Magical Reels Slot Review 2022

Microgaming partner, Northern Lights Gaming are cooking up something pretty magical in their latest release, Magical Reels!

Wether you’re needing an extra eye of newt for your potion or you’re in the market for a refreshing new slot, Northern Lights Gaming has got you covered. Northern Lights Gaming definitely have their foot firmly in the door since partnering with Microgaming, with titles like Aurora and God of Fire Ultraways leaving a long lasting impression on players, but will Magical Reels be the slot that everyone’s talking about?

Magical Reels has a somewhat common theme which we’ve seen in plenty of other titles, but the most recent one that sticks out to us is Pragmatic Play’s Magician’s Secrets. We’ve seen an increase in slots with this kind of theme recently, inlcuding Hex, a new release coming soon from Relax gaming. Northern Lights has outdone themselves with the design of Magical Reels, the graphics are good and the background really catches your eye.

Will Magical Reels magic us up some big wins? Let’s play on and find out!

Magical Reels Betting and Symbols

Magical Reels has a small selection of betting options for players to choose from. For those who prefer a lower stake, the minimum bet available is £/€0.20 per spin. For those who prefer a higher stake, the maximum bet available is £/€20 per spin, with a few other options in between the two. The maximum bet seen here may not seem like enough compared to other slots, but we feel that this will be sufficient for most players.

The highest paying regular symbol in Magical Reels is the Orange Bottle, followed by the Red, Purple and Blue Bottles. Lower paying symbols fall to the Leaf, Mushroom, Shell and Blueberries.

There are no Wild symbols available in Magical Reels.

Magical Reels Base Game and Features

Magical Reels is a 5 reel slot with 20 fixed paylines. In order to form a winning combination, you will need to connect 3 or more of the same symbols from left to right, starting from the left-most reel.

The base game in Magical Reels doesn’t have much in terms of features, but the Award Boards and Book symbols play an important part in the base game when triggering the Free Spins round.

Award Boards

Situated on the left side of the reel set is an Awards Board, which has a Star Meter for each of the high and low-paying symbols, excluding the Book symbol. The Star Meter starts off completely empty, but once the first paid spin is complete, you will be awarded Bonus Stars and Bonus Multipliers to certain symbol meters.

Each time a Book symbol lands, it will award either Bonus Stars or Bonus Multipliers to 1 or more of the symbol meters. Once any of the Star Meters are filled with 5 Stars, the Free Spins round will begin.

Magical Reels Free Spins

Filling 1 symbol Star Meter with the maximum amount of Stars, triggers the Free Spins round, awarding 5 Free Spins.

Once active, the symbol represented by the full Star Meter is removed from play and additional Book symbols are added to all 5 reels.

During the Free Spins round, any Book symbols that land will continue to award either Bonus Stars or Multipliers to the remaining Star Meters on the board. If another Star Meter is filled during the Free Spins round, an additional +2 Free Spins is awarded and the symbol that represents the full Star Meter is also removed from play.

All active Multipliers will remain active for the duration of Free Spins.

Once the Free Spins round is complete, all awarded Multipliers are reset back to x1.

Magical Reels: Our Verdict

It’s fair to say that Northern Lights Gaming has created a pretty magical slot here, and we’re not just talking about the theme. The theme itself is a little repetitive but it’s not nearly as common as Egyptian themes, which we see a lot in slots. You can tell Northern Lights Gaming has put a lot of effort into Magical Reels, with plenty of colour, an appealing background and great graphics, but can we say the same about gameplay?

Magical Reels has some appealing gameplay, especially the Free Spins round that triggers quite often, but what would have made Magical Reels much better is some kind of feature in the base game. Although there are no features in the base game, Magical Reels keeps you pretty busy with the grind of the Award Boards and collecting the Bonus Stars that are needed to trigger the Free Spins round.

Statistically, Magical Reels is looky pretty decent with an above average RTP of 96.13% and a maximum win capacity of 11,750x. The maximum win capacity isn’t as juicy as the 18,000x in God of Fire Ultraways, but it’s miles better than we’ve seen in other slots.

Magical Reels may not have any exciting features in the base game or a unique theme, but where it falls short in places, it soon makes up for in others.