Universal Monsters: The Phantom's Curse is 5 reels and 40 pay-lines video slot powered by Net Entertainment software. This slot is inspired with the immensely popular Broadway musical Phantom of the Opera. Transparent reels will put you on the stage in front of an empty-seat opera theatre the moment you load the game. The music playing in the background seems as if composed by Mozart himself and as such is completely fitting. Give this slot a spin here for free or visit any of the NetEnt Casinos if you wish to play for real.
Before you step onto this stage, you need to set your bets. Coin denominations go from 0.01 to 1, and can be set by clicking "Coin Value +/-" section. With "Level +/-" you can set the number of coins per line. By clicking on "Max Bet" you will set the maximum bet available. "Spin" will set the reels in motion, whereas "Autoplay" will turn the reels automatically for a chosen number of times without interruption.
The Mask is Wild and can appear Stacked on the reels, also the Wild can substitute for all the symbols in the game except for the Scatter and the Bonus symbols.
There are 3 types of Stacked Bonus Symbols: Stacked Phantom which appears only on reel 1, Stacked Christine which appears only on reel 5 and the Stacked Mask symbol which also appears only on the last reel. Stacked Bonus symbols can also act as Wild symbol.
When you land the Stacked Phantom and Stacked Christine symbols on reel 1 and 5 simultaneously, you will trigger the Pick and Click bonus. This feature has 2 stages. In stage 1 you will pick roses which will award coin wins, and when you run into an X, you will move on to stage 2. In stage two you will get to pick one out of 3 mirrors which will award the multiplier for the coins win from stage 1. Coin wins go in increments of 20, 40 or 100 whereas multiplier can be x1, x2 or x3.
When you land Phantom stacked on reel 1 and Masks stacked on reel 5, you will trigger the Masked Phantom Re-spin feature. Here, you will be awarded with 1 re-spin which will turn all bonus symbols Wild and Sticky for the duration of that spin.
Chandelier is the Scatter symbol, and it can appear on reels 1, 3 and 5. If you land 3 of them in one spin, you will trigger the Bonus Spins feature. In this feature, the Chandelier is hang by the ropes which is put next to the 5 reels with each rope connected to a particular reel. A Masked Phantom on the reels will cut a rope and highlight a rope connected to that section. When all ropes get cut, and the Chandelier falls, the feature will end. Bonus features cannot get triggered during this feature and vice versa.
Game Play:
Coin Value +/-: Set the coin denominations.
Bet Max: Set the highest bet possible.
Level +/-: Set the number of coins per line.
Spin: Start the game.
Auto Play: Turn the reels without interruption for a certain number of times.
Apparently, a lot of players got really excited when NetEnt released this new game, Universal Monsters: The Phantom Curse, but not me. I knew what to expect from any new releases from NetEnt, so I wasn't even a bit excited about it. When the game finally came online, I had a look at it, looked at its paytable, and all my expectations on this new game were confirmed! This Phantom Curse game is just as exciting (sarcasm intended) as finding a 10 cents coin on the streets! Hahaha.
Let's face it...there are 3 types of Wild symbols in the game - the Masked Phantom, the Stacked Phantom and the Stacked Christine symbol - but getting any 5 of them would only pay 200x the line bet, or a mere 10x the total bet! The Scatter symbols, that appear only on reels 1, 3 and 5, are non-paying, serving only to award a Free Spins game that don't even have a multiplier for the wins! The Phantom himself is the highest paying regular symbol that also pays a lousy 10x the total bet for getting 5 of them. The other symbols pay from 5x to 1x the total bet for any 5 of them. So, what does that make the paytable? An extremely low one! If you think you can win big money on this game, simply forget it!
A Stacked symbol comes either in 2s, 3s or 4s, so that Stacked Phantom and Stacked Christine Wild symbols refer to at least 2 stacked symbols on the same reel - any single symbol of each are not Wild symbols. Only the Masked Phantom is the true Wild symbol, single or stacked. This tend to be confusing at first, so it needs some getting used to.
Getting a Stacked Phantom on reel 1 and a Stacked Masked Phantom on reel 5 awards a Free Spins game. Getting a Stacked Phantom on reel 1 and a Stacked Christine on reel 5 awards a Pick And Click Bonus game - pick items to win coins and a multiplier, with an indicated maximum possible win of 7200 coins, or 360x the total bet. Not bad, but still not a lot! The few bonus games that I managed to get all ended on the second pick, with damn low payouts! If you can get past your second pick, then consider yourself lucky!
The Free Spins game is yet another big disappointment! There are 5 ropes that holds the Free Spins game. Each appearing Masked Phantom would cut the rope for that reel. Get all 5 ropes cut and the Free Spins game ends! What does this mean? Well, I managed to get 3 or 4 Free Spins games, but they all ended after about 5 to 7 free spins, with payouts as low as 1x my bet amount! What the argh! Without any multiplier for the wins, the payouts can only be miserable!
Well, honestly speaking, there was, and is, absolutely nothing that I like about this game! All the features were very disappointing. All the payouts that I got were very low, my best win so far being only 62x my bet amount, and that too came in the Masked Phantom Respin feature, not from the Free Spins game. The Pick And Click Bonus game was the most disappointing for me, getting only 1 pick for the coin win. Well, here's one more new NetEnt game designated for the eternal Winter Olympics in my deep freezer!