Crystal Caverns Megaways Slot Review
Get ready to step into an icy wonderland full of twinkling icicles and colourful gems in Crystal Caverns Megaways from Pragmatic Play!
Pragmatic Play is showing no signs of slowing down with their new releases, with Santa’s Wonderland and Christmas Big Bass Bonanza being just two of their newest slot titles to date. Pragmatic Play has opted for Big Time Gaming’s Megaways mechanic with up to 200,704 Ways to win, which we’ve come across before in Chilli Heat Megaways.
Crystal Caverns Megaways has more than just Gems up for grabs, Gold Wild symbols and Free Spins are just the tip of the iceberg!
Have you got what it takes to brave the icy conditions and enter the Crystal Caverns in search of gems?
Crystal Caverns Megaways Theme
Crystal Caverns Megaways may not have a Christmas theme, but it certainly fits in with the weather this time of year!
The first thing you will notice in Crystal Caverns Megaways is the graphics, which kind of look a little dated in our opinion. Once you move past this, you are instantly drawn to the background.
The background in Crystal Caverns Megaways is exactly what it says on the tin: a Crystal Cavern full of freezing icicles glistening off each other. The background is definitely enough to give you the shivers; other than that, there isn’t much else going on. During Free Spins, the background changes to a vibrant purple colour, which is much more pleasing on the eye.
The music that is playing throughout took us by surprise; it comes across as a little mysterious, and we aren’t entirely sure it works with the theme, but it’s okay in the sense that it fills a void. Sound effects are flattering and really complement the theme.
Overall, the design of Crystal Caverns Megaways could have been a lot better, but as the phrase goes, ‘Never judge a book by its cover’, so let’s hope Pragmatic Play has pulled it off in gameplay!
Betting and Symbols
Crystal Caverns Megaways has a variety of betting options for players to choose from. For those who prefer a lower stake, the minimum bet available here is £/€0.20 per spin. For those who prefer a higher stake, the maximum bet available is £/€100 per spin, with plenty of other options in between.
The highest paying regular symbol in Crystal Caverns Megaways is the Red Gem, followed by the Blue, Purple, Green and Pink Gems. Lower paying symbols are standard Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Ten.
Wild symbols substitute for all symbols except Scatters.
Base Game and Features
Crystal Caverns Megaways is a 6-reel slot with up to 200,704 Ways to win. To form a win, you will need to connect 3 or more of the same symbols from left to right, starting from the left-most reel.
Crystal Caverns Megaways features Cascading Reels. Each time a winning combination is formed, all winning symbols will disappear from the reels and new symbols will fall via a Cascade, filling all the empty spaces and potentially creating more winning combinations. In addition to this, Crystal Caverns Megaways has an additional Sliding Reel. If any symbols in the sliding reel are part of a winning combination, these symbols will also disappear, and all remaining symbols will slide to the left, filling the empty positions.
The base game in Crystal Caverns Megaways would be considered rather boring if it weren’t for the Expanding Wild and Increasing Multiplier Features.
Expanding Wild
Whenever a Wild symbol lands in view in the base game and Free Spins, the Wild symbol will expand to fill the entire reel.
The number of Expanding Wilds on the reel will be equal to the number of symbols that land on that reel before expansion.
Increasing Multiplier
Each time a Cascade occurs, a Multiplier that applies to the total win for that Cascade will increase by +1. If more than one Cascade occurs during that one spin, the Multiplier will continue to increase by +1.
The Multiplier will automatically reset after all Cascades are complete for each spin.
Free Spins
Landing 4, 5 or 6 Scatters in any position on the reels awards 12, 16 and 20 Free Spins, respectively. In addition to this, Scatter symbols also have a pay value.
- 4 Scatters – Awards 5x your bet.
- 5 Scatters – Awards 10x your bet.
- 6 Scatters – Awards 100x your bet.
At the start of Free Spins, you are awarded a x1 Multiplier. Each time a Cascade occurs, the Multiplier will increase by +1. This feature is similar to the Increasing Multiplier feature in the base game; the only difference is that the increasing Multiplier in Free Spins does not reset with each spin.
Landing 3 or more Scatters during the Free Spins round awards an additional +5 Free Spins.
The Expanding Wilds feature is active during Free Spins.
If the maximum win capacity of 10,000x is reached during Free Spins, the Free Spins round will end ,and all remaining Free Spins are forfeited.
Bonus Buy
For those outside the UK, you may benefit from a Bonus Buy option.
This can be purchased for 80x your current bet.
The RTP when purchasing Free Spins increases slightly from 96.46% to 96.47%.
Our Verdict
Crystal Caverns Megaways is another Megaways slot from the provider who has brought us so many, but is it as good as any of their other Megaways titles? Not Particularly.
Crystal Caverns Megaways is, if anything, further evidence of Pragmatic Play’s supercharged production line. Some providers take time to nurture their slots until they’re potential masterpieces, but it feels like Pragmatic Play just mass produces slots, sometimes for the sake of it.
Crystal Caverns Megaways has double the win potential of a lot of other Pragmatic titles with 10,000x capabilities, but it does little to add to the overall appeal, sadly.
Overall, Crystal Caverns Megaways isn’t a bad slot by any means, but it lacks imagination and everything we’ve seen here, we’ve seen before somewhere else.