your guard down. We were also pretty pleased with how Halloween played.

Microgaming has a bad habit of reusing ideas and existing, working formulas while applying another skin to them. Not so in this slot, however. The wandering reels move around the playing field, and expand three rows in which they reside, and also make Mega symbol wins possible. Beyond this, the game is balanced for middle to high volatility in wins. You’ll be able to win some small stuff here and there, but it will take a while before you’re able to pull off some big wins in this title.

From our experience, some decent wins to the tune of 50x to 70x in the base game aren’t impossible. It all comes down to luck, and if you’re really looking for the biggest wins, you can find them in the special features more often than not. That said, there’s really no guarantee that you’ll be able to trigger the aforementioned bonuses. They seem to be rather rare, but they do pay out quite nicely as a result. We’ve had periods of time where it took well over two hundred spins to get close to one of the bonuses, so that should tell you how tough it’ll be.

If you watched the original flick from 1978, then you should be immediately familiar with all the symbols you can find on the reels. Balls of yarn, a used up movie ticket, a telephone, a clown’s mask, a big knife, a gun, and the four main protagonists of the movie, who have the unique ability to turn themselves into Jumbo Blocks on the wandering reels. To activate one of the two special features, you need to score three or more Scatters, shaped as Halloween pumpkins.

Once you do that, you get a large wheel that you can spin for cash prizes with a 10x multiplier. This wheel keeps spinning until you win either a free spins feature, or the Boogeyman feature. There’s a free spins bonus that rewards 9 extra turns, and the character that activated the free spins is more prevalent on the reels, increasing chances of a win. And finally, there’s the Boogeyman bonus. In this one, you pick through a grid of leaves, in which you can uncover a cash prize that also bumps up your multiplier, a knife that allows you to survive an encounter with the Boogeyman, or a Boogeyman symbol itself, which, unless you had a knife unlocked, will mean the end of that bonus.