Video Review: Magical Reels by Microgaming

Magical Reels is a five-reel, 20-payline online slot that features a star meter, knockout symbols, multipliers, bonus spins and the potential to pay out up to 10,000x the players’ bet.

Much like previous games in the Award Board series, players can collect a five-star knockout, but the difference in this version is that it’s fantasy themed and the math model is bumped up several notches.

The combination of fruit, orbs, top hats and magic potions is charming, and it feels like entering into the home of a hobbit or something. The game play is really simple though, as it’s all about collecting stars to trigger bonus spins. This happens on a very regular basis, once every 49 spins on average, so it’s more about getting an optimized Award Board than actually triggering the feature.

The four premium potion symbols pay between two to five times your stake for five-of-a-kind wins, and there is no wild to help you out in this game. What you get however, is a Star Meter Award Board on the left-hand side, one for each pay symbol. This Award Board plays a very central part, and you fill the respective star meters by landing the book scatter.

Players can expect the bonus round to trigger from a full star meter quite often, but regular payouts are low due to the overall low symbol values. What players truly want is to rack up solid symbol multipliers before the feature triggers, and they come with no upper limit. The 11,750 potential is more than twice what’s on offer in previous installments, and the 96% Return To Player is just a bit higher, too.