Grand Melee Slot Review 2024

Take a seat and watch as valiant Knights clash together for fun as part of an epic tournament in Thunderkick’s latest release, Grand Melee!

Grand Melee is a 6-reel slot with up to 1,193 ways to win. Here, only the bravest Knights will take part in the Sticky Respin feature, where you can trigger up to 3 exciting Modifiers that each unleash a torment of wins in an epic battle for victory.

One final battle will take place in the Free Spins round, where Sticky Respins are offered on every spin, packing an extra punch to gameplay. Players wield their own luck and revel in the battle arena of Grand Melee!

Grand Melee Base Game and Features

Grand Melee is a 6-reel slot with up to 1,193 ways to win. Winning combinations are formed when 3 or more of the same symbols land from left to right, starting from the leftmost reel.

The minimum bet available here is £.€0.10 per spin and the maximum bet available is £.€100 per spin, with plenty of other options in between the two. Grand Melee has a theoretical RTP of 96.17% and a max win cap of 5,000x.

In terms of symbols, the highest-paying regular symbol here is the Gold Knight, followed by the Red, Purple, Green, and Blue Knights. Low-paying symbols are standard Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and Ten.

Sticky Respin Feature

During any random base game spin, the Sticky Respin feature may trigger. Once active, a random High or Low-paying symbol from the paytable is chosen at random.

If 5 or more of the chosen symbol land across the reels, they will become sticky and lock into place. During the Respin feature, any matching symbols of the chosen symbol will also lock into position whilst the remaining reel positions Respin.

This continues until no further instances of the chosen symbol land in view. The Sticky Respin feature allows players to win on pay ways that consist of sticky symbols. The total win will be paid once the feature ends.

In addition to this, there are 3 Modifier symbols that can land during the Sticky Respin Feature, as follows.

• Symbol Upgrade – When in view, it will transform all instances of the sticky symbol into more valuable sticky symbols.
• Symbol Expansion – When in view, it will transform into the current sticky symbol and also expand Vertically to cover the entire reel with sticky symbols.
• Game Area Expansion Symbol – When in view, it will transform into the current sticky symbol, adding a new row at the bottom of the reel set that contains a random selection of symbols from the paytable, including Modifer and Scatter symbols.

Scatter symbols can also be chosen as the Sticky symbol during this feature, and collecting 5 or more will trigger the Free Spins round once the Sticky Respin Feature is complete.

Grand Melee Free Spins

Landing 5 or more Scatter symbols across the reels during either the base game or Sticky Respins feature automatically triggers the Free Spins round. The number of Free Spins awarded is equal to the number of triggering Scatters in view.

During Free Spins, more of the Sticky Respin feature is active, triggering on every Free Spin. The Free Spins round will retrigger when 5 or more Scatter symbols land in view on any one spin. Scatters are collected at the bottom of the reel set in a Bonus meter. This will reset between each new spin.

Grand Melee: Our Verdict

Grand Melee from Thunderkick entertains with its medieval carnival theme, but is it as grand as it claims to be?

It can be, but we confess ourselves disappointed with it when compared to some of the other Thunderkick greats. Grand Melee and its Sticky Respin feature certainly doesn’t feel like it’s enough to carry it into the hall of fame, and when testing it ourselves it was hard to find consistently good wins in the Base Game.

Perhaps that was just our experience on the day. We don’t doubt that Thunderkick knows what they’re doing, and we can certainly see the potential of Grand Melee. We’re not sure we’re a fan of the 5 scatters needed to trigger the bonus, we feel like the standard 3 would have been sufficient. When testing the bonus round ourselves we saw decent results, but it feels like it’s lacking that anticipation factor that makes some of their other slots an ‘on the edge of your set’ experience.

Overall, Grand Melee is a decent offering overall, but we don’t feel like it’s going to be remembered as one of their very best.