As the Reels Turn 1: With Friends Like You

This 15-paylines game from Rival isn't new at all - it has been around for several years now, and I have played it several times before too, at a few dedicated Rival casinos. Very recently, I got an exciting promotional email from a long forgotten casino, Crazy Luck Casino, which I have left dormant for many years, but it certainly caught my interest again this time around. From that promo, I won $528 bonus money from its Free Play offer, and with a deposit of just $25, I then have $563 in my balance to try out as many new Rival games as I like. With a total wagering of over $21,000, trying to make a win was totally out of the question - my only intention was simply to play their games to collect as many different winning screenshots as possible, all for game reviews! Hehehe.

So, let's get back to this game then. There are 3 separate 'scenes' available, each can be played separately, or be progressed through the scenes with more play. I would expect better prizes with each higher scene, but no such thing here - all prizes and payouts remain the same! What the argh! There are also 4 different Scatter symbols, three of which would award either a 'Pick and Win' feature or a Free Spins game, whilst the last one simply advances the game into the next scene, with or without an additional 'Pick and Win' feature given. I got one feature upon advancing into the second scene, but nothing at all for getting into the third scene, so that sucks!

What's worse is that there are no Wild symbols in the game, and the Scatters pay only 50x total bet for getting any 5 of them, except for that advancing scatter which pays nothing at all. As for the other symbols, they pay from 1000x down to 100x line bet for any 5 of each kind. A very low paytable indeed. No matter what win you may get from this game, the best possible win would only be 66x total bet in the base game and under 200x in the free spins game.

However, after playing this game for several hours, I found the payouts to be incredibly low most of the time! Trying to get just one win of over 50x total bet was damn hard enough! But the various scatters do come quite often enough, awarding those 'Pick and Win' feature games that would pay not more than 10x total bet most of the time! The best wins can only come from the 10 free spins with a 3x multiplier, by getting 3 or more of the Fish Scatter symbol, but even these too have failed to live up to my expectations. A very disappointing game to play, but then again, this is also typical of most newer Rival games! Only the oldie games have good paytables and good payouts.