Money Megaways Slot Review 2024

Pixiu Gaming, a boutique game studio specializing in Asian-flavoured content, has teamed up with platform provider Playzido to bundle two of slot fanatics’ favourite things into one gilded, familiar package – money and Megaways.

Piggybacking the brand exposure afforded by Big Time Gaming’s celebrated dynamic reel system is a strategy often employed by nascent developers looking to get their creations seen; a shot in the arm helping to boost casino lobby presence. Some succeed; others fall flat on their face, consigned to the slot graveyard for eternity.

So, which category is Money Megawyas destined to fall into?

Let’s attempt to find out…

While Pixiu Gaming certainly won’t win any awards in the design stakes for this Megaways debut, Money Megaways does convey a hint of luxury and sophistication owing to its rich purple baize backdrop and gold-framed playing matrix. Coins sparkle when they land, adding a touch of glamour, while a low-key jazz number plods along to accompany players in their pursuit of wealth, sorry, money.

Money Megaways Base Game and Features

Megaways purists will be relieved to learn there’s been no tampering with the original format. And that spells a 6-reel, 7-row configuration plus a separate, 4-cell row running above the grid, with 2-7 symbols able to land on each reel per spin. At full pelt, winning ways max out at 117,649.

Wins are awarded for 3+ identical symbols landing adjacently in a left-to-right direction from the very first reel. As to symbols, 10 regulars are included in the game’s paytable split between 7 banknotes and 3 coins, with the top-paying purple note fetching 1,000x the bet for 6-of-a-kind wins.

Appearing at random on every reel except the first is the Credit Card Wild, which replaces other symbols to help complete winning ways.

Fundamental to most Megaways slots, and showcased here too, are Cascades, which operate by clearing symbols in winning ways before their places are filled by a new set, and the process repeats for each subsequent winning cascade.

Look out for Vault Symbols 2×1 in size appearing on the top horizontal reel exclusively. When one lands fully, the Symbol Upgrade feature comes into play and upgrades all symbols of a particular type in view to one of superior value.

Hold & Respin Bonus

Land 4 scatters, represented by the gold bar, to activate the Hold & Respin Bonus. Triggering scatters lock in place while other symbols vanish. Then, starting with 3 respins, only additional scatters carrying values between 0.05x and 100x the stake or blanks may land. Each landed scatter locks in place for the remainder of the feature and restores your lives to 3, but you lose a life for each dead spin.

The round concludes once you fill the entire grid of scatter symbols or your 3 lives run out – whichever comes first. A payout calculation follows, where the sum of the coin values in view is multiplied by your wager amount.

Money Megaways Free Spins

Land at least 4 scatters at once to unlock Free Spins. Your starting haul correlates with the number of triggering scatters, where 4 scatters get you 8 spins; 10 = 12, and the maximum 12 spins are awarded for 6 scatters.

Free Spins also come with a progressive multiplier, beginning at 1x and rising by 1x with each fruitful cascade, while re-triggers are in the offing here – 4 additional scatters grant an equal number of spins.

Bitcoin Jackpots

The icing on the top of Money Megaways’ fairly bland cake is a set of three jackpots triggerable throughout all phases of play.

Keep an eye out for the Bitcoin Logo Coin appearing in the base game or Free Spins. 4, 5, or 6 apiece represent your pathway to riches via the Silver, Gold, or Crypto Jackpots, worth 50x, 500x, or 5,000x your wager, respectively.

Money Megaways: Our Verdict

No point beating about the bush with this one. Money Megaways is a relatively uninspiring first attempt at a Megaways do-over, rife with genericism and devoid of any real creativity.

Vintage slots with money at their core are two-a-penny, so Money Megaways was already up against it. But for all Pixiu Gaming’s best efforts, the incorporation of Megaways and three jackpot prizes failed to add much luster.

And what’s with the Bitcoin-branded jackpot coins, juxtaposed jarringly against the decidedly retro outer layer? It feels like the powers-that-be at Pixiu HQ all decided to get around a table and brainstorm ways in which to apply a modern-day finish that would teleport Money Megaways out of the 1930s, or 1940s, or whenever, and into 2023.

Or maybe the big boss is a bit of a Bitcoin fanboy and thought the inclusion would resonate with the cool crypto kids. Whatever the motive, it smacks as a bizarre move, leaving more questions than answers once the dust had settled. Dr. Who, this is not.

Money Megaways’ sole saving grace is its three-tiered jackpot prizes on offer, giving willing punters something to chase outside of the regular 7,003x max win – which clocks in higher than the grand jackpot, incidentally – in another head-scratching discovery.

And so, to answer our original question, this is a rather forgettable Megaways debut unlikely to last more than 15 minutes in the cut-throat world of online slots.