Tycoon Towers is 5 reels and 50 pay-lines video slot powered by Rival Gaming software provider. This video slot is all about the luxurious life of a tycoon. It is a cartoonized theme with symbols that feature the tycoon himself, a bellboy, a maid, elevator, do not disturb sign, a credit card, and high card symbols. By the looks of it, the reels are set in an elevator heading for the penthouse. Give this slot a spin here for free or visit Rival Gaming Casinos to play for real money.
If you wish to make sure that the tycoon has a pleasant stay you will need to set your betting range. By clicking on "+/-" you can set the coins size which ranges from 0.01 to 0.25. The number of lines can be set either by clicking on "up/down" arrows located on the both sides of the reels, or by clicking on "Select Lines". The "Select Coins" sets the number of coins per line. "Bet Max" sets the maximum bet and starts turning the reels automatically. "Auto" will turn the reels automatically without interruption but it is available only when playing for real money. "Spin" will set the reels in motion.
The Tycoon Towers video slot lacks in the special features and bonus round department, but it still has one interesting thing to offer to its game-play, and that is something called a Sticky Wild.
The Wild symbol in the game is the tycoon with white moustache and hair. This Wild can replace any other symbol when it is possible for it to form a winning combination. Once the sticky wild appears on the reels it will stick, and the reels will re-spin with the Wild locked in its position. Additional sticky wilds can trigger additional re-spins and they will remain on screen until all re-spins are finished.
When it comes to other winning combos, if you land more than one combination per line you will be paid out only for the highest on the selected pay-line. Also, all wins made will be multiplied by coins staked per line.
Game Play
Bet "+/-": Set the coins size.
Select Lines: Set the number of lines.
Select Coins: Set the number of coins to bet per line.
Bet Max: Set the maximum possible bet.
Spin: Start the reels.
Auto: Set the reels in motion without interruption for a chosen number of times.
Tycoon Towers has been around for about 2 or 3 years now, or thereabouts, and I had my first play on the game when it was still fairly fresh and warm from Rival's oven. As usual, Rival newer games tend to be of the 50-paylines kind, for better or for worse, of which the latter is to me, because I don't quite like games with 40, 50 or 100 paylines. If any game is to be with many paylines, then it should be with 243 ways to win. 40 to 100 paylines games are not worth the minimum bet per spin of $0.40 to $1.00, whereas 243 ways games usually start with only $0.30 bet per spin. Another thing about Rival games are that the graphics quality are not as beautiful or vibrant as games from many other providers, so Rival should really look into this one aspect of their games in order to attract many more new players. A much improved paytable would be even more important for almost all of the current Rival games. They are all left too far behind, the way I see them.
In this Tycoon Towers game, the old man Tycoon is the Wild symbol, but is a totally dumb Wild symbol, for not paying anything for itself, for not doubling any wins with it, and for not becoming stacked or expanded. It only substitutes for all symbols (there isn't any Scatter symbol in the game), and becomes sticky on the reels with any winning combination, awarding 1 Respin for another chance of a better win. No win, no stickiness. No Scatters, no Free Spins. Argh! The other symbols in the game pays from 600x down to 30x the line bet for getting 5 of each kind. A very low paytable indeed.
Nonetheless, playing the game can be fun and enjoyable, reminding me very much of NetEnt's Dead Or Alive game, with Sticky Wilds as the main and most interesting feature. Tycoon Towers is quite similar, except that the Sticky Wilds happen in the base game, since there aren't any free spins, and that it cannot ever pay huge wins due to its poor paytable, but decent good wins can be expected. However, through my few plays on this game so far, my best win was only 53x my bet amount, with about 4 of those Sticky Wilds on the reels, but without the high paying symbols to boost for a bigger win.
The only thing that is lacking or missing in Tycoon Towers is the Free Spins game. Why this is so, I cannot figure out, as every other Rival game has the Free Spins game in them, even though these are usually either 5, 7 or 10 free spins to start with, but are always retriggerable. And most definitely, Rival should start using a much better paytable than what they have been using through all these years, without any significant changes done at all, which are actually keeping Rival's games way behind in popularity.