Megadeth Slot Leander Games

Before there was Guns N Roses, there was Megadeth. Not the band, but the game of course. This game was amongst one of the hot rock band games in its time, about 2 years or so ago, until newer rock band games came into existence. Well, even back then, I wasn't a real fan of such games, simply because I was no longer interested in heavy metal rock bands, accepting only the lighter sounds of rock, so a game on Megadeth meant nothing much to me. Nonetheless, I did play it a few times on and off, but never really getting into the game. Why? No wins. Simple as that, hehehe.

Recently, I gave the game another play, a refresher play, if you like, just to refresh my fading memory on the game. Even though this game is listed as under Microgaming, I couldn't find it at my usual Microgaming casino, but found it in a multi-platformed casino instead. Not surprising, really, since this game is actually not from Microgaming but from Leander Gaming. Another reason why I didn't play much of Megadeth was because of the 4-rows format. I didn't like it much then, but have come to accept such a format by now.

Mustaine is the Wild symbol in the game, paying a very low 500x the line bet for getting 5 of him. Appearing only on reels 1, 3 and 5, it substitutes for other symbols except for the Bonus symbol, and expands into Wild Reels in winning combinations. It doesn't double any wins with it, but becomes a non-expanding Sticky Wild symbol during the free spins. There are no Scatter symbols in this game. The Skull is the Bonus symbol, a dumb one sadly, appearing only on reels 1, 3 and 5, and getting all 3 of them triggers the Multigame And Multilevel Bonus feature. Spins on the Bonus Wheel awards 'Hangar 18' free spins, instant cash win, or a 'Head Crusher' pick-and-win game. A Green arrow within a symbol advances the game to Level 2 and to 3, a red 'Stop' symbol ends the spin on the Bonus Wheel.

There is a Mega Nudge feature that can be activated for play in the base game, doubling up the bet cost per spin, and randomly nudges reels 2, 3 or 4 to award wins. This nudge doesn't happen on every spin of course, and it doesn't nudge to get the third Bonus symbol either. At twice the cost of the initial bet per spin, I find this on the high side, and I usually skip using it. The times that I did try it out, it proved to be unworthy, creating only small wins most of the all, with rare good wins of 10x or more. The worse part is, for every spin that the Nudge feature doesn't happen, you'd be losing twice as much, and this do happen over 5 or 6 spins at a time. Too wasteful for my liking! For the 'Hangar 18' free spins, Level 1 awards 5 to 8 free spins, Level 2 awards 8 to 11 free spins, and Level 3 awards 12 to 15 free spins, all without any multiplier. The only way to get good wins is to get as many of the Sticky Wilds as possible, and the Wilds do not expand as they do in the base game.

As for the other symbols in the game, the logo 'Megadeth' pays 500x, David pays 300x, Shawn pays 200x, Chris pays 150x, and the rest pay from 100x to 50x, all per line bet for getting 5 of each kind. A very low paytable, almost to the extent of being extremely low. Getting 5 Wilds, for example, would only pay 12.5x the total bet amount, making a maximum possible win of only 500x the total bet amount. Not a lot at all, is it?

"Megadeth" is a thrash metal band world famous and now also in the world of video slots and all because "Leander Games" decided in 2012 to use it as the main theme in one of his most brilliant slots which they have named like the band. A curious thing about this game is that some casinos have promoted it by raffling prizes such as signed guitars, concert tickets and signed CDs.

Megadeth slot has 5 reels and 4 rows, a total of 40 paylines for which you pay a credit per line or if you prefer you may pay 2 per line if you decide to activate the "Mega Nudge" feature, which enables the machine to automatically adjust some symbols 3 places vertically in order to align symbols and so doing you hit artificially some combinations; I personally prefer not to spend my money with the Mega Nudge because I see that the other special features and wild symbols included in this game may give me a winning formula without having to make further financial sacrifices.

The Mustaine Wild symbol expands through the entire reel when it is possible to form some combination therewith, this symbol appears only on reels 1, 3 and 5 and works only as substitute for standard symbols, yet it is common that you get big wins due to this feature, especially when you manage to activate more than one wild reel simultaneously, this also thanks in part to rates of paytable that are fair enough in my opinion for a slot of these characteristics.

The rest of special features are triggered by getting 3 Bonus symbols with the image of the skull that only appear on reels 1, 3 and 5, which is not very difficult to be triggered unlike other games with a similar way to get rounds enabled; activating this feature gives us access to play a kind of black wheel of fortune that is multilevel and multigame, each slot in it has an instant prize, a round of free spins or a game called "Head Crusher" accompanied by a red stop sign or a green arrow one that allows us to spin the wheel again at the next level 2 or 3 where we get more and more lucrative prizes, the stop sign finishes the round just after we end playing the game we've got randomly. During free spins round wilds are frozen in place for the remaining of the round and awards during Head Crasher bonus round also tend to be quite interesting.

