The Wild Machine Slot Review
Released in March 2020, this game can be played at online casinos such as CasinoCruise, LeoVegas or Casumo.
Theme and general information
Lately, Pragmatic Play has definitely upped their game when it comes to the design and playability of their slots. Often, they tend towards more generic slots, but it’s been a few weeks since we had to contend ourselves with one of those. The last few of their releases were well-crafted and entertaining.
The Wild Machine is among those slots, which means it looks great and it is fun. Set in the dark lab of the quintessential mad scientist, lots of experiments seem to be conducted in the background. The mad scientist in question hovers on a board to the right-hand side. He has a golden mechanical arm and an artificial eye. His smile is not reassuring.
Still, the symbols on the reels are colourful and friendly, whilst the background music is whimsical and almost annoyingly upbeat.
We find low value card suit symbols on the reels, all paying 2.5x our stake for 5 of a kind. There’s also a key, a compass and a bag as mid value symbols, paying between 3.75x and 5x our stake for such a win, respectively. The high value symbols are flask, a leather-bound book and the scientist himself. For regular 5-of-a-kind wins they pay 6.25x, 12.5x and 25x our stake, respectively.
There’s also a wild on the reels and a scatter.
You can play this game from 0.20 to 100.00 per spin.
Random extra wilds
The first thing to note is the random extra wilds that can be triggered by the mad scientist. When he pulls the lever, the reels actually expand to a new format of 1x3x5x7x5x3x1. Whilst that still gives us only 40 paylines, we now have the option of 7-of-a-kind wins. All of a sudden, we can get 175x our stake for the scientist (or for 7 wilds) and 50x our stake for the book, for instance.
More importantly, during this feature reels 1, 4 and 7 are completely wild anyway, increasing our chances for a big win.
We only get one spin during this feature, but it can be worthwhile and keep our funds up.
The bonus wheel and free spins
Three scatters will trigger the bonus wheel. Scatters only land on reels 2, 3 and 4. The bonus wheel has 30 segments. Five in a row contain coin prizes and in between are free spin segments. Thus, we get 5 segments that can trigger free spins and 25 that contain coin prizes.
When the wheel lands on a coin prize, it is possible that it keeps going. We can collect up to 5 coin prizes at a time, which pays out the maximum of just of 33x our stake in that instance.
Or we land on the free spin segment, which then lets us choose between two free spin features (note: it’s not possible to collect coin prizes and the free spins):
- Gold Foundry Free Spins: we get 8 free spins on the 5×5 reels, where between 2 and 5 reels will turn completely wild.
- Diamond Forge Free Spins: we get 5 free spins on the 1x3x5x7x5x3x1 reel set, where reels 1, 4 and 7 are always wild. Plus, any additional wilds that land during the feature will become fixed in position for the remainder of the spins.
Whilst the bonus wheel is triggered quite regularly, it can take easily 300 or more spins before you trigger the free spins.
Verdict: A super fun and worthwhile slot for all mad scientists
The theoretical RTP (Return to Player) of The Wild Machine is 96.52%, which is excellent. This slot does come with the maximum volatility Pragmatic Play is capable of, though, so mind your budget.
The Wild Machine sets a nice pace (as usual, you can choose Turbo or Quick Spin modes as well) and whilst the slot is volatile, the number of dead spins is not as bad as in other slots.
In fact, the random wilds and the frequent bonus wheel appearances keep things lively enough that you don’t get bored or feel as if nothing is happening. Wins may not always be big with these features, but they can keep you going. And the free spins have a massive potential. We found the Diamond Forge to be the more worthwhile option here and made some decent wins here. The overall potential of this game is 7,000x our stake and we think it’s easier achieved opting for the Diamond Forge free spins.
Either way, The Wild Machine look great, provides lots of entertainment and a great potential for all mad scientists and others who like to experiment.