Magic Gate

Magic Gate Slot Review

A red-and-gold gateway fills the screen, lacquered pillars trimmed with gold fretwork and a bevelled plaque arching over the reels on its dark red scroll banner. Magic Gate is a Red Tiger slot that spends almost all of its imagination on that single doorway, and it’s a better game for it.

The base 20-line game on a 5×3 grid is plain by design; the gates that shut over the reels at random and reopen with one of five features are the reason to play, backed by a 96.11% RTP and a top prize of 1,216x the bet. The studio has visited this part of the world before, in Imperial Palace and Emperor of India, and Dragon’s Mirror covers similar ground for dragon hunters.

Stakes run from 0.1 to 50 per spin. Whether one doorway can carry a whole game is what the reels sit there to answer.

Win Lines and the Paytable

All symbols pay from left to right on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost reel, across 20 numbered win lines. Roughly one spin in four is a winner, at a hit rate of 26.58%.

That one-in-four rate shapes the whole rhythm of the game. Line wins arrive steadily enough to keep the balance ticking over between feature hits, and the lower-tier royals do most of that work, paying small amounts frequently rather than anything dramatic. The gold charms sit a step above them, and the MAGIC WIN symbol sits above everything else on the reels.

The gap between tiers is worth a look: a single charm line can be worth several royal lines at once. The full table:

• MAGIC WIN: 0.1 for two, 2.5 for three, 15 for four, 25 for five
• Gold Coin: 1.9, 9.4, 19.4 for three, four and five
• Gold Oval Pendant: 1.4, 6.9, 14.4
• Gold Heart Pendant: 0.9, 4.4, 9.4
• A: 0.5, 1.9, 4
• K: 0.4, 1.4, 2.8
• Q: 0.3, 1.2, 2.4
• J: 0.2, 0.8, 1.6
• 10: 0.1, 0.6, 1.2
• Dragon wild: 4.4, 19.4, 44.4 for three, four and five

The Dragon wild is the richest symbol in the game, and it isn’t close: five wilds pay nearly double what five MAGIC WIN symbols return. MAGIC WIN is also one of the five outcomes the gate can trigger, which makes it the only paying symbol with a second job.

Note the two-of-a-kind entry on the top row. MAGIC WIN is the only symbol that pays for a pair, so any two of them on adjacent reels from the left are worth something. Every other symbol in the game needs three at minimum.

Because wins need adjacent reels from the left, the first reel does the sorting: no matching symbol in position one and the line is dead regardless of what follows. The numbered lines, one through 20, criss-cross the three rows in fixed patterns.

That left-to-right rule means a single spin can land several small line wins at once, when the first two reels fill with the same symbol. It also means the last reel rarely rescues anything on its own.

The Magic Gate Feature

This is the game’s centrepiece. At random on any spin, the gates swing closed in front of the reels and then open again, and one of five features comes through them:

• Dragon Ball
• Magic Win
• 5 of a Kind
• Golden Bell Bonus
• Free Spins

There’s no countdown, no collection meter and no skill to it. The gate decides when it wants to open, and what comes out when it does. That’s the whole mechanic, and its appeal rests on how much you enjoy a spin that can turn into anything without warning.

When it fires, the sequence is always the same three beats. The gates shut across the reels mid-spin and the board goes dark behind them. They open again, and one feature of the five steps through.

The reels then resolve that feature immediately, whether it’s a wild, a reshuffle into a full line or a round of free games. The closing animation is the tell: when those gates shut, something is about to happen, and for a moment every one of the five outcomes is live. It’s a simple piece of theatre, but it works precisely because the base game around it is so plain.

Magic Pick

The second route to the feature set hands the choice to you, sort of. At random in a spin, three golden coin picks appear. Pick one and it reveals, then triggers, one of the same five features: Dragon Ball, Magic Win, 5 of a Kind, Golden Bell Bonus or Free Spins.

It’s a coin flip dressed as a decision, since nothing distinguishes one coin from another before you choose. But it breaks up the pacing nicely, and a picked feature lands with a little more ceremony than one the gate simply hands you.

Both triggers feed the same pool of five outcomes, so the difference between them is presentation rather than prize. What the coins add is a beat of participation: you point at one, it turns over, and the feature it was hiding unfolds. Two doors into the same room.

Dragon Ball, Golden Bell and the Rest

Five outcomes share the space behind the gate. The Dragon Ball wild brings the dragon into play. Magic Win and 5 of a Kind do pretty much what their names promise: the first delivers the game’s namesake win event, the second lines up a full house of matching symbols.

The Golden Bell Bonus is the bell-ringing round, where hitting the bell brings the bigger wins. Free Spins round out the set, awarding spins at no cost to your balance. A BONUS tile also appears on the reels, tied to the game’s multiple bonus games.

How each of the five outcomes plays out beyond its name isn’t documented, and the game leaves it to the trigger itself to show you.

That spread is the point of the design. One trigger can produce a quick modifier, a guaranteed five-of-a-kind line or a whole bonus round, and you don’t know which until the gates part.

With two random triggers, five shared outcomes and a bonus tile on top, the feature layer is busier than the plain 20-line base game underneath it suggests. The variety does the work that a single elaborate bonus round would do elsewhere, spread across five smaller events instead of one.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7.2/10

Playing Magic Gate is mostly waiting for one door. The 20-line base game ticks over, small wins arrive about one spin in four, and then the gates swing shut and the whole character of the thing changes for a moment. That door is the reason to choose it over any plainer 5×3 game.

Its strength is that a single random trigger can turn into five completely different events, from a quick wild to a full free spins round, so no two feature hits feel alike. The weakness is the ceiling: 1,216x is a modest top prize, and none of the five features is deep enough to build towards anything bigger. The lacquered red and gold still looks good doing it.

This is a game for players who’d rather be surprised often than paid rarely, and who don’t need a four-figure multiplier hanging over the session. Hunters of big ceilings will get more from Red Tiger’s later work. Everyone else can enjoy what comes through the gate.

Magic Gate FAQs

• What is the RTP of Magic Gate?

  The RTP is 96.11%.
• What is the maximum win on Magic Gate?

  The maximum win is 1,216x the bet.
• How does the Magic Gate feature work?

  At random on any spin, the gates close in front of the reels and then open, triggering one of five features: Dragon Ball, Magic Win, 5 of a Kind, Golden Bell Bonus or Free Spins. There’s no skill or collection involved; it fires whenever it fires.
• What is Magic Pick?

  Magic Pick is the second random trigger. Three golden coin picks appear on a spin, and choosing one reveals and triggers one of the same five features the Magic Gate can award.
• How many paylines does Magic Gate have?

  There are 20 numbered win lines.
• Can Magic Gate features trigger on any spin?

  Yes. Both the Magic Gate and Magic Pick triggers fire randomly in a spin, with no scatter symbols to land and no collection to complete.
• Who makes Magic Gate?

  Magic Gate is a Red Tiger slot.
• When was Magic Gate released?

  Magic Gate’s release date is 13 April 2016.