Magic Tricks: Slot Overview
Let's start the review off with a question, and it conveniently comes from the game under today's scope, which asks, 'Do you believe in magic?' This might actually be hard to answer, depending on your personal definition of the word 'magic'. Should we use regular on-stage tricks like pulling rabbits out of a hat or sawing an assistant in half to define the word? Or broaden it to include things like walking through nature after a major downpour as raindrops glisten like diamonds, the majesty of mathematics, the rabbit hole of quantum physics, or hanging out with friends and loved ones? All have a certain 'magical' quality about them. Or shall we leave aside etymological pursuits and just dive into Magic Tricks from developer Red Tiger and see what it conjures up?
One of the first things out of the hat is the game's magician character on the home screen, waving his hands about next to glittering dust and what looks to be some of the features. Hitting the Play button opens Magic Tricks up with a roar from the crowd, and the game can begin. It wasn't particularly magical to begin with, though the 3 jackpot values displayed to the side of the screen may cast a spell over some players. Next to them is Magic Tricks' 5-reel, 4-row gaming grid, and the way wins are highlighted with metallic lines while accompanied by tinkling sounds is classic Red Tiger. Magic Tricks didn't exactly overwhelm with magical delight initially, but let's hold judgement until its fill bag of illusions has been revealed.
Getting a ticket to the show, so to speak, is done by picking a stake where the options are 10 p/c to £/€50 per spin. Choose wisely if you're playing the jackpot version, because the chances of winning one increase in correlation with the size of the stake being played, as the help page puts it. When including the jackpot contribution, Magic Tricks comes with a return to player value of 96.0% (92.07% for the jackpot version) and is in possession of a highly volatile math model.
With 25 paylines in play, winning combinations award wins from left to right, beginning from reel number one. On the lower value side of the paytable are 10 to A card ranks, followed by cups, cards, a sawing in half box, and a bunny in a hat as the 4 premium symbols. Landing a winning combination consisting of 5 matching low pay symbols awards 1 to 2.4 times the bet, or 4 to 20 times the bet is paid for a line of 5 premiums. Wild symbols may land on all reels, as well. Wilds substitute for all regular pay symbols, and should a 5 wild winning line land; it is worth 20 times the bet.
Magic Tricks: Slot Features
Magic Rings
Up to 4 Magic Rings may randomly land on the reels during a spin – only one Magic Ring per row. Any symbol landing inside a Magic Ring expands to cover all positions on its row, triggering a 5 OAK win.
Free Spins
Landing 3 scatter symbols anywhere on the reels awards 6 free spins. Any extra triggering scatter beyond 3 adds +2 free spins to the total. Landing a free spins scatter symbol inside a Magic Ring means it will spread across the row and count for 5 scatters. Up to 4 scatters can expand like this on a single spin, resulting in up to 40 free spins. During free spins, Magic Rings land at an increased rate when compared to the base game. Free spins cannot be retriggered.
Magic Tricks: Slot Verdict
Maybe, instead of Magic Tricks, the game should have been called Magic Trick, as it's only really got one non-jackpot conjuration in its repertoire. This is the 'magic' hoop overlay which turns one symbol into a row of the same matching symbol, thereby triggering a 5 OAK win. Not bad, and hopefully, you like it if you're thinking of playing Magic Tricks because it has little else to offer from a gameplay perspective. There are free spins, too, of course, should they trigger, and fair enough, the bonus round did raise Magic Tricks' entertainment levels a notch or two since there were more hoops than in the base game, leading to more 5 OAK wins.
Perhaps we're being a bit unfair, as Magic Tricks' biggest crowd-puller is likely to be its jackpot dynamic rather than its hoops stuff, anyway. Having a timed element to some of them provides urgency since you can literally see when those specific jackpots must be won by. The Mega is not governed by a timer, but it possesses a far greater value which provides an incentive of its own, no doubt. Outside the jackpot prizes, Magic Tricks' winning potential of 1,361 times the bet doesn't exactly put it up there in the top David Copperfield tier. It did kind of feel like less energy was invested in developing Magic Tricks' non-jackpot parts, though in its defence, the Magic Ring thing helps the whole shebang tick along fairly well while eyes are kept on the greater prize.
If Magic Tricks didn't have three jackpots attached, it would be tougher to recommend. But as it stands, for some moderate/mid-level jackpot action, Magic Tricks has one or two tricks tucked away it can fling at players when the timing's just right.