I love everything on this slot, and if you do not like this music only thing you have to do is to take off your headphones, turn off your speakers or just to check in "Switch off all sounds" box in options tab and that’s all.

Megadeth seems to be a quite popular video slot. Almost every casino I frequent has this game in its portfolio. The slot is based on the American metal band Megadeth. I’m not a fan of metal so my initial thoughts were to avoid playing this game. I wish I kept loyal to that thought since it would have saved me a lot of money.

But I admit I probably was just a victim of bad luck. Megadeth is a video slot produced by Leander Games. It’s probably the best game they’ve created so far in terms of features. Just because I didn’t have any success while playing Megadeth, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad game of course.

What I like about this game is that all characteristics of the band have been translated real well into the format of the slot. It offers 5-reels, 4-rows and 40-paylines. The symbols basically consist of the band members and their equipment.

During base game there is a nice feature called “Mega Nudge”. If you use this feature you’ll have to add an additional side bet equal to your bet. This feature gives you up to 3 nudges to get the best possible combination on reels 2, 3 and 4. I played this game on 1.20 euro bets and also used the side bet.

So it was quite costly to play 2.40 euro per spin, but I must say the feature did do its work. Then there is also the Expanding Wild Mustaine Wild feature. Each time the wild symbol appears it expands to cover the whole reel. I never came further than having 2 reels wild, but I can definitely imagine it being capable of paying out a monster if you get 5 whole reels wild.

On reels 1, 3 and 5 there is a bonus symbol. If you get all three of them you’ll get access to the multi-level bonus game where free spins with sticky wilds can be earned or a head crusher bonus. But that’s where I went wrong. I played this game for maybe 1000 spins and failed to trigger the attractive feature like it’s presented in the paytable.

I feel like I’ve missed all the fun since I never experienced the feature. Therefore I can’t really comment about it, but I guess that’s where the money is.

My final result on this game is around - 300 euros. Hopefully I will have a better session whenever I decide to give this game another try.

Though Rock is my music style but I can’t say I am a fan of Megadeth or know their works very well. I was curious what Leander thought of making a slot like this and whether how they solved this task. Beforehand I expected a very powerful sound effect and the common solutions for music themed game but safely say Leander could surpass my imaginations. With a stage image in the background, flames and black dominated in the foreground and using musical instruments and band members as characters, the game has an impressive, powerful look, but the most captivating thing for me what I found at Head Crusher bonus. This bonus is all about the song and video clip with the same name by Megadeth and it not just means the creators lifted in parts from the real clip of that song is played during bonus but the side game itself is adjusted to the seen moving pictures and story of the video clip. It’s really a well- done job from Leander side.

If I mentioned, let’s start with Head Crushers and other bonuses. 3 Bonus symbols on the first, middle and last reels give an entry to bonuses but first have to be determined what bonus we can play with. The Mega Wheel does that providing options free spins (5-8 spins), Head Crusher bonus with max. wins x18-x25 or simple instant wins (x3-x7). Every prizes on the wheel have either an arrow or a hand little indicator that shows after the won feature (reward) completed (collected) the bonus game whether keep going on and a new spin of wheel decides the next step (arrow) or the bonus game is ended (hand). If we can move on to the second stage, all winnable rewards are richer and same goes to the final stage where for example the number of collectible free spins can be 15 or Head Crushers’ top award might be x70 of total bet.

This latter bonus as I’ve said follows the music clip so we have to remove the good from the head of a person and if it hides a woman the won amount increases but male prisoner decreases the prize. During the Hangar 18 free spin feature (which is also a great bonus thanks to the Wild) the substitute figure if it appears remains on that spot until the extra ends. I had several successes when at the last or last 2 spins had 3 or 4 wilds.

Maybe I could start with it, the slot can be played in Mega Nudge mode. It means if we’re willing to pay 40 times more than the line bet per spin we can get the possibility when the reels are stopped some moves or nudges will be completed in the middle reels to give the best combination and form another winning lines. I always use this feature because I noticed that in generally it’s worth it.

Overall, this is a very compact and complex slot with the ability to entertain and cause great moments for long time while has a good, rewarding payout quality. I don’t know how others think of it but for me it’s became a special game without any worth-mentioning shortcomings.